Nest Box
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In contrast to other members of the genus Bolborhynchus Lineolated Parakeets don't breed in sandily walls, self-dug caves or burrows, but in tree hollows.
Thus the provided nest boxes usually are accepted without any problems. You can place standard nest boxes for budgies or cockatiels in horizontal or vertical direction. The birds sometimes will expand the entrance up to 6 or 7 cm on their own initiative.
Kästen
Photo: Andre Laegel
Nest boxes with different old chicks: The two boxes in the front are divided.
According to some breeders, Lineolated Parakeets prefer nesting boxes, which are divided by one or more internal partitions into several chambers (among others Wagner 1998).
Arndt (1986) writes: In Denmark the breeders were particularly successful using nest boxes (20 x 20 cm floor space x 30 cm height), which hat been divided into two chambers with a internal partition at about 15 cm height. The lower chamber could be entered through a hole in the edge of the partition. This chamber is the real nesting hole. Additionally a wood tube is attached to the upper chamber, through which the nest box can be entered. This tube should have a diameter of about 5 cm, and can be 30 up to 100 cm long. That kind of nest box is very dark in the lower breed chamber. Through this and through its kind of construction as well this nest boxes imitate the natural nesting places of the Thick-billed Parrots quite well.
Roeder (Buedingen/Germany), Henig (Rottendorf/Germany) and Laegel (Buxtehude/Germany) use this kind of divided nesting boxes as well, and are pleased with their breeding results.
Nixdorf (Wolfsburg/Germany) tells about an unusual, but interesting alternative. He offers his birds nest boxes with access from the bottom. These are accepted well.
Bauer (1990) provides natural boles of approximately 40 cm height and an interior diameter of approximately 20 cm as nesting facilities.

For floor covering of the nest box one can use peat dust, fine beech wood granulate or sawdust, which quite often will be removed from the box by the Lineolated Parakeets. They also accept coconut fibres, which sometimes are shaped to nest-like formations or just pushed into one edge of the box. Some Lineolated Parakeets carry nest material like small feathers or willow bark into the nest box (Vriends 1999).
 Last update on February 21st, 2005