Eclectus Rooster killed his chicks

[brujan]

Hello,

I have been breeding Eclectus Parrots for about 10 years now and have
had little problems. We use indoor breeding cages with Z boxes for
the nest box. A camera is installed on the nest box so that we can
keep track of what is going on.

I got the shock of my life tonight as I watched a rooster tearing
apart a 3 week old chick over the camera. I ran to the bird room and
jerked open the nest box but it was too late. Both chicks were dead!
Both had been shredded apart with their eyes pecked out by the
rooster. I can not remember being this depressed. This is totally
inconceivable to me.

This pair has been together for 4 years now and has raised about 12
sets of chicks now, each time it has been book perfect. Rose tthe hen
is 7 years old and was placed with Jade 4 years ago. Jade is about 16
years old and his first mate died of an aneurysm about 5 years ago.
Jade has always been the perfect father with his old mate and with
rose. He has been a breeder for about 12 years and has always been
quite gental and always helping with the feeding.

I have thought very hard about this and can not find any thing that is
any different in these birds lives today then what has been for
several years. I can’t understand why this suddenly happened or what
to do or think about it.

I am hoping that some one that has knowledge of such things might be
able to shed some light on what has just happened. I consider myself
an expert on breeding Eclectus and have had plenty of heartache over
the years with the many things that can go wrong but this one has
really hit me hard. I have never lost a chick in 10 years and now I
am holding two bloody babies killed by the parent.

Dose any one have any experience with this?

Thanks,
Bruce Buchanan