There are several very important factors that one must take into account when breeding budgies:

1. Budgies only come into breeding condition certain times of the year. This seems to coincide with the Australian spring/summer--which is our late Fall/winter. Budgies are not fertile year round. They will only breed when they are in breeding condition. In order to determine whether your birds have come into breeding condition, you must observe your birds. Signs of being ready to breed include: ripping-up newspaper, birds mutually feeding each other, males trying to click their beaks to the females, or tapping their beaks on the perches. The male's cere (the band above the beak)will be a bright blue. The female's cere will be a dark brown. These colors are hard to distinguish in some color mutations. The birds will be extremely active and the female will call to her mate. Both birds, male and female, must be in breeding condition for any action to take place--this can be very frustrating for the birds and for the breeder.

2. Budgies must have at least 13 hours of lighting to trigger them to come into breeding condition.

3. Budgies are flock birds. A single pair will not normally take-up breeding unless they can hear other budgies around them. They need to be encouraged by the group! (Though they can breed without a flock near by). The pair must also have a nest box provided for them. See gallery for nest box designs. Every breeder will have their favourite nest box design, the design that works for them, there are no right and wrong choices, just some boxes are easier to manage than others. In the wilds of Australia, budgies nest in tree hollows. They really prefer the privacy of their own separate breeding cage. If you decide to pair up two birds in a breeding cage, give them at least three weeks to settle in and start breeding. They still need to be able to hear other birds nearby. By the way, you are unlikely to actually see them mate. Maybe they are just shy, but they usually mate very early in the morning.

4. Birds should be at least 10 months old, preferably one year old, before they are considered for breeding.

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Breeding Notes:-

1. Usually, if the birds are breeding, the female will start to show great interst in the nest box. She will spend hours looking at it, placing her head in it and generally examining it. Often the male will excitedly encourage her and try to gently push her towards the box. Eventually, she will enter the box and take up residence. The box should have a concave in the bottom, to help keep the eggs and babies in its center.

2. Inspection (peeking) will be much easier if you hang the nest box from the outside of the cage. You should check on the eggs/chicks once a day - no more. Remove any broken eggs or dead chicks.Have a regular routine when you feed the birds and change their water so that you will not startle them. Only change the cage once a week so that you will not disturb them too much.

3. Once mating has occured it usually takes around 7 - 10 days before laying occurs,

Halleluiah! Eggs. Your budgie will start laying eggs; every other day, sometimes more often. A general clutch of eggs shouldbe between 1 and 8, though the more the merrier, if it is a first time breeding pair, chicks may be rejected and it means you may have 1 to 8 chicks to feed.

4. On about the 18th day, the first egg should hatch. The other eggs will hatch out about every other day, in the order that they were laid. Newborn chicks are totally blind and helpless. The female budgie will feed them on their backs. You can tell if they are being fed properly if you can see their tiny crops full of whitish crop milk.

5. You need to take good care of the parents. Parents with babies should always have nestling food available. This will help them provide for the chicks adequately. Some birds will work so hard to feed their chicks that they will starve themselves. Nestling food is also called egg food and can be purchased online or at pet stores. This food should be fed moistened. You may need to provide this meal to them once or twice a day. Be careful not to leave it in the cage for too long as it can go bad rapidly since it is fed wet. Always make sure that birds with chicks have water available and plenty of food available. Chicks need a lot of food. They grow extremely rapidly. Its nothing short of a miracle that they are full grown size by the time they reach 6 weeks of age.

6. If you want the chicks tame, handle them each day for 10 minutes once they turn 2 wks. of age, but make sure your hands are clean and warm. Also shield the chick's eyes from bright light because they have become used to darkness sitting in the nest box. The chicks will be ready to venture out on their own, anywhere from the age of 3 1/2 to 4 wks. or so. Of course, they will not be weaned until at least 6 weeks of age. Weaning is a tricky businesses. Do not separate the chicks from the parents until you are sure they are eating on their own. Once they are separated from the parents, continue to watch them closely. Make sure they can find their water--make sure that it is accessible and not too big as they are very clumsy and they can fall in and get wet, and cold! Also, make sure the perches in the baby cage are low and spread food and lots of spray millet around the cage floor, so the young birds can get to it.

7. Once the young chicks start to wander around the cage, daddy budgie ay not like it, therefore I advise that you supply some sort of shelter for your chicks, this way they have a place to hide if daddy gets slightly angry with them.


It sounds like hard work, and I am not going to kid around, because it is, but its very rewarding and can be really fun. Have fun, make sure you care for the parents and chicks, but most of all, enjoy!

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