# Red Rump parakeets



## vinay

Hello all  

I bought a pair of Red rump parakeets last week . I hope there are members on here who know something about them . I'm quite new to these guys so any specific points not mentioned in general sources are more than welcome ! 

Regarding their genders ........
I automatically assumed they were a male and a female because of their colours. The male is a normal green and its pretty obvious he is one. 
The other bird looks like a cinnamon with dull colouration hence my assumption of it being a female . But as I took a closer look , I saw a few red feathers on its rump . All sources online say that the red rump is only observed in the males . 
Is it possible for females to have some slight reddishness when affected by a mutation ?


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## Vargur

Sounds like two males.


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## Kate C

With the Cinnamon mutation there is no alteration to the rump colour of the male. Cinnamon Red Rumps are a brownish yellow in colour. Sounds like you have a juvenile male and an adult male.


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## vinay

Kate C said:


> With the Cinnamon mutation there is no alteration to the rump colour of the male. Cinnamon Red Rumps are a brownish yellow in colour. Sounds like you have a juvenile male and an adult male.


Thank you ! 

Would you know which mutations do alter rump colour. My bird is a yellowish-brownish colour with about 4-5 red feathers right next to the beginning of its wings on the back.

The reason I am convinced it is a female is because I have witnessed them mating multiple times since yesterday. The green male does a dance and feeds the yellow one. Do red-rumps bond with the same sex in the same way budgies and lovebirds do ?

I'm quite surprised with this behaviour since they've only been home for a week. Both birds are from different shops as well so its not like they were a bonded pair to begin with.


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## Kate C

If the red feathers are up on the back near the neck and wings then it is probably a Cinnamon Opaline Hen. I also believe that some breeders have noticed with some mutations hens have some red feathers on the rump area.


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## vinay

Good to know ! 

Once again thank you so much for the info . It seems there is a lack of detailed information regarding these guys online when compared to budgies , tiels , lovebirds and others .
Even though I will never breed on a large scale , I am quite interested in mutations and genetics . 
Do you have red rumps of your own ?


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## Kate C

I used to have them but only the normals. But one of the members of our Parrot Club is a big breeder of them and has most of the mutations. I have them wild at my home and often see them on the grass footpaths outside my home after we have mowed the grass eating the grass seeds. They are native to my area in Australia. Most of the mutations are fairly new (only in the last 10 years or so) so there is still not much out there about them.

The Australian Birdkeeper Magazine has a range of books written by experts in each field of many birds. They have a good one on Grass Parrots written by Toby Martin who is one of the world experts on Grass Parrots and Neophemas. He has lectured all over the world about them. I have the pleasure of knowing Toby very well. You can purchase this book via mail order over the internet. Here is the link to the book.

Bird Books, Aviary and Pet Bird Books

It is a good basic book on the birds including breeding, feeding, mutations and genetics etc.


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## Spiritbird

Red Rump Parakeets are said to be the best for a pet bird of the grass keet species.
I think they are so pretty. Hope you can get photos up for us to see. They are aggressive breeders so if you don't want a lot of chicks I would not have any nesting material or boxes in their cage. These little Aussie birds love to chew so provide bird-safe, unsprayed flowering, willow, fir, elder and pine branches; wooden block toys, heat sterilized pine cones, vegetable tanned leather toys; swings, ladders and ropes. Also enjoys bathing so provide overhead misters or shallow bowls of water. I found quite a few nice leather chew toys on etsy and TNT. Good luck with them If you have other birds it will be wise not to have them with your RR birds as RR parakeets only like other RR keets.


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## Kate C

I will try and get some pictures next Sunday at our show of Max's birds and post those as well.


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## vinay

Greatly appreciate the advice 

I live in Dubai so unfortunately I don't have access to sites like amazon or ebay since the local service providers have blocked them. I usually have to ask my family in the UK to order and bring stuff for me here when they visit. I had to wait for 2 months to get my anti air-sac mite medication as well since it isn't available here. 
That's why I try to pick up as much knowledge as possible online  .

I hope they can be housed with my 8 budgies and 4 tiels in their aviary in the future with a proper introduction. If they don't get along , I can always keep them separately if needed . As of now they are in quarantine in another room .

Yes I can see they are aggressive breeders. I have never witnessed any birds begin mating and bonding within a week of coming home. I guess the sudden change in food and environment for the better when compared to the pet stores threw them into breeding mode. 
I am quite nervous as they haven't been conditioned to breed as of yet. 
I haven't given them a nest box but if I do see eggs , I don't think I will have it in me to throw them away. I might just end up caving and giving them a box if they persist.

Here are some Not so clear pics of them. They are quite flighty and really difficult to capture on camera.


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## Spiritbird

They are very pretty birds. You should not throw away any eggs right away as the hen will only lay more to replace them. You can freeze or boil them. You can check them first by candling and seeing if the egg is fertile. Do all you can to discourage egg laying.
Egg production is stressful for birds; it depletes their nutritional stores, and predisposes them to malnutrition, osteoporosis, and life-threatening illnesses. Here are a few things you can do to make egg laying less: 

Put your bird to bed early, by 5 or 6:00 p.m. 
Keep your bird away from dark, enclosed spaces, remove any nesting places or materials
Keep the pair separated during breeding seasons
Rearrange the cage interior and change the cage location
Give your bird optimal nutrition and provide full spectrum light
Ask your veterinarian about hormone injections
Limit foods that are soft and warm
Discourage breeding behavior in your bird


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## Kate C

That link I gave you is not to Amazon or Ebay but directly to the Australian Birdkeeper site to the page that has the book. The one I am talking about is A Guide to Neophema and Psephotus Grass Parrots (Revised Edition). I hope you can access it from Dubai.

I would not be housing them with budgies and tiels, especially if you plan on breeding them in the same aviary. They are quite aggressive and protective of their nest, eggs and young. I know of a number of cockatiel breeders who used them as foster parents when the albino's cockatiels were first bred and they wanted to maximize the amount of babies they got. The albino's at that stage were worth around $5000 Australian dollars. Red Rumps are very good parents and will foster just about anything. I have even known of them hatching and raising for nearly 3 weeks an orphaned baby Alexandrine. At 3 weeks it was bigger than its foster parents and they fed it brilliantly.

Shame you could not get a better picture of both the birds rumps. The normal is obviously a male but I would have like to have seen the position of the red feathers in the other bird.


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## vinay

Oh no , I don't provide any nest boxes or nesting materials in the mixed cage. I wouldn't take the risk of fighting among my birds. I thought they could be housed with the flock, but if they're as aggressive as you say then I shall let them stay in their current cage . 

I cant imagine two of these little guys raising an Alexandrine chick hahahaha . 

Interestingly in a few months I'm looking forward to breeding a pair of my tiels both of whom are first timers with the male being split to albino as well . 
I hope they make good parents but If it doesn't work out , im glad to know I can use the red rumps as fosters. I might just set them up to breed at the same time just in case. 

Will they raise other birds' chicks along with their own or will their eggs have to be replaced with duds so that they focus on the fosters ?

I shall try getting better pics of the yellow one. What mutation do you think he/she is ?


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## Kate C

With the fostering it would depend on how many eggs they lay of their own and how many chicks you want to foster. But from memory when they were used to raise the albinos they removed the Red Rump eggs and replaced them with the tiel eggs. First time tiel breeders are often not good at sitting on the eggs to full term. So rather than to risk that they put the eggs under the Red Rumps 

With the pairing of your tiels it is going to be easy to see if you have any albino young. Because the male is split albino, any albino chicks born will automatically be hens. Hens cannot be split for albino or lutino. Albino chicks have snow white down and red eyes which can be seen even before the eyes are open.

With the mutation of the yellow one, yes she could be a Cinnamon or even a Cinnamon Opaline. But there are different types of cinnamon, there is a UK Cinnamon and an Australian Cinnamon and they are slightly different I believe. I have not seen a UK Cinnamon in real life as we don't have them here. And because of export laws in this country there should be no Australian Cinnamons overseas. Yours then would be a UK Cinnamon if in fact that is what she is.


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## vinay

The male tiel is a grown chick from a clutch (my first tiel breeding experience ) last year. He is a whiteface grey male split to ino , cinnamon and pied. He'll be paired with a normal cinnamon female whom I think is split to whiteface looking at her cheekpatch. I'm expecting quite a few colours from this pairing. Who knows , I could even see a crossover of ino and cinnamon  . 

Dad is a cinnamon pied/whiteface and mom is whiteface lutino/pied. Both were brilliant first time parents going on to raise 5/5 chicks in two clutches. I hope the 'good parent' gene got passed on to their son . 


I presume she is a Uk cinnamon as most of the birds sold here are imported from Europe or Asian countries like Pakistan , Philippines etc.


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## Kate C

I doubt that the male would be carrying cinnamon as cinnamon is a sex linked gene and only males can carry that as a split. For your young male to be split for cinnamon his mother would have had to be visual cinnamon. When you say she is whiteface lutino split for pied I presume she is a visual albino, whiteface lutino is the technical name for an albino. The ino gene is also a sex linked gene and can only be carried hidden by the male and not the female. A visual ino female will produce split ino males. I to hope they passed on the 'good parent gene' to their son.

That link I gave you also has a very good book on cockatiels written by 2 of our expert cockatiel breeders and also has a very extensive book on genetics which is written by an Avian Vet. They also have another book on Basic Health and Disease in birds written by one of our top Avian Vets.


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## vinay

I'm pretty sure hes split to cinnamon since his dad is a visual cinnamon . I thought that with sex-linked mutations a visual male paired to a non-visual female should give visual daughters and split sons. 

Thank you for the links  

Btw , my green red rump has pink feet instead grey mentioned in their description. Could that mean hes split to something ?


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## Kate C

Sorry you are right. I am very rusty on my sex linked genetics as I have not worked with them for years. Most of my birds now a Cockatoos and the ones that aren't are dominant genes and not sex linked. I really should not try to do genetics like this so late at night when the brain is not functioning properly lol.


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