Karl Hansal: When you start counting money in breeding then it’s too bad. PART II

Breeding

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Read also the first part of this article:

Karl Hansal talks about his successful breeding of Golden-shouldered and Timor Red-winged Parrots. PART I

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Why have you decided to buy Golden-shouldered Parrots?

I like them and there are not many breeders who have them. It was kind of challenge.

You have more species which are very difficult to breed, already mentioned Timor Red-winged Parrots, Red-shouldered Macaws of subspecies cummanensis and others.

You are right, I always need to have species which are difficult to breed. Those are interesting for me.

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Do you have Hooded Parrots as well which are often kept?

No I don’t, as well as I don’t have common Red-winged parrots.

Some breeders pair Golden-shouldered Parrots with Hooded Parrots because there are no females…

In the past, many breeders did this. It’s better nowadays. The problem is not only the fact that there are no females. Sometimes you have a pair but the birds don’t get on well together so you won’t breed them.

Do you handfeed your birds or you prefer parent raised parrots?

Wife: Sometimes we handfeed, but that’s not the case of Golden-shouldered Parrots. Mostly African Greys or Galah Cockatoos.

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So you help your husband, eventually 🙂

Wife: If the chicks are closed in the incubator then I can feed them.

I have already handfeeded chicks 50 years ago.

And what handfeeding formula did you use?

I had a poppy grinder which I filled with seed mixture and grinded. I still have a photo with ten tame lovebirds on my head.

Today, you can buy handfeeding formula. You just add water to the powder and that’s all. Do you use spoon or syringe to feed the chicks?

Wife: I tried both. But when you need to feed 10 chicks by spoon then it’s too slow. I don’t use the probe as I don’t like it, it’s not natural for the birds. But I understand it can save your time.

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Otherwise, do you prefer parent raised birds?

Definitely. We also like wild forms of all species and you wouldn’t find any mutations in here. I think breeders mostly breed it because of money. Many years ago I visited a breeder in Netherlands who as first one had the blue Princess Parrot. He had twelve pairs and start selling youngers as soon as he bred 60 youngers. Price for the first birds was 10 000 German marks each. But it fell quickly.

How is the breeding of the subspecies of Red-shouldered Macaws – cumanensis – going? They are very rare.

Hopefully, we will breed them within this year eventually. I have one pair from Czech breeders and the other from Germany. They laid a clutch for two times but we lost it. They need an absolute calm to breed successfly. Unfortunately, our female stops incubating.

Wife: It always happens during the night. We have owls in here which fly over the aviaries and make troubles. I think that birds get used to them now but they frightened birds and even our dog earlier. The second time we were not successful because of tractors which worked on the field behind the aviaries. At that time chicks hatched.

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How long do you have these macaws?

Three, maybe four years. Breeders still call us and ask if we have already bred them. Everybody wants this species.

When we are talking about rare species. Which parrots do you want to buy now? Are there any dreams in the air?

I’m 72 years old! Not much time left.

Wife: I think that even if he walks on crutches then he will go feeding his birds, so…

You had Red-tailed Black Cockatoos, would you like to have them again?

Wife: It was difficult species to breed. When I entried the aviary, male wanted me and not the female all the time. He was interested in everything but female. I have also heard that it’s not easy to handfeed the Red-tailed Black Cockatoo. It can take up to 9 months!

We bought it as a pet so we shouldn’t use it for breeding. We could have it for 20 years and would never breed it.

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And what about palm cockatoos? Those are not interesting for you?

Wife: When we were buying Red-tailed Black Cockatoos we could have Palm Cockatoos instead. Maybe we should buy them…

It was a mistake because this pair breeds at the place of a new owner every year.

Wife: But to handfeed chicks for such long time…

I guess that you don’t feed the chicks for all 9 months but it necessary to be patient with weaning.

Wife: We visited one breeder in Austria who had this species. She had for all 9 months the younger in the kitchen. When handfeeding Galah Cockatoos, those have to be also placed in outside aviary later as they do enormous mess at home. They still follow me and don’t want to be kept in the cage. So they are in the aviary when start eating but still cry and want to be fed. Sometimes I go inside and feed them.

I know a breeder who put young Golden Conures to the cage together with an adult caique. Young birds see how the caique eat and learn it.

Wife: It’s the best way when you put together more birds. They will learn eating earlier. We do this, too.

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It’s interesting that young birds will learn to eat anything but adults not.

Wife: Sometimes we buy birds who don’t eat carrots. Our old Galah Cockatoos refuse apples, they don’t like any fruit or vegetable. Their youngers would eat anything I eat. If I will show them how to eat steak then they will eat it.

Our Timor Red-winged Parrots don’t eat sponge biscuits at all, their youngers do.

Wife: Yes, we handfeeded one chick and it eats sponge biscuits and fruits.

Do you feed with pellets?

Besides most of Australian parrots, all parrots eat them well including Galah Cockatoos. Maybe if I don’t feed them anything else for whole week then they would eat them, otherwise not.

Some breeders don’t feed with pellets because they believe that parrots wouldn’t eat them.

Wife: At the beginning our parrots didn’t want them as well. They started with colored and sweet-smelling ZuPreem pellets. Anyway, it needs some time.

One of our friend told us that when we start feeding with pellets then we will have double offsprings. In his facility this change was maybe caused by the fact that he used to give to his birds only seeds before.

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You forgot to answer if you still want to buy black cockatoos…

But which species?

Wife: I think we are satisfied with species we have now.

But you still have several empty aviaries…

Wife: They are for young birds.

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Do you cover your expenses for breeding of parrots by selling of young birds? Or is it just a hobby which you need to invest in?

Wife: Selling of offsprings definitely covers the food for birds but we can’t include purchase costs

You can never count this. When you start counting then it’s bad. It doesn’t depend what you breed. I knew one vet in Austria who decided to breed pigs. He counted that one pig will have 10 piglets, 10 piglets will have then 100 piglets and 100 pigs 1000 piglets, … Of course he multiplied that by money. He built great facility but went bankrupt within two years. He was a vet but couldn’t do the business. All he did was just counting.

Photos: (c) Jan Potucek, Ararauna.cz

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