We try
to anticipate questions you might have about parrotlets and provide the answers here. If you need additional
information or still have questions regarding pacific parrotlets, please contact us directly.
A
Pacific Parrotlet or Celestial Parrotlet (Forpus coelestis) is the most
popular specie of the Parrotlets. Pacific Parrotlets are easy to
identify. These Parrotlets are just about 5 inches in height and weighs
approx. 30 grams. Pacific Parrotlets have been known to live 20
or more years.
How long do Pacific Parrotlets live?
While baby parrotlets are so adorable when little, their life expectancy can be enjoyed for 20 + yrs.
How to sex Parrotlets?
Sexing Pacific
Parrotlets is rather easy. All male Parrotlets have a royal-cobalt blue
coloring located on the rump (back), above the eyes, and on their wings. The Female Pacific Parrotlets are solid in color.
For Example: A Yellow pacific parrotlet with solid yellow color (no blue markings) is a female. A Yellow pacific parrotlet with royal cobalt blue markings located on the rump, eyes, and
wings would absolutely be a male parrotlet. The only parrotlet which requires DNA
lab sexing and can’t be done visually are the Albino Parrotlets.
Can Parrotlets talk?
Yes,
as soon as your Pacific Parrotlets or other dwarf parrot is hand-tamed,
start considering speech lessons. If your parrotlet has been raised by
hand, directly from the nest, taming and training, as well as learning
certain words is possible. Teaching your Parrotlet words is fairly easy
as long as the trainer works with patience.
Do Parrotlets molt? Does behavior change?
Yes.
Parrotletbirds has experienced Pacific Parrotlets that were very
aggressive and at times stressed during this stage, however, it was
only temporary.
At what age do Pacific Parrotlets usually molt?
Parrotlets usually begin molting around 4-5 months old.
How much sleep do Parrotlets require?
Here at Parrotletbirds
we suggest our customers give there Parrotlet at least 10 hours of
sleep. If your Pacific Parrotlet is located in a busy area.
For Example your
kitchen or living room, then we suggest you place a towel or blanket
over the cage to reduce the amount of visual traffic.
How often should a Parrotlet wings be clipped?
Parrotletbirds
suggest customers to clip the wings of their Parrotlets at least once
every 3 weeks. If your Parrotlet grows his or her flight feathers back
quickly then additional grooming might be necessary. We have heard many
stories about Parrotlets escaping and flying away.
What is the Scientific Classification of a Pacific Parrotlet?
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Psittaciformes
Family: Psittacidae
Genus: Forpus
Species: F. coelestis
Parrotlet Breeding Questions
How do I know when my female Parrotlet is pregnant?
In most cases
the female Parrotlet will appear fat or swollen in the vent area prior to laying
eggs. If you begin to see large droppings, this is another sign that
your Parrotlet might be pregnant or ready to lay eggs.
Are all Parrotlet eggs laid at once?
In most cases
an Parrotlet egg is laid every other day until the entire clutch is completed.
Most Parrotlet clutches will range in size from four to six eggs. In some cases a Parrotlet breeding pair might lay more than one egg on the same day. Although
it’s not normal, breeders should not be concerned if this scenario
occurs.
Why does my Parrotlet hen lay clear eggs?
There
are many answers to
this question. It's not unusual to see several
clutches of clear eggs before fertile eggs are laid. In many cases a
Parrotlet breeding pair will go through multiple clutches before getting it right. Another
reason could be the parrotlet pair themselves are not attached to one another
creating a situation where the male parrotlet isn’t properly fertilizing the hen.
How often should I clean my nest box?
Parrotletbirds
cleans out every parrotlet nest box which visually looks dirty. Dirty can be
defined in terms of poop, old wood shavings, etc. Nest boxes
absolutely need to be changed and cleaned entirely after each clutch of
parrotlet babies and/or clutch of infertile eggs.
How to reduce/prevent egg binding?
We suggest our customers to supply each and every Parrotlet with cuttlebone, mineral blocks, and powder calcium (sprinkled over fresh veggies/fruits) to reduce the chances of your Parrotlet
(female) becoming egg bound. Make sure you give your Parrotlets an
endless supply of cuttlebone and mineral blocks or in other words there
should never come a time when your cage is “cuttlebone-less” or
“mineral block-less."
What cleaning solution should I use for my nest box?
Parrotletbirds suggest using a mixture of bleach and water (20% bleach - 80% water) to clean the interior and exterior of your nest box.
How should I clean the nest boxes?
Having a clean nest box is very important to the health and upbringing of future offspring/parents. Parrotletbirds suggest
using a mixture of bleach and water (20% bleach - 80% water) to clean
the interior and exterior of your nest box. We usually keep the same
nest box for the same pair. This is important because it will reduce
the chances of spreading any bacteria or diseases to other pairs. Once
you have removed the wood shavings from the nest box, spray down the
entire box with your bleach mixture, scrub thoroughly, leave out to
dry.
Should I clean the nest box while there are parrotlet babies?
We clean our nest boxes 2-3 times after the entire clutch of parrotlet babies
have hatched. Cleaning the wood shavings inside the nest box is very
important because poop can build up very quickly when you have a clutch
of 5 babies plus two parents. Cleaning the nest box with bleach mixture
is not recommended until after the entire clutch is fully weaned and
will no longer need the nest box.
Where should I put the babies when I change the wood shavings?
Parrotletbirds uses a circular tub with a towel placed inside as a temporary holding
unit while we clean out the wood shavings inside the nest box. Babies
are placed back into the clean nest box.
Should we clip the wings of a parrotlet breeding pair?
Parrotletbirds does not recommend owners to clips the wings of parrotlet breeding pair. Since
most breeding pairs will remain in a cage 99.9% of the time, there is
no need for owners to clip the wings of a breeding pair of Pacific Parrotlets.
Where should the nest box be placed?
We
place our nest box on the outside-front-upper-left hand corner.
Pacific Parrotlet’s are not known to successfully breed when the nest box is
inside the cage.
What temperature should the hand feeding formula be?
Hand-Feeding Formula is mixed and fed to our baby parrotlets at a temperature of 106 degrees (+/-).
Parrotlet Babies & Incubation
The incubation period for most pacific parrotlets
is 19 to 22 days. The hen will spend a majority of her time in the nest
box taking care of the eggs. The hen will come out of the nest box
occasionally to poop and replenish nutrients. The male will be
dedicated to feeding his mate either in the nest box or at the entrance
hole. It is not uncommon to see both the male and female sleeping in
the nest box with one another.
Breeding “One Pair” or “Multiple Pairs”?
We advise our customers who are interested in breeding Pacific Parrotlets to have
more than one breeder pair. By having more than one parrotlet pair will
increase your chances of having babies. Breeding
pairs love to hear one another, but not see each other. Make sure you
put up some sort of divider between each parrotlet breeding pair.
Pacific Parrotlet breeding season?
Parrotlets
have no “set” breeding season. Most parrotlets will produce year round,
however, we strongly advise our customers to limit each pair to 2- 3
clutches per year. By allowing each pair to rest in between clutches
will increase your chances of having larger and healthier babies.
At what point should I stop breeding my pair?
We suggest to limit the amount of clutches each pair is allowed to produce
in any given year. If proper care along with a hardy and healthy diet
is given to your breeding pair(s), We would venture to say
most pairs can produce fertile eggs and raise healthy parrotlet babies for
at least 4-6 years. There have been many cases where pairs can produce
healthy clutches at a much older age, however, Parrotlet World does not
recommend breeding your Parrotlets after an age of around 8 years.
What hand feeding formula should I use?
Today, there are many hand feeding formulas available in the market place. Here at Parrotletbirds
we use Kaytee Exact baby hand feeding formula for all of our
Parrotlets. We follows the guidelines provided by Kaytee when feeding
our Parrotlets. Once you have finished hand feeding, discard any
formula not used. It’s very important the hand feeding formula is mixed
fresh and at the proper temperature prior to each hand feeding session.
How old do Pacific Parrotlets have to be in order to breed?
Although
there is no "real" set age in which you should or shouldn't breed your
Parrotlet, it is not recommended to breed your Parrotlet until both
mates are at least 10-12 months of age.
If I plan to breed Parrotlets how many are allowed per cage?
When breeding Parrotlets you should only have (1) Male Parrotlet & (1) Female Parrotlet per cage.
Pacific Parrotlets: Dilute Blue (Male) & Turquoise (Female)
Will Parrotlet pairs have multiple clutches?
Yes. Most pairs will usually produce at least 2-3 clutches of 3 to 6 babies per clutch per year. Of course, the age and health of the parents play a huge role in production levels.
How many eggs will a Parrotlet hen lay?
The avg. Parrotlet clutch usually ranges from four to six eggs. We have
experienced clutches which are much larger than six eggs, however, it
doesn’t occur often. As the parrotlet hen gets older the clutch sizes will
decrease from four to six eggs to around two to four eggs. Please check out the video below to see what a clutch of eggs looks like inside a nestbox.
"Pocket" Parrots or Pacific Parrotlets
can learn
more than 15 words on average and can "whistle" songs as well. Pacific
Parrotlets have about the same speaking and whistling
capabilities of a cockatiel. Parrotlets are also very quick at learning
commands such as "step-up", "I-love-you", "step-down", pretty-bird"
and
other small commands. Some Pacific Parrotlets can learn advanced
tricks, but
not as advanced as an Congo African Grey Parrot.
Having the
ability to speak does not necessarily mean your Parrotlet will speak; it
depends on the individual parrotlets personality and the owner who will spend
his/her time training the Parrotlet.
We
found through a
survey people who usually spend 10 - 15 minutes x 3 times daily often
notice the best results in terms of training there Pacific Parrotlet to
have an acceptable level of friendliness with others, tricks, and
speaking ability.
Pacific Parrotlet: Misc. Questions
Will Parrotletbirds clip the wings before pick-up and / or shipment?
Currently
we do offer this service to our customers. This service is free of
charge. We require our customers to request this service before pick-up
and/or shipping. We recommend our customer who are getting Hand-Fed Parrotlet babies to have the wings clipped at all times.
♦ ♦ Pictures of Pacific Parrotlet Color Mutations ♦ ♦
Does Parrotletbirds.com band every Parrotlet?
Yes,
All Parrotlets are banded the moment they are pulled from the nest box.
Each Parrotlet is documented accurately to ensure proper history is
given to our customers.
Does Parrotletbirds guarantee "splits"?
Yes! We guarantee all parrotlets to be the mutation, sex, and split stated on customers invoice. We
dedicate an enormous amount of time in making sure all records are
110% accurate. We absolutely stand behind all stated
“splits."
What documents come with my purchase?
Parrotletbirds includes a receipt of sale, birth certificate, 10-Day Health Guarantee Certificate, sex, color mutation & split guarantees, parrotlet care sheet, along with a feeding guide.
Does Parrotletbirds offer discounts?
Yes!
Discounts are offered for customers who purchase more than (1) Pacific
Parrotlet. Prices will not be discussed through email. To receive
discount pricing on Celestial Pacific Parrotlets please contact Parrotletbirds directly Toll Free (888) 887 - 1261.
