African grey Pair Mating problem Need Help!!!

[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 ?

[BMustee]

I breed finches and they all have their own ways of doing things. One of my star finch pairs only do it when they are on the floor of the cage and I had a set of Zebra's that the male would do a "fly-by" mate. Your male may not have a good footing, so maybe some different sized perches could help. Seeing as though they have had babies before I would have to say he gets it at some point or else their would alway be dud eggs.

[lovemyGreys]

It does sound as if they are showing mating behaviour as BMustee has said Secure perches will be needed for mating.African Grey males mount the female to mate,The birds will mate often, and for several weeks, running up to the time when she will lay. Before mating the male will feed the hen and display to her, he holds his wings out and jumps about on the perch in a sort of dance. The male will then spend many days in the nest box checking it out, before the female goes in to lay.