gbwf.org Forums

[Brad]

I have an opportunity to get 2-3 pr. of 06 birds from WV. Still considring. I understand they do better in groups, is this correct? I'm under the impression that they don't lay until 2-3rd year...any views on this? I'm also being told they're really pretty cold hardy; any info from those of you 'up North' regarding this? I imagine Mazuri's Crane diet would work well for them, any other feeding tips?

Thanks....Brad
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Dr. Brad Keith, Ph.d.
Keiths Exotics
3722 Neosho St.
St. Louis MO 63116
(314)-659-8425

[Carl]

You will find quite a bit of information here - http://www.ibisring.com/index.php?view=home

Most people will say that they do better in groups but when does anyone ever keep just one pair? I suspect that breeding in their 2nd year would be exceedingly unlikely and 3rd year will be far from guaranteed. I don't know if it is applicable to scareds, but 3 years olds of some species of ibis are known to breed only when in mixed age groups with birds that are already breeding - birds that have no examples to follow can take 6 years and more to breed.
They are totally hardy in all of the UK and can nest here at any time of the year.
Diet - they are far more carnivorous than any crane so most people feed either a pellet that is compounded for ibis, or something like a sea-duck diet with added fish and/or day-old chicks.

[nathan1]

are you getting them from carl mogensen?
he's got good birds.
anyways, i feed mine mazuri crane diet mixed with trout chow or catfish food. they also love small frozen fish and raw meats like beefheart.
while they will do better in groups,they will breed as pairs. especially when you have mixed pairs of other species like hadada or scarlets.
1-2 year olds will usually help the other breeding pairs to raise chicks even though they aren't related to them.
i have a 2 year old sacred that tries to help my abdim's storks raise there chicks too.

[Mike]

Of those of you who have some experience with Sacred Ibis--would you mind commenting on space. I know with birds bigger is always better but what size space would be min. for 3 to 6 Sacred Ibis?

I just acquired 3 birds--they are older birds, there is a noticeable size difference-especially in the neck area--this is not a good example but something like comparing a hen turkey's neck to a young tom. Would this have anything to do with the sex of the bird? The former owner had always gotten nothing but infertile eggs, upon crating the birds--I was handed a handful of eggs--which were clear but put in the incubator anyhow--hope springs eternal.

The former owner fed them a 27 percent dog food--if by chance there is a male amongst them would a change in diet improve fertility?

I appreciate your comments. Thanks.

[Carl]

Lots of successful breeders with lots of experience have contirbuted to this - http://www.ibisring.com/index.php?view=home
Minimum space 35 feet x 6 feet (20 square metres) plus a pond - this small and the floor would certainly have to be sand.

If the birds are 5+years old it sounds like there are 3 hens - did the previous owner ever see any kind of courtship behaviour? DNA testing will cost less than peanuts compared to the price of the birds.

[nathan1]

mine are in a 25x25 with a wading area.
ponds don't do them any good since they are swimmers,so a 4-6in wading area is ideal.
they do well with other species too.
mine are in with haddada ibis and abdim's storks.

[Carl]

Does a pond have to be over certain depth in the US to cease being a puddle/wading area, to become a fully-fledged pond?

[Jan Harteman]

Nathan, it's not really a good idea to keep Hadada ibis along with any other species or a couple of the same birds. Hadada are the only species of ibis that are really territorial. All other species (like Sacret) are colony birds, Hadada are certainly NOT. I have seen several couples of Hadada kept in private collections, but all birds were kept per couple, never as a group along with other species of ibis.
The only exception is the couple in Walsrode, they were kept with both Abdim's stork and Black-crowned Night herons.

Oh by the way, Abdim's stork are (in comparison to Hadada) one of a few Stork (Ciconia) species that breed in colonies. So to be succesful with Abdim's stork, it's better to keep them with more than one couple.
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Jan Harteman / Harteman Wildfowl: waterfowl, waders, cranes, storks, pigeons & doves, hornbills, kookaburras etc.

[nathan1]

if you PM me Jan i'll show you my haddadas on the nest which i've already gotten 3 chicks from this year,in the same aviary with a single pair of abdim's which also had 2 babies this year, and the sacreds.
yes,while abdim's do colony breed,in my experiences and those of others i know, they can successfully produce as pairs. also my haddadas are not one bit aggressive even when having chicks. maybe i just have a good pair.

[nathan1]

good question carl
when does a pond become a lake?
i gues it's just a mystery

[Resolution]

Because of our winters, our Sacred Ibis colony is kept in failry close confinement for the winter but has a large flight aviary in the warmer months. They are fairly terrestrial in nature-gleaning a good deal of their food from ploughed fields like egrets. In captivity we feed them Resolution Hunter Kibble and supplement with canned sardines during nesting. Their pond is stocked with feeder fish and crayfish which are both relished.
Mine our housed together with green peafowl, ceylon junglefowl and a diverse group of waterfowl species. In winter they share their holding with the peafowl and junglefowl. We tried to keep them with currasows but they nested over the winter and chased the ibis every time a humn came into the barn. I discovered that their babies were covered in lice eggs and lice on year. We had to spray and so on. Subsuquentally I placed cat flea collars in thick wool socks and tied them to the inside of each nest before nest building got under way. It seemed to work very well.
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- Judge by cause, not by effect.

[Sheila Hancock Mckay]

Can you elaborate on the winter conditions a bit more?
What kind of wintering would be ideal- assuming we are talking green-house- indoor large barns etc as possible options.
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sheilamckay

[Mike]

First, thanks to those who have responded to my questions, now a couple more I guess.

Thanks for the ibisring site, but I was unable to go beyond the first page, I don't know if it is me or my computer---????? Once I entered the site to the intro page--there was nothing to click to enter the info part. ???? A mystery.

Carl, you had said that they can take UK weather fine, and I read that the Sacred Ibis is becoming an invasive species in France, Italy, and Spain. I am located in the central US-(Southeast Ks), my birds were purchased in OK--the former owner had heated them some in past winters, but told me he had left them out all last winter. They were in a very large netted aviary with a small-south open shed which they roosted and had nests.

The avairy I am going to put my birds in will be covered with clear plastic during the cold of winter---Resolution--do you heat your winter quarters for you sacred ibis? Mine will be protected from the wet and drafts, need I be concerned with toes freezing. I have kept a variety of finches in similiar conditions with no problems at all during the coldest of winter.
Basically it is a "green house" affect--but at night you will lose the warmth.

I guess what I am asking is how winter hardy can I expect them to be--in general?

[Sheila Hancock Mckay]

Do they roost at night?
Would a water bed heater buried in light sand or a heated perch/roost in a green house sort of arrangement work? Do they need to have a barn like shelter with a large tree or limbs inside- or is that not enough natural light?
Sigh- have a feeling they probably would not like Montana- but it is interesting to think about.
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sheilamckay

[Carl]

The problem is that I can speak only from the UK and coastal Europe. Wild birds can always move to warmer climes.
In the UK the weather would have to be severe for anyone to worry about them, and we've had none of that for several years. All would provide open-sided shed type cover where they would have the highest perches for roosting - where possible, people would tend to choose a site so that the structure's open side was facing south.
Jan will be better able to make detailed comments about private breeders as I do not know enough people keeping them to make definate statements and I definatley don't know enough about SE Ks. I do know that as we very seldom have freezing weather, day and night, for more than a very few days at a stretch, many keepers will have a small shed available, only just large enough to hold the birds comfortably overnight, and the birds own body-heat will be all that is required for the birds to do fine.
Ibisring website - it should open on a page with a menu to the left - put the cursor over "articles", another menu should pop up, choose housing or whatever from there