Abstract
The Rueppell's Parrot, Poicephalus
rueppelli, is native to southwest Africa,
specifically Damaraland north to coastal
Angola. This is a very dry area with
annual rainfall under ten inches a
year. These birds are reported to travel
in small groups consisting of one or
two pairs of birds.
Although some may compare the
Rueppell's Parrot to the Meyer's Parrot
in size and appearance, there is a
definite sexual dimorphism in this Poicephal
us species with the female
being the more brightly colored bird.
The hen is more delicate in her features
and bone structure also. Her
beak size is slightly smaller than that
of the male bird. She has dark pigmented
feet, a dark colored beak and
fiery red eyes. Her overall body is a
greenish-charcoal, shoulders are yel low
as is the underside of the wings.
Her abdomen is a brilliant blue that
encompasses both her upper thighs
and rump. Her orange-yellow socks
finish her wardrobe making her a
most impressive bird.
Despite his Jack of color, her male
counterpart is not to be underestimated.
His beak is the same dark
color and slightly larger than that of
the hen. Both birds have the same colored
feet and those gorgeous red
eyes. His body is the same greenishcharcoal
color and his rump a bright
blue but he lacks the blue abdomen.
Shoulders are yellow and stockings
are orange-yellow. The juvenile bird
has the appearance of the hen, only
washed out. The young we raised had
yellowish scalloping on the feathers as
is common with other Poicephalus
babies. They lack yellow on the shoulders
and the yellow-orange stockings
of the mature birds. Although the eyes
are black in babies, they turned red
when the chicks were four months
old. We noticed considerable development
of brighter plumage at the first
molt.
We have found some similarities
between the Rueppell's Parrot's dispo-
sition and that of the other Poicephalus
species we keep. As with most of
our other pairs, our two pairs of Rueppell's
Parrots are timid and aloof, hiding
in the nest box during feeding and
cleaning time. Our proven hen is the
exception. She is always out of the
box at feeding time, whistling and
hopping on the cage bottom much
like a Hyacinth Macaw. We have also
noticed a great deal of displaying on
the part of the hen. She raises her
wings, showing off her yellow underside
and her calls remind us more of a
Budgie than of a Poicepha/us. In general,
with our mature hens and now
our young hens, we can clearly see
that the female is the more aggressive,
treating her mate similar to the way in
which the Eclectus hen treats her
male.
Our two pairs of domestic Rueppell's
Parrot's were a very generous
wedding gift from a good friend who
lives in South Africa. The birds were
quarantined in San Diego by USDA.
Upon release by USDA and FWS, we
extended the quarantine here at home
before putting them into a breeding
situation with the existing flock.
Although two of the birds were obviously
mature, they were not marked
as pairs, so we colonized them in
hopes that they would repair. Apparently
they did, with the mature pair
being the dominant two, exhibiting a
strong bond. Even in this colony situation
the mature hen presented herself
as the self-appointed monarch.
We breed many species of parrots,
but our Poicepha/us species are
housed together in their own separate
section. Once the Rueppell's Parrots
had passed all of our medical tests,
they were added to the established
flock. They are housed, as are the
others, in 2' x 2' x 3' cages made with
1" x 1" wire. Two natural manzanita
perches were hung, one slightly
higher than the other. The nest box is
a deep Cockatiel box approximately
10" x 10" x 20". We feed a diet offresh
seeds, nuts and various fruits and vegetables.
The Rueppell's Parrots are
fond of any fruits and vegetables we
offer, particularly green beans,
oranges and corn.
Having read literature concerning
their natural habits, we learned that
the Rueppell's Parrots were not largely
gregarious. In view of this, dividers
were placed on both sides of the cage
and six cages, housing other Poicepha/
us, separate the two pairs. The
mature pair began digging in the box
only three clays after being introduced
to it and both pairs were sleeping in
their box after two weeks. We had situated
the mature pair in a location that
we could observe from a distance.
Although we were discreet and somewhat
hidden, the male knew we were
watching and was noticeably nervous.
We decided to heed his warning signs
and block off our field of view. Two
weeks later we had four fertile eggs.
Normally we allow our Poicepha/us
pairs to incubate their eggs and feed
the young for ten days to two weeks
before they are removed from the nest
for handfeeding. Our parent birds
always do a wonderful job caring for
their young and we are not particularly
excited about feeding babies that
weigh only five grams from clay one.
However, we decided to feed these
chicks since they were so important
to us.
Incubation began when the first egg
was laid and since the female was
doing such a terrific job of incubating
(the male stayed in the nest but was
never on the eggs) we chose to leave
the eggs with her for as long as possible
and pull them just before hatching.
Well, you know what they say about
the best laid plans ... just twelve clays
into incubation we had a huge earthquake,
and needless to say, she abandoned
the eggs and they had to be
pulled for artificial incubation. As it
nu·necl out, all four eggs were cracked.
We lost the first baby but managed to
hatch all the others. Incubation time
was 28 clays but draw clown to external
pip time is not known as all eggs
had-to be assisted. Hatch dates are
May 7, 9 and 13 of 1991. Weight at
hatch for all chicks was five grams.
The first two chicks hatched with
white clown, light colored feet and
white beaks. The last baby also had
white clown but the toenails had clark
pigment and the beak was black. We
hoped this had to be some type of
sexual dimorphism. This chick turned
out to be what we deemed, the male.
After only one week, feeding a commercial
handfeeding formula, the
babies had more than doubled their
weight with the exception of the male.
Although his cultures were clean he
was red in color and failed to thrive.
At times he seemed to be almost in a
frenzy. An article was brought to our
attention in which the author, having
experienced the same thing in her
Poicepha/us chicks, added creamed
corn to her handfeeding formula with
great results. We tried it with instant
success.
The babies were weighed daily and
photographed constantly. By four
weeks of age they weighed 104 grams
and at 11 weeks old they were
weaned and independent. Visual sexing
indicated we had one male and
two females. The male had bigger
bone structure and less blue on his
abdomen. We had to separate the
babies once they were completely
weaned as outbreaks of fighting were
becoming more and more frequent
between the young hens. We kept
one young hen in the house, and
placed the other related pair in a holding
cage, waiting for the onset of
maturity and hopefully, unrelated
bloodlines. The siblings gave us every
indication that they could be compatible
cage mates. When they were
approximately nine months old, we
were horrified to discover our young
male had died at the hands of his sister.
Our older pairs of Rueppell's Parrots
have never been observed fighting
in such a way, however, the males
do seem to know their place.
Our proven pair is once again sitting
on four fertile eggs which are hatching
as we write. Our other pair shows no
sign of producing anytime this season.
Our plans are to let our proven hen
incubate as well as feed her young.
We are keeping our fingers crossed
that the earth stays still long enough
for her to hatch all of them this time.
Rueppell's Parrots are indeed rare in
private aviculn1re. We encourage anyone
having a pair to seriously attempt
breeding, and if successful, to avoid
placing the offspring into the pet
trade. We hope that anyone with a
single bird will contact us or try to find
another breeder willing to cooperate
in the propagation of this species and
avoid hybridizing at all cost.