Aviary Management

Breeding Loan Agreements:

What is a “breeding loan”?

When one breeder has a mature male or female bird (Bird “1”) and another breeder has one of the opposite sex (Bird “2”), they can come to an agreement to loan one of the bird’s to the other breeder for the purpose of producing offspring.

Typical Terms (terms can be different, as agreed on by the parties involved):

Both breeders share the profits 50% of the any offspring generated by this breeding arrangement (commonly referred to as the “50/50″ split”).

This is sometimes altered to 60/40 in favor of the breeder who is keeping both birds, to compensate him or her for taking care of the breeder birds, and raising and selling their young. Both parties decide on the price of the offspring. Both retail and wholesale pricing should be included in the agreement.

In agreements where each party will be responsible for the sale of their percentage of the babies, it must be stated how and at what age the babies will be split up. In most cases, the first baby goes to the breeder keeping the birds, the second to the owner / other breeder, and so on.

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The agreement should cover the following scenarios:

1. Bird “1” is being shipped to the other breeder, but arrives dead. (Owner of the dead bird has to take the loss in this case. They may decide to ship the dead bird back for necropsy or a photo of the dead bird may be sufficient to prove that this has occurred.

2. Bird “1” dies shortly after arriving and was never bred. (Same action as above.)

3. Bird “2” dies before the new bird (Bird “1”) is introduced. (Owner of Bird “2” pays for shipping Bird “1” back.)

4. Bird “1” is killed in the process of mating.(The owner of Bird “2” should ship back the preserved body or email a photo of Bird “1” to the owner).

5. Bird “2” kills any offspring. (Owner of Bird “1” ships Bird “2” back to his owner.)

What additional information needs to be included in the loan agreement?

• The ages of both Bird “1”‘ and Bird “2”
• Their breeding history
• If one of the birds has not successfully produced yet, proof of sexing (if bird cannot be visually sexed)
• Disease history, testing results, etc.

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Record Keeping:

• Breeding Record and Lineage Charts

• There are several programs available: Most of the programs let you download a trial version. It is recommended to download the trial first to see which one works best for you.

  • Aviary Manager Software AvimateBird Data – a free software! www.arcatapet.net – click on Free SoftwareBird TrackerBirds Evolution Pro (comes highly recommended)

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Bird Identification:

• Leg Bands
• Pet Identification and Avid Microchip
• AVID Microchip Suppliers

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The Closed Aviary Concept

1. Preferably no bird should be added to the flock. IF a bird is added, s/he should be tested and quarantined for at least 3 months, preferably six.

2. Any bird that is taken to the vet for ANY reason needs to be quarantined, since there is NO better way of catching a disease than at the vet’s. When I take a bird to the vet I resist the desire to ‘show my baby off’ 😉 and keep him or her covered with a large towel over the carrier at ALL times, with the exception of the time when s/he is examined by the vet, thereby reducing the risk of infection by any air-carried viruses.

3. Not allowing *any* birds on your premises near your birds (including your friends’ birds or rescues, etc.)

4. To NOT frequent places where there are other birds , such as shows, bird stores, etc. or at the very LEAST, do not take your birds there and DO take a shower and change clothes after the ‘event’ and before getting in direct or indirect contact with your own birds. (Indirect contact means getting in contact with any items that will come in contact with your birds, such as dishes, carpet, furnishings, etc.)

Gaurav Dhir

Gaurav is an animal enthusiast. He lives in beautiful Ontario with his energetic family. As a part of his work at beautyofbirds.com, he has been working with ace parrot trainer, Cassie Malina to understand bird behavior and learn more about how he can train his feathered companions.

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