Budgie breeding is a great hobby, however, it doesn’t hurt to understand more knowledge about it, right? Also, it will be a great help, whenever you want to keep your budgie all happy and healthy.
Choosing your breeding pair
Try to find a compatible breeding pair. This usually involves a male budgie and a female budgie. Their ages should be at least older than 12 months and younger than 4 years. They should be in good health and should have no deformities. Such as splayed legs or anything related. Not only should they be in good health, but they should eat a balanced diet. Which could include great quality seeds, fresh fruits or vegetables, grains, and etcetera.
I recommend choosing a pair that already get along well. If you do, it will definitely guarantee a quicker time till they would mate. And later, they would lay eggs. If they were newly bought and/or they just met, allow them to bond. Patiently wait for them to get used to the environment. I suggest waiting for 4 weeks.
Preparing their breeding place
Use a fitting cage, especially one that is approximately two feet wide. The cage should be wider in width than the size that is high in height. Since budgies tend to fly horizontally. Have at least three openings: one for the water dish, one for the food dish, and another one just for you to easily access the cage. You might want to cut a small window inside the cage for the nest box.
Obtain all the items that are necessary. You’ll possibly need a nest box, perches, maybe some toys for your male budgie, (do not gather the toys too close, it could cause the male to get hurt), feeder and water dishes, a cuttlebone, liquid calcium, or grit (two of these calcium sources at least), a mineral block (not required), a surplus of food and water dishes to place on the ground when babies fly, baby budgie formula, a miniature syringe, and an area for an orphaned baby budgie for a precaution.
Find a suitable bird veterinarian if you haven’t already found one. Gather all details, including their phone number. That way, if something goes wrong with your Budgie, you can give them a call for their assistance.
Setting up a nest box
Purchase or create a reasonably sized nest box.
Appropriate sizes are:
9 inches in height
6-8 in width
6-7 inches deep
…with an entrance that could be 2 inches tall and wide in diameter.
Purchase some bedding for your Budgies’ nest box. I would advise using wood shavings inside the nest box. When putting the wood shavings inside, it’s a good sign that your bird is throwing them out. This basically tells you that they’re both getting prepared to nest. When they throw them out, prepare yourself to put more shavings inside. Ultimately, your bird will be too occupied sitting on eggs and feeding their offsprings. So they most likely won’t try throwing the shavings out any longer.
Breeding
Patiently and quietly wait. Do not disturb the budgies. They will do their “thing” using their own pace. Pestering them and constantly hovering over them will not help with the situation at all. You may not witness them breeding, but if you happen to do so, then you should still leave them be. Otherwise, your female budgie will alert the male to get off. Then, the mating will come to a halt.
When the eggs come around, wait until each one is at least 5 days old. This is optional, but you can candle them. Usually, you could find the candling steps online on the internet. Be cautious. and very gentle. Avoid touching the eggs. However, if you do decide to touch them, then I suggest going through research about it. Be aware that this is optional.
Budgie Chick Care
Make sure you check up on them on a daily basis. The chicks will later hatch so it is significant that you examine the nest box annually. You could try to do this when the mother budgie is out eating their food. Temporarily, block the entrance of the nest box. For instance, you could use a cut of a newspaper. Therefore, the mother budgie doesn’t break in and attack you.
Gently inspect the chicks for any injuries they may have, seeds/air bubbles in the crop(basically the sack that is at the bottom of the chick’s neck).
Make sure that the crop is full(bulging). Check for any food that could be stuck inside the top of their beak. If you find food stuck, be careful, and gently separate it away. To do this, you can try using one end of a matchstick or perhaps a quill-end of a feather.
Clean off any feces and/or any food from around the toes, beak, eyes, and other body parts. Use soft, wet, and warm cloth. Remove dead bodies, if any.
Be aware that budgies have a poor sense in smell. Therefore, they won’t really mind if you touch their babies.
Your nest box must be cleaned daily! When the bird is out eating food, remove the chicks and also any eggs. Move them into a small container, lined with soft paper towels. Fix the dirty bedding and get rid of wet poops that could be found on the floor of the nest box. Resupply the nesting elements with fresh new stuff. Gently put the chicks and eggs back where they were. If possible, be quick.
When chicks are at least 3 weeks old, give them one millet spray every day. Easily put it in the nest box. The parent budgie will gnaw at it and regurgitate this for her children in an instant. The babies could also nibble on it, imitating their parent. This helps them accustom to food. Eventually, they’ll recognize seeds to be food.
Time to Fly!
Baby budgies usually fly when they reach 28-35 days old. Insert a dish of bird seeds, and another separate dish of (shallow)water at the base of the birdcage. Although the male parent feeds them at this rate, you’d want to motivate them to start feasting on more solid food as soon as they could. It is also a good idea to give them a bowl full of chopped fresh fruits and also veggies. I’m sure young fledglings would love to explore and try out new things!
2) On ground level, make sure you have a hut for those small chicks so they can shelter from their angry Mama. If you let the hen lay even more eggs, she could have the tendency to become aggressive towards her own chicks. Since you’d want the chicks to stay with the male bird as long as possible, give them a clean, empty upside-down ice-cream container with a door cut out of it, or perhaps a hamster igloo which you can purchase from the pet store. The baby/babies will shelter in this.
Make sure that the baby birds don’t remain there all day, make sure to take it out for a few hours a day so the baby birds can roam around inside the cage and remember to eat and drink.
3) Remove the nest box. You can release the hen free to go again for a second round but often it causes much stress on the breeding duo. When the last chick can fly, remove the nest box immediately and cover the opening where the nest box was. Perhaps separate the female parent from the male parent and their chicks, as she may be a bit mean towards her own babies.
4) If you haven’t already, go ahead and name your baby birds. You may not be able to know their gender but when it is around 1 month, you may be able to give it an appropriate name. Guess what, you made a budgie happy family!
Breeding Issues
Egg Binding
Egg binding occurs when a hen who is forming an egg in her uterus does not have enough calcium to finish forming the eggshell. The formed eggshell does not become hard enough to push out. This would make the hen feel extreme stress and extreme risk.
Prevent egg binding is very essential. You’d want to have a cuttlebone and mineral block available. Preferable inside of the breeding cage. It is significant to constantly check if the cuttlebone and also mineral block have been worked up. If so, then they should be replaced right away. If a breeding couple does not come in contact with the cuttlebone or mineral block… then extra calcium supplement may be needed. An oyster shell will do.
Failure to Egg Laying
This could be the result of the hen being out of condition for breeding. Not only do they need to be at least a year old, but their condition, including their hormones, also must be appropriate to breed.
Otherwise, you may need to remove them from the breeding cage. Afterward, look for another breeding pair if the pair doesn’t lay after a span of 3 weeks. Or, you can repair them with different mates.
Failure to make Eggs
A possible cause for this is that the hen laid the first clutch too soon before the cock even mated with her. Try blocking off the nest box for a few weeks, then let her lay another clutch. Check for any improvement in luck.
If the male in the duo is an English budgie, make sure the feathers around the vent are not so long that they cover the vent. That could prevent insemination. If the feathers are too long, trim them cautiously with scissors, then leaving them down showing around the vent.
Be certain that all the perches are stable. They should not roll and/or wobble.
If two clutches of infertile eggs are made, bring them out from the breeding cage and consider trying them again, but with different mates or waiting until a later time to retry.
Eggs Being Thrown(from the Budgie Nest)
Be sure there is a concave area in the nest so that the hen can sit on ALL of their eggs without any of them getting away.
If the hen is young (1-2 years old), avoid breeding her for at least one more year. Hopefully, she will lose her habit of maturity.
If the female hen continues to remove her eggs from the nest, replace her eggs with fake ones or perhaps white marbles. After she incubates these 1-2 weeks, discard them. Then, let her lay another clutch of eggs. Hopefully, she will lose her egg-throwing habit.
If egg tossing continues to be an issue, you can use her to maybe foster other chicks, but you won’t be able to breed her.
Hungry Chicks
You can tell a newly hatch chick is being fed by looking at the crop (below their neck) to see if it is full of a milky liquid.
If the hen does not feed the chicks, try putting an older baby from another pair into the nest. The older baby’s cries for food will then stimulate the hen to then feed her own clutch.
If the young chicks have gone on without any food in their stomachs, purchase some hand-feeding formula from a pet store and manually hand-feed them. If the babies are newly hatched, you won’t be able to utilize a syringe due to their tiny size. After creating the formula, dip a toothpick into the mix. Then, insert it into the baby’s beak. It should eat the formula from the toothpick. Continue this until the crop appears full. For more info on any hand-feeding, read the article Hand Feeding Implementation written by Wanda Barras.
Physically Injured Chicks
Occasionally for unknown purposes, one of the parents beats up on one or more of their chicks. If this happens, foster out the chicks into other budgie nests. Don’t breed the offending parent again. If the attack occurs inside of the nest, then it was usually the hen. If it happens outside of the nest instead, then it’d usually be the male parent.
On some occasions, the hen could and will pluck the feathers of her children. This may be due to nutritional deficiencies. If this occurs, offer her an iodine salt spool. If this does not fix the situation at all, foster out the chicks to different nests. Prevent that female hen from breeding. At least a year will do. Make sure her diet improves in supplements. An iodine salt lick can be given if you want to try to breed her once again.
