Read also the second part of this article:
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Today, we recognize six subspecies of the Meyer’s Parrot, these can be classified to two groups depending on their coloration:
a)green group – includes subspecies with green belly:
Poicephalus meyeri meyeri
Poicephalus meyeri saturatus – intensive yellow coloration on the head
Poicephalus meyeri reichenowi – no yellow color on the had and smaller body size
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b)blue group – included species which have a blue belly
Poicephalus meyeri matschei – intensive yellow coloration on the head
Poicephalus meyeri damarensis – very rare in captivity, no yellow markings on the head
Poicephalus meyeri transvaalensis – very rare, yellow band on the had
Unfortunately, hybridizing of the subspecies is very common in captivity. Because of that it might be difficult to determine the subspecies we have. I believe that pure birds are still kept in a few facilities in Netherlands and Germany.
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Meyer’s Parrot (c) Oldrich Siska
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The Meyer’s Parrot has never been my „target species“. A breeder who lives not far away from my place was offering two males. One of them was from 2012, in fantastic condition and therefore I decided to buy it. After some time, another friend of mine had a female with similar coloration which was at the same age as my male. Because of that, I could set up a nice pair. The female was sexed by DNA test. Both birds were placed to an inside aviary three meters long with outside flight four meters long. I was really happy about this pair, birds were strong flyers and consumed everything I offered them – seed mix for African parrots, NutriBird pellets, fruits and vegetables, rowanberries, chokeberries and hawthorn berries.
At the beginning of 2015, I saw the pair copulating. This was repeated in following days for several times. I was still thinking that these birds are not old enough to be sexually mature but when I noticed larger belly of the female I decided to hang a conventional vertical nestbox of size 20 x 20 x 35cm with an entrance hole 8cm. The nest was occupied immediatelly by male and a day after also the female came in. At the end of January I found four eggs inside. To put a pair of Aztec Conures in the adjacent aviary was obviously a mistake. I did not expect Meyer’s Parrots to nest so soon and therefore I did not put an invisible partition between the aviaries. Conures are loud parrots and disturbed the young couple on eggs. On February 17th, I found one broken egg, two infertile and one fertile egg which was placed to incubator.
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Meyer’s Parrot chick hatching (c) Oldrich Siska
Meyer’s Parrot chick (c) Oldrich Siska
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The cracks appeared on the egg on March 11th. Next day, the chick hatched. You can check frequency of feeding and weight gain in the attached table.
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Tab.1 Meyer’s Parrot chick development
| Age | Day 1 | Day 5 | Day 10 | Day 15 | Day 21 | Day 28 | Day 35 | Day 42 | Day 49 |
| Weight | 6 g | 11 g | 22 g | 35 g | 64 g | 106 g | 125 g | 134 g | 132 g |
| Feeding frequency | 3 hod | 4 hod | 5 hod | 5-6 hod | 6-7 hod | 8 hod | |||
| Food amount | 0.5-1ml | 2-3 ml | 3-4 ml | 6 ml | 8 ml | 8-10 ml | |||
| Temperature | 36,5°C | 36°C | 35°C | 33°C | 30°C | 27°C | 24°C | Room temperature |
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Title photo: (c) Oldrich Siska
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