Expert: Chrys Meatyard - 6/14/2010

Question
It's been very HOT in the last few days, about 90°F. My parakeets are sometimes seen spreading their wings out about a centimeter away from their bodies. We mist them lightly with a hose every other day - are they too hot or are they sick?

Plus, they usually sit on top of the breeding nest. Sometimes I see them leaning over and looking down into the peek-hole of the nest, where one of my females are incubating? What do you think they are doing?

Thanks!

Answer
Hi, Thuy.

I answered another question today you posted several weeks ago.  It sounds like you are breeding your keets in a colony setting or at least with more than 1 pair per breeding cage.  This is normally a disaster as far as keets are concerned.  Female keets can be ruthless and will go as far as to kill "intruding" birds in/around their nestboxes, eggs, offspring.  I recommend you breed 1 pair per breeding cage in order to prevent injury to/killing of adult birds and/or hatchlings.  Now to answer your specific questions.

I believe your birds are overheated and this is why they are spreading their wings away from their bodies, but without seeing your birds myself or having much more information, I can only comment on what I know.  It sounds as though you house your flock outdoors?  90 degrees F is hot for a parrot.  Their body temps are already about 102-105 degrees F.  If they are in nestboxes incubating eggs, they are even hotter.  Good air circulation is critical in order to keep your birds from overheating.  Sometimes misting them can make matters worse.  Perhaps you might want to let them bathe themselves by providing a shallow dish of water that they can get to when they want/need to.  In this type of heat, I've seen females actually get into water in order to get their chests wet so they can take this wetness to the eggs.  Birds control how much heat and humidity is required for their eggs...they instinctively know when their eggs (embryos) are too hot, too cool, etc., and they do what needs to be done to make right.

The birds sitting on top of the nestbox looking inside the nestbox entrance hole of another pair of birds are checking out what's going on inside the nestbox.  Sometimes (if colony breeding), other birds will raid the inside of another pair's nestbox and break open eggs, injure/kill hatchlings, and/or kill the female if they can get past her.  Normally, the male guards the outside of the nestbox and inside the cage, and the female guards the inside of the nestbox and the eggs/hatchlings.  The male normally feeds the female beak-to-beak inside the nesting box while the female incubates.  If another bird gets past the male somehow, it will have the female to contend with, which is no small task.  Colony breeding brings much stress to all the birds, as well as the offspring.  This is why I recommend keeping separate breeding cages for each breeding pair.  I've bred keets for over 20 years and I've tried it all!

If the birds sitting on top of the nesting box are the breeding pair that has the eggs inside that particular nesting box, the female must be too hot to be inside and/or the eggs are too hot and she doesn't need to sit on them for a bit.  They are guarding their offspring, too.

Chrys Meatyard