Should I Breed My Pet Cockatiel?

Copyright © 1997 by Mary Beth Voelker
NCS Online Pet Consultant
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At some time in your pet bird's life you will probably consider breeding. Perhaps his or her hormones have kicked in and the bird is driving you nuts with all of that wacky behavior. Perhaps your single female is laying eggs and you wonder if you owe it to her to give her a mate. Maybe you are looking for a companion bird to keep your current one happy since you're away more than you used to be and need to decide whether the companion should be of the same or opposite sex. Perhaps you are charmed by the idea of babies, fascinated by genetics, or want to teach your kids about the cycle of life. Perhaps ... ?

Whatever your reason for considering breeding your pet, you need to ask yourself some hard questions before you make a decision. The answers may be yes, they may be no, you may not be able to answer at all -- but you need to at least face the questions.

Is the bird you are considering breeding a good candidate as a breeder? Careless breeding both causes and perpetuates many faults in birds. The most obvious example is the lutino bald spot -- the result of careless inbreeding years ago. Does your bird have some desirable features such as large size, show-worthy confirmation, good depth of color, a rare mutation, a good disposition, talking ability in males, adaptability in stressful circumstances, etc. The show standards are a good place to look for qualities that are worth passing on in the next generation. But, these qualities certainly do not encompass the whole realm of what makes tiels desirable, especially the elusive "pet quality" -- the ability to charm people. No tiel is perfect, but a bird whose only definite positive feature is availability is not a good candidate for breeding.

Can you get a suitable mate for your bird? Some pairings are a bad idea. Breeding bald lutino to bald lutino will guarantee you balder babies. I would not recommend breeding any lutino to another lutino. The same with breeding two undersized birds or any other 2 birds who share the same fault. If you have a breeding worthy bird with some good qualities and a fault or 2, pair it with a bird which will reinforce at least one of the positives and compensate for the faults. For example you might have a talking male, a bit undersized, but with nice body proportions and a tall crest and choose to breed him with a large hen whose father was a talker and who has nice body proportions but a fairly short crest. Hopefully some of the babies from this pair would be large, nicely proportioned, tall-crested, talkers. These are the keepers. Since there are no guarantees in any mating, you may get undersized, short-crested, non-talking birds. Time to try again with new mates. Producing visual mutations is nice but should always be held secondary to producing healthy, fault-free birds. One mutation combination to avoid is breeding lutino to cinnamon. This will eventually produce cinnamon-lutinos, "lavender winged" birds who look perpetually dirty because the cinnamon "bleeds through" the lutino. (note -- I have recently learned that another cockatiel society has a show class for these birds though the NCS still regards this marking as a show fault).

Is the potential mate unrelated to your bird? Leave line breeding and especially inbreeding to people who know what they are doing and have the experience and ability to do it wisely. Again, those bald lutinos are the classic example of what can go wrong. The idea of producing visual mutations is the usual reason for the temptation to breed related birds but the gain isn't worth the cost in the birds' genetic health. We have a captive population here and need to think of genetic health in terms of multiple generations. Australia no longer permits the export of birds to the United States so we have no ability to regain lost genetic variation from the wild.

Granted that you have a suitable bird for breeding and can provide a suitable mate, do you have the facilities to breed? The requirements are fairly modest but they must be met. You need a roomy cage, significantly bigger than the "room to spread the wings" that is required for a pet's cage and you will need a cockatiel-type nest box. You can breed right in your living room if you have the space for the big cage but will you really want it there? Is there a better place? One free of drafts and out of the main traffic pattern? Convenient to tend? Dry but not desert-like and free of mold spores? Cockatiels like most other birds breed best when left undesturbed other than feeding/watering and cage cleaning in additon to daily periods for excercise if you like.

Can you provide the necessary fresh food and extra water for bathing? Will your work schedule expose your birds to the risk of eating spoiled food or of not having the soft food available when the babies need to eat? The general rule of thumb is breeding birds should be offered soft fresh foods daily so by the time the eggs hatch the parents will be accustomed to soft food and will feed this to the babies. To avoid potential problems due to bacterial growth, the fresh food should be changed every 3 hours or so.

If something goes wrong do you have the resources for hand-feeding, fostering, or vet care to save the clutch? This means possibly having to feed the babies yourself every 2 hours around the clock from day one. Can you do without that amount of sleep for the sake of your new charges? If the babies become ill, do you have the financial resources to provide needed care from an Avian Veterinarian? Do you have the finances to have the parents vet checked before setting them up for breeding to make your chances of having healthy babies better? In my opinion, only an irresponsible person takes on the challenge of breeding without planning ahead for possible veterinary expenses.

Do you have the time, patience, and temperament to tame the babies? What is your opinion about handfeeding? If you choose to handfeed do you have the means for learning to do it properly? Do you have the finances to purchase books on the subject? Are you willing to ask those with experience for help?

What will you do with the babies once you have them? How many friends really want gifts of birds? How would you sell the babies? Can you bear the emotional strain of selling your baby birds that you raised and love to perfect strangers and possibly never seeing them again? How many clutches/generations can you keep before your family/landlord/neighbors/local health inspector call a halt to your breeding practices? How many birds can you care for? At what point would they become a burden rather than a joy?

Can you bear failure? I've personally been through 6 infertile clutches, one fostered clutch that ended dead-in-shell and no successes at the time I'm writing. Would you be content to try, fail, and move on to something else? Would you be willing to persevere? Would you beat yourself with guilt for either failing or for moving on to something else? Could you handle the guilt most breeders feel if a baby or worse yet, an entire clutch died?

Do you expect to make money? If so, what if you don't? Do you have a good idea of the local market so that you neither depress it and damage it for everyone by undercharging or make no sales through overcharging? Chances are, if you are spending what is needed in time and money on the babies, you may never see anymore profit than what you get emotionally from the experience.

Breeding your birds is a great joy. Even though I haven't had a single baby yet I love it. You may feel this way or you may not. Breeding is definitely not for every pet owner. It takes a great deal of thought, work, and commitment. If you have addressed all of the questions above, given them honest thought, considered the realities of breeding and you still think that you want to breed and that you have birds worth breeding. Go for it! Chances are you too will find breeding a joy and a delight despite its trials. If you have decided that breeding isn't for you congratulate yourself on your good sense and willingness to make informed decisions rather than emotional ones. Your pet bird does not NEED to breed to have a happy and fulfilling life.

If you have skimmed through these questions casually, dismissing them with "things will work out somehow", I'd strongly advise that you don't breed. At least not until you've given the matter more thought. Your experience of breeding would be likely to go sour and the delight turn into a nightmare as you are blind sided by reality. This is strong language and may offend some people. I considered carefully whether I should write it at all, but I think that it needs to be said. This is NOT a decision to be made lightly. Everyone who chooses to breed their birds on any scale owes a responsibility to the species to breed thoughtfully with the future in mind. If anyone needs to find out about the consequences of thoughtless and irresponsible animal breeding just go to the local animal shelter. You won't find many birds among the puppies and kittens right now. I hope that you never will.

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