Dear Parrots magazine,
Buyer Beware!
I would just like to point out to your readers that they need to be careful when buying a pair of parrots to breed from. At the back end of 2014, I bought a pair of Ring-necked Parakeets and was told they were a pair, meaning a cock and a hen.
I have built a large aviary for them with inside quarters (heated in winter) and have supplied three different nest boxes. However, to my disappointment and in view of all the time I have spent, they haven’t mated at all. So after speaking to a friend of mine who has also got Ring-necks, he suggested I had them DNA sexed, and yes, you’ve guessed they were two cocks. I have heard of situations like this with other people and it always seems to be questionable when you buy a pair – how do you know they are a pair? Being a trusting soul I just believed the person that sold them to me, but in future I think I will only buy a pair if they have some form of identification linked to a sexing certificate.
Ronald Brown, by email