Kakariki Parakeet Write up

02-10-2007, 10:14 AM

I didn't know where I should put this... So I figured I would put it here and someone could move it to the proper place...

Kakariki Parakeet

By Denise

http://www.affaviary.com

Scientific Name: Cyanoramphus parakeets
Subspecies: Red-Crowned Parakeet: Cyanoramphus novaezelandiae
Yellow-Crowned Parakeet: Cyanoramphus auriceps
Orange-Fronted Parakeet:Cyanoramphus malherbi
Antipodes Island Parakeet: Cyanoramphus unicolor

Bird Mutations: Pied, Cinnamon, Gold Cheek, Fallow, Blue and Lutino

Pet Appeal: Karakiri’s are not suitable for pets because they become aggressive with maturity. They are extremely active birds and need to fly. Regarding aggressiveness, it is predictable and also controllable, but it can get out of hand with inexperienced keepers. They, especially males, dislike physical contact such as being petted and stroked, although they love to be all over people.

Description: Male, 25 cm., 50 g., female, 23 cm., 40 g., long-tailed bright yellow green parrot, crown golden yellow, forehead and band from bill to eye red and small red patch on rump, violet blue on wing coverts and some flight feathers.

Care and Feeding: Kakariki are not demanding in their food requirements and do very well on a basic diet of sunflower seeds, canary seeds, and a little white millet. Grit of assorted sizes should be made available in a separate container. Green-food in almost any form, but particularly apples and apple cores, seeding grasses

Housing: Aviaries are preferred for space and flying time

Hygiene: They are messy for their size. 90 percent of their food is wet food; vegetables, sprouted seeds, beans, fruits, cooked beans and grains. They drag them onto higher perches to eat, but they somehow manage to drop lots of them outside the cage on the way. As a consequence, food is scattered everywhere on the floor and walls at quite some distance. It is necessary to clean around the cage frequently; otherwise old food might cause infection to inquisitive Kakarikis.
Washing and Cleaning - Wash their cages with anti-bacterial detergent once a week. Perches are to be changed once a week, and twice a week during summer. Cage liner, newspapers, is to be changed every day. Water bottles are to be washed every day with anti-bacterial detergent. Note: please make sure that inside of spouts are clear of any debris. If not, it could cause bacteria infection.

Bathing: Kakarikis love bathing. Give them a bath every other day all year around. They often become really soaked. Their bath is to be a large plastic pot (diameter 38 cm approx). It takes amazingly long time to dry all of the downy feathers underneath even though the surface looks dry.

Breeding / Reproduction: Kakariki can breed readily, their breeding life is somewhat shorter than similarly sized parakeets. Kakariki often lay 6-9 eggs in a nest box, they lay eggs at 2-day intervals. The eggs hatch after 19 days and it is not unusual to have 7 chicks in a nest.

Availability: Kakariki’s are becoming more popular with the color mutations, so there are more available.

02-10-2007, 10:58 PM

Thanks, Denise, great job! These little guys are very popular in Australia too. Although they come from New Zealand, for lack of a better category, I will put them with Aussie Grass Parrots.