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The keeping of Asiatic parrots in Australia is a
growing thing, but there are some important things people must know
about before pursuing this species. The Asiatics available to
Australian aviculturists to my knowledge is as follows, The Indian Ring
necked parrot, The Plum headed parrot, The Alexandrine parrot, The
Slatey headed parrot, The Moustache parrot, The Derbyan parrot, The
Malabar parrot, and to a lesser degree, The Blossom headed parrot and
The Malaysian Long tail. Although some of these birds mentioned are
still quite expensive in Australia, others are quite reasonable priced
for people to buy. The three I would consider as reasonable priced and
kept more widely by aviculturists would be, The Ringnecks,( and some of
their mutations), The Plum heads, and the Alexandrines. In the next
category, and not as widely kept, are the Slatey heads and the
Moustaches. The least kept in Australian aviculture are the Derbyans,
Malabars, Blossom heads, and The Malaysian Long tails. I will not be
talking on the areas these birds come from in the wild, or the many
mutations available, especially in the Ring necks, in this article, but
there are some great books on the market to read up on about those
issues. There are two books I would consider reading before deciding on
Asiatics, these being, Australian Birdkeepers “ A Guide to
Asiatic Parrots in Australia”, by Syd and Jack Smith, and
“Ringneck Parakeets and their mutations”, which has
been translated in this country by Neville Armstrong. Over the years as
an aviculturist I have kept a range of Ringnecks and some of their
mutations, but now I only keep Plum heads, Alexandrines, Slatey heads,
and Moustache parrots. I keep two or three pairs of these birds to make
sure I can get unrelated young pairs if possible. I would like to one
day keep Malabars, as this is to me the most spectacular of all
Asiatics. Both my Plum heads and Slatey heads are kept in a colony,
separately, in conventional aviaries measuring 7metres long x 1.6metres
wide x 2metres high, without any problems so far. My Moustache parrots
are kept in suspended cages within the Plum head and Slatey head
aviaries, and these measure 2.4metres long x 0.6metres wide x 1metre
high. These set of aviaries are serviced altogether in the one area
through a safety walkway. The Alexandrines, being a larger bird, are
kept in pairs along side birds such as Eclectus parrots, Gang Gangs,
and Major Mitchell’s, in conventional aviaries measuring
2.8metres long x 1.2metres wide x 2metres high. This bank of aviaries
has a front walkway where the water and fruit bowls are serviced, but
the seed stations are serviced through the aviaries at the rear. My
Asiatics, along with all other parrots and cockatoo’s are fed
on a small parrot seed mix with a larger parrot seed mix mixed in. This
is fed in Thomson’s Products seed hoppers, which lasts the
birds around a week, with a mix of fruit, (apple, orange, and pear),
and vegetables,( mixed beans, corn, mung beans, endive, spinach, and
frozen mixed vegetables), which calcium and vitamins are added to and
fed in stainless steel containers twice a week. All my aviaries have
automatic watering and sprinkler systems, so with the flick of a switch
watering or keeping the birds cold in summer is not much of a problem.
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