Part 4
Keeping and Breeding THE AFRICAN GREY
Filmed by Eelco Meyjes

REVIEWS

Sheryll Steele-Boyce. Editor. Australian BirdKeeper magazine

"The DVD is fantastic !...the best DVD I have ever seen on bird keeping - suitable for not only Grey's but any pet and aviary parrot keeper. "

Louis Bothma. Chairman. Parrot Association of South Africa

" The DVD is absolutely superb....I can strongly recommend the DVD to anyone that wants to know more about African Grey's "

Part 4: Keeping and Breeding the African Grey

At 92 minutes long, the 4th part of the Bird Keeping series is the most comprehensive film ever made on African Greys. It gives African Grey pet owners and breeders important practical information on how to successfully care for this amazing bird, which is considered by many as the world's most popular parrot. The DVD also includes valuable information with regard to breeding African Greys plus examples of every known colour mutation currently available in South Africa, including the phenomenal story behind the world's first ever ALL RED African Gray parrot.

Breeding African Gray mutations, such as pieds - which include the F2 Pied African Gray with a distinctive red band across its abdomen, - is not yet common practice, but some magnificent examples still exist. For example, the all red African Grey, first bred in South Africa, marks the ultimate achievement in mutation breeding to date. In addition to specifically bred mutations, there are naturally occurring mutations within African Grey species, such as albino Greys, which have no pigment and are all white and Incomplete Ino’s with only very partial pigmentation. There is also a blue African Gray species that is in fact grey but has all white tail feathering. However, very few of these birds have been bred successfully in captivity

One of the reasons that African Grays are favoured the world over is because they make such good mimics. The Congo African Grey parrot is particularly good at imitating human speech.

Keeping and Breeding the African Grey DVD includes:

• A short history on the African Grey as a pet
• Countries of origin for African Grey parrots, including the Congo
• The urgent need to support nature conservation
• Examples of different African Grey parrot species e.g. Congo, Timneh and pied
  

For African Gray pet owners:

• How to go about buying your first bird.
• What looking at the eye will tell you
• Bringing your bird home for the first time
• Correct diet and feeding regimen for African Grey parrots
• Teaching it to talk
• Introducing other pets
• General healthcare for your African Grey and how to spot problem behaviour e.g. obsessive feather plucking
• Sexing your bird
• Introducing a mate
• The temptation to breed your African Grey…

For African Grey breeders:

• Top breeding facilities
• Aviary and nestbox design
• Stock selection
• Microchipping
• Food and Nutrition
• Pairing up birds
• Mutation breeding, especially red pied African Greys
• Ringing baby african grey parrots
• Hand rearing African Greys
• Having a Nursery and caring for baby African Greys
• Resting your breeding stock
• Professional healthcare and lots, lots more …

Examples of some of the mutations that you will see in the DVD

This 92 minute DVD is filmed on broadcast quality material for your viewing pleasure.

If a picture is worth a thousand words then a movie is worth a million.