Need advice with my african grey pair

[chaudhry195]

I have a true Pair of previous pet African Grey . According to the lady who i bought it from They had clutch of 3 in May 2007 and two babies hatched. I bought them in September 2007 and after i had them few days i found one broken egg on the cage floor. It could be because of new place new cage etc.. Now its March 08 and they are ready to breed I do see breeding behavior food intake has grown sgnificantly and they are feeding each other and female spending more time in nest box. Everything seem normal except whenever male try to copulate it doesn't seem he knows what he is doing. Female bent down and male try to mount but only puts one leg on her and feed her continously then female try again and again by moving down but he try to mount but it does not seem he is able to. he put his neck around her put one leg up and one wing up and other leg and wing down on perch but can not mount? Has anyone seen this behavior ? It could be they are at the beginning of mating? Perches are Pine wood 2x4 right size as many of breeders use. is this normal behavior ? if any breeder looking into this post please reply . I would greatly appreciate it. I had african grey pairs before but each one has diffrent method ?

[lovemyGreys]

Im afraid i dont have much knowledge on breeding greys,if they have breed before & are a proven pair i dont see any reason to think they wont mate again. I do know that they like to be left alone & only if conditions are right will they breeed.Hopefully are members can help answer your question better.<br><br>Post edited by: lovemyGreys, at: 2008/03/18 02:25

[parrotlady]

This type of behaviour is perfectly normal. They play around a lot before actually doing the deed.

 

It is doubtful he will want to do anything if he feels he is being watched, so it's better to give them some space and privecy.

[Dave007]

Yes,they do have slightly different methods but more important is that they have different amounts of foreplay. It's an individual thing. Sometimes, a new cage and new location can affect breeding greys much more so than pet greys.

As others have said, privacy is important as well as quietness.

If they've successfully mated before, it's likely that they will again but sometimes, a new place and a new cage is distracting. It's possible that the some or all of the eggs might be infertile this time around but if that happens, more than likely the next time should be successful. As far as what you actually see right now with their mating method, I can only say that it's what you don't see that's important. Privacy and quiet lets each bird totally focus on the other.