Breeding and Rearing the Massena’s Lorikeet in New Zealand
Trichoglossus haematodus Massena
By Kellie Stewart
The Masenna’s
lorikeet originates from the Solomon Islands, New Guinea. The have been in New
Zealand for many years, but after a bit of detective work found there are not
many of these birds left in New Zealand. You will find many rainbow/Massena
crosses, but will have extreme difficulty in finding pure examples of this
species. The Masenna lorikeet head is nearly completely covered with the rich
brown/burgundy colour with an intence blue starting from the eye area and going
forward to the beak. The chest feathers are red with blue barring. They are
very beautiful species of lorikeet, it is important for NZ aviculture that we
can establish these birds for future generations to enjoy. They are not known
in Australia and are very rare outside there country of origin.
It has taken 5
years to start having some so called succsess in breeding these lovely little
birds who are smaller than a rainbow but bigger than a musk or scaly lorikeet.
They weigh 110 grams. It has not been easy, when I caught onto the fact that my
stunning cock bird was an egg eater, and so the story starts from here.
It has taken 3
hens to get started. The first one dies only after weeks of having the bird,
the second was an older girl now to be known a very much older bird and what
ever eggs she did lay they where tossed from the nest or layed off the perch.
Not until I got the third hen did I work out what was going on, it was to my
horror I worked out that the above mentioned cock bird had a tendency to like
egg omlette for breakfast.
HOUSING
The pair is
housed in an aviary measuring 900 cm
wide 2.4 m high x 4 m in length. With a
concrete floor.
The nest box
measures 40cm high x 25cm x 25cm. The nesting material was intreated sawust.
This filled the nestbox with at least 15 cm depth. Rotting wood and bits are
bark are good to they chew it up while they are working the box getting it
ready. Tea tree perching and heaps to knaw on, these guys like to chew alot
when in breeding mode.
DIET
Theie diet
consists of a wide variety of items including apples, corn, oranges, pears,
soaked dates, grained breads, sprouted and soaked seed, millet sprays,
dandilion, puha, thistle, mixed vegetables (from the supermarket in the frozen
section) and *Kels wet mix my own special recipe. Twice a week I puree some
tins of topical fruit salad and bananas with a touch of spirilina and ½ tspn of
calcium sandoz and then I add this to my wet mix. Probiotic from vet-a-farm is also added twice a week. This is the same product I use
when handrearing day ones, but it is also very beneficial to give in the wet
mix to help the lorikeets to maintain a healthy gut flora which is very
important to a birds and humans alike.
WORMING
I worm the
birds firstly with panacur and secondly 12 days later with conbantrum prior to
breeding season. Lorikeets are prone to round worm. The wormer is administered
via the wet mix.
BREEDING
I would love to
leave the hen to sit on her eggs, but she wont go in the box during the day if
her partner is locked up in the cage. This makes my job a fraction harder as I
am doing handrearing from hatching and
now learning the finer points on incubation and hatching. It is very
time consuming, I love my sleep but lately it’s been slightly of track, all for
a good cause.
Breeding
started mid March and still going to this point in October. I started to keep a
close eye on the hen, to work out when she was in egg. The hen was helpful as she appears to get
very heavy in the vent area, and the egg shape is quite apparent. I find this
is quite obvious in most birds, the droppings also get larger. This happens
around day 5 before she lays her first egg. On day 2 before laying I locked the
cock bird in a seperate cage for her to lay her egg in the box and thankfully
she did. She was not happy about the fact her man was locked away. She layed
her first egg and I took it from the nest. Then I let him out for a day, locked
him away the next day and wamo theres another egg. These where incubated under
a rainbow and the rainbow eggs put into an incubator. Incubation sarted on the
masennas eggs 19th March. The rainbows that where used to incubate
the eggs where ever so slightly crazy you risked items of the body to stay
attached if you where not on guard. My partner in crime decided to just not go
there, and would decide on a date to dive in and grab nestbox and contents,
very much hoping we had some contents. 18th April was D day, and yes
we had a chick, of about 5-6 days old. The rainbow also hatched in the
incubator all was well. The whole cycle started again on the 19th
August second egg layed 22nd June. Both masenna eggs where incubated
under a sclay lorikeet her eggs where taken from her and placed into the
incubator as they got replaced with the masenna eggs. The first M egg had 7
days natural incubation and the 2nd egg four days, then the scaly eggs started
to hatch so they where given back to her and the M eggs where put back into the
incubator. The reason for my egg juggling is to get the egg to have the first
part of incubation as natural as I can, then putting them into the incubator
once they are well under way, sometimes this has not always been possible as
the above where the last egg only had 4 days natural incubation, I was lead to
believe there would be not much of a chance, but it hatched, this little fella
is ‘Memo’a bit of a sook and not so out there as his/her sibling Tui.
The next to
rounds where fostered out and I fell into some trail and error situations. One
egg was put under a musk, I did not check to see the outcome as she was
normally really good at siting, but she decided not to sit on the strangers
egg, by the time I had checked to see how things where going it was to late.
The next clutch was one egg this found its way under a different pair of musks,
the egg was a couple of days away from hatching and it got chilled by the two
hatched musks pushing into the wood shavings. The wood shavings was not the
best idea it is sold for bedding for hamsters and such like. It was to light
and fluffy the egg simply got accidently buried from the movement of the newly
hatched chicks. So lets not be beat here moving right along as the next clutch
is on the way, and this time the first egg went under a pair of rainbows the
second in the incubator. The incubator egg was clear but the egg under the
rainbow was full. The egg was taken from the nest a week before hatching. As I
write this we have a 2 week old masenna in the incubator. Next time if I have
the chance I will leave the rainbow hen
with the three eggs. She has had two clutches now and appears to be a good mum.
No time to waste its happening again. This time I tried a new tatic, I did not
lock him up but instead I went on an early nest raid. The masenna hen always
lays sometime during the night as I always find an egg in the morning, never
any other time of the day. I got them out of bed and there we are a nice little
egg. She laid again 2 days later, I got a bit figgity and locked him up while
waiting for the second egg. Poor guy he must of knew whats happening when I
appear in the aviary with the net as the last time we went through this
procedure he flew straight into the holding cage all on his own, sat on the
perch and gave me a dirty look.. At present these two eggs are under the
good pair off fostering musks and there
fertile eggs are under another musk who was sitting on two clear eggs.
INCUBATION AND REARING
I have found
incubaion has taken 24 days. Normally 3 days from the start of internal pip you
will have healthy bub in the incubator. Incubation temperature was 37.2 degrees
with 45 % humidity this was elevated to 80% when the egg was placed into the
booder to hatch. The first feeds have been given 5 hours after hatching brooder
temp is now 36.9 and the humidity is back to 40-45%. The feeds are 2 hourly for
8 days with last feed at 10pm and the first feed at 3am. If the chick hatched
at 3-30 pm the first feed would be 8-30 pm and continue 2 hourly until 10pm the
next evening. Then you chick can go 5 hours at night with out being fed.. For
the first 3 days I feed ensure spring water lactated ringers with a pinch of
vet-a-farm probiotic. Use equal amounts of electrolyte and ensure diluted with
the spring water, by using just electrolytes to hydrate the formula you will
end up in an overhydrated chick which is not a
good thing. From day four I change over to a new feeding formula. Katies
Exact mixed to the consistency of muddy water, the food
reaches peak consistency at 12-14 days old. I was careful to maintain are good
level of hygiene with feeding untensils and brooding/incubator equipment hands
a washed before each feed. When feeding such a small chick it I found a
desklamp with a 100-150 watt bulb was
great for letting the chick keep warm while feeding. The incubators temprature
is 36.9 and the air temp being noramlly much lower, this can be a nasty shock
on such a young one. All feeds are done other the light, until chick has a good
down cover. I fed from a small bent salt spoon the chick is held between my
thumb and forefinger and layed back slightly and the food is dropped in from
the side of the beak around 9 days old the chicks appeared to change the
desired method of feeding and the spoon is used in the normal fashion. I used hypoallergenic
facial tissues for the first 2 weeks as the chicks bedding it’s a good way to
keep an eye on whats going in is coming out ok so to speak. It just a good way
of keeping your eye on any problems occuring, a chick going regular with are
good crop emptying time is what all handrearers love to see.
ON THE PERCH
They take 8
weeks to perch. Weaning is normally an easy process., but can have its moments.
Since I breed a few species of lorikeet babies of all varities usually end up
in the same aviary or cage. Watch out for the bully, there will always be one!
I had a scaly lorikeet give a masenna a very hard time even got the sibling to
gang up on the poor bird, if bulling is not spotted it can result in a bird
that is not let to eat and is just picked on. Survival of the fitist is the
order of the day in Mother nature. The moral of the story keep an eye on
everyone and make sure they are getting there quoter. The scaly was removed and
and balance and peace was restored.
They are a
lovely bird it gives me great joy to visit my aviary every evening for a play
with the babies that I have reared. I really makes me feel all the broken
sleeps and mid night feeds are all very worth while.