Abstract
We are told with steadfast regularity and unflinching authority that we must not let our birds make "too many " babies, and that we must not let them start doing that until they have achieved a fairly advanced age. That may seem to many people like good advice for humans - there seems to be enough of us to meet the demand - but it seems like abundantly stupid advice to give someone striving to raise the maximum possible number of cockatiels, canaries, finches, budgies, and other cage birds.The usual pitch is that unregulated reproduction will result in ''weak, poor quality, and deformed" babies while the adults will become "weakened" and unproductive unless they are given a "rest" after raising two or possibly three clutches. The other part of the expert advice (enforced celibacy for the first year) is said to prevent...