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Hi! I'm new to this forum and also very new to breeding budgies so I'm going to be asking a lot of questions on here. I thought I'd start with the most severe problem so far. How do I clean out the best box? The first baby is around 3 weeks now and the youngest is around 1or so and the best box has an odd smell around it. I'm not sure if that's normal or not but I'm just guessing it's not. I really want to clean it out but last time I tried the parents freaked out and started flying around everywhere and the babies started screaming. After that for a few minutes the hen seemed a little nervous about going into the best box but I'm not sure. Is there any way to clean it so the parents and the babies don't get scared? If not is it okay if they are scared? Will the parents stop caring for them if I clean it? Any help would be very much appreciated.

Hi how many budgies can I fit in my new cage. I am currently breeding two budgies but I just got in a new double cage, it has 4 doors for food/water, 2 doors for access to the budgies and a divider down the middle for separation (note I also have many spare toys). The dimensions of the whole cage are 85cm x 50 x 50, how many budgies can I put in there? p.s. I also hand tame all my birds before breeding which means I can give them a couple hours outside the cage daily. thanks for any advise you could leave me with.

Hi guys, this afternoon i noticed my 21 day old budgie's feathers ( just a few) on the bottom of the nest box. In the last few days the hen has been spending quite a bit more time in the nest box. i saw her trying to pull out her baby's feathers earlier this afternoon, the baby was screeching loudly, so i immediately looked it up on the internet. the website recommended removing the hen. I have done this to prevent her from attacking her chick and i am hoping the cock will pick up on looking after the baby as the website said he would. could i please have some advice asap? what do i do? have i done the right thing? how can i make sure the male is feeding his baby?

Hi, I recently picked up a couple of baby Budgies, about 10 weeks old now. They're enjoying flying around the living room and perching on the light fixtures. I got them for two reasons; to teach my 9 and 10 year old boys a little responsibly, and so I'd have a little daytime company while I'm off work. As I'm expetting to be housebound for awhile I've decided to look into breeding. I'm looking at getting a breeding pair to start with, and some second hand cages and breeding boxes. Is there anything specific I'd need to avoid? With the cage and boxes I'd like to make sure they're clean. What's the best way to rid them of any trace of previous tenants? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Cheers, Steve

Hi all! I have 4 pairs of budgies, all 10 months old and are about to start their first cluch! One of them is already sitting on 4 eggs (might be more later)! Now I have another lonely 2 y/o male budgie who is desperately trying to get a female buy since they are all taken he is alone. I am sure that if I get another female he will court her. The only problem is that I am afraid that now when all the pairs are headed to start their first cluches, adding a new budgie will stress them and they might stop the cluch they are about to start, or worse, the pair who is sitting on eggs might abandon them. Remember they all have never had a cluch before so its gonna be their first time. What should I do? Get this female? Wait a bit? Thanks all!

Hi people! Wondering if someone could help me with the mutations of my birdies? I once knew but cant remember now.. Also while we are here, who would you pair and why? What colour babies could i end up with? Lets go with Sven (blue male) as number 1 and Minty (my little lady) can be number 2 i think she is opaline golden face but is her colour skyblue?? Shes like a greeny turqoise colour. Svens back (1) Mintys back (2) Teeko, male - opaline cobolt or violet??? Number 3 Pixel Number 4 - This is an OLD picture. havent got anything new of her. Recessive pied?.... I havent got any pics of her back but she has a couple of dark little feathers. only picture i have that shows Pixels back spots (4)

Hi guys. I actually posted these in my topic on the building of my aviary, but though I should post here too, to get it in the right department. While the weather has been terrible, and Ive not been able to work on the aviary, I have been working in the garage on my breeding cages. So I just thought I'd post up what I have done, in case anyone may like to use an idea I had in the building of mine, share ideas and all that. So this is what I posted in the other thread: Since the other day I have done a bit more work. Once the first one is together, the next ones tend to go together a whole lot quicker.

Hi All, I was just reading back over my breeding diary for 2009! What a long time ago that was! Since then I think I have only bred once. Tragically, one of the two chicks that were hatched died unexpectedly and the other escaped from her cage - she was too smart for her own good I say. Anyway, I'm back into it again. For good hopefully. The happy couple are: Aussie DSC_3160.jpeg and Able DSC_3141.jpeg And the beginning of their family: DSC_3159.jpeg Looking forward to them hatching. (Due date...April 5th) Have a good one!

I had setup my breeding pair about 2 weeks ago and everything was looking fine they started mating in 3 day's and the female spends most of the time in the nest box. but recently i have noticed that the female is plucking her vent feathers, she isnt showing any signs of egg binding and is spending 2/3 of the day in the nestbox her poop is huge just like usual and isnt watery or abnormal , she doesnt sit on the floor I have breed budgies before and know what im doing i just find this strange because my last breeding pair layed fertile egg's 5 day's after mating

Alright, well I guess you can guess why I'm here. I'm back in the budgie world and I want to know what my birds are and you lovely people are the ones to help me. Oh, I can make some guesses but I've forgotten most of what I used to know and I'm too lazy to go back and research it from the start so I've come to you guys. Thanks! 1) 2) 3) 4) I'm dreadfully sorry about the horrible pictures.... They will improve I promise!

Hi guys, just wondering if you've used, or seen anyone use, these cages. They are for sale on eBay and look pretty classy. Cheers, http://www.gtmall.com.au/stack-vertical-bird-breeding-cage-with-center-divider.html?

Hi all hope every one is enjoying the silly season. To start this journal a little background. 2013 season for me was a test run and a very steep learning curve. Produced lots of very nice pet birds that were snapped up within 2 days of advertising. I made some predictions regarding what I was expecting to see from various pairs of birds. Am quite pleased to say that, from the visual aspect, I was pretty accurate. Some pleasant surprises came form the multitude of splits and mixes in my original breeding stock of pet birds that came from various pet shops and colony breeders. I have also procured some very nice beginner to intermediate show type breeding stock and am hoping to participate in BCV comps over the coming year. As of last week I have moved house, was planning to leave 4 brooding pairs at the previous location until chicks had fledged. As we have a forecast of up 40 deg C and the breeders were in an outside aviary I was running the risk of cooking the chicks and damaging parents if left. I made the decision to move all nests to my new location. In doing so I ran the calculate risk of stressing brooding hens and have them turn on the chicks so move them I did. The risk was worth it as all chicks and parents survived the move with little distress and no injury's. The new breeding room for the summer is indoors and climate controlled and will be using this setup during the hotter months Dec, Jan, Feb and March Currently there are 7 nests in operation 1. DF Spangle hen yellow x Olive violet spangle cock4 Eggs with 6 pinkies 2. Dark green grey Normal Show type cock x YF grey Cin spangle show type hen6 eggs 1 pinkie to date 3. Grey Normal cock Pet x Cobalt normal hen Pet 5 eggs 2 pinkies 4. Grey Dom pied cock Pet x Grey Dom pied hen Pet. chicks almost ready to fledge 5. Light Green spangle cock pet x Albino hen Pet no eggs yet 6. Olive spangle cock Show x Yf grey cin spangle hen Show. No eggs yet. 7. Cobalt Normal cock Show x Cobalt opaline hen Show. No eggs yet So whats in the nest now The breeding room will soon be re configured and will accommodate a total of 12 large breeding cages for show type and 12 smaller Breeding cages for pet type. In the cooler months I will expand the operation with a further 10 large and 20 small breeding cages to be housed in the garden shed come breeding house. So the 2014 season in going to be a lot of work but hey this is what I do with my days.

Well, most of this was said in the descriptive titles. Two hens setting at once. One I need to let rest, but I like her genetics. Anyone ever successfully switch eggs on a hen?

Hello. This is my first posting. Am dealing with a second clutch hatch in which the third and last little one is significantly younger than the other two. At what point (agewise) are these little ones savable? Is it best to remove it from the clutch entirely, or try to supplement and hope it becomes strong enough to demand the parents' attention?

I have two budgies around 14 months old having their first clutch. Dad had previously bonded with another non-breeding hen in the aviary. When I introduced him to mum in the breeding cage, they literally mated within a few minutes - an amazingly short courtship that I had never previously seen. They were very kissy and within two weeks they had eggs and now have 4 beautiful babies. The oldest baby who is now five weeks has been coming out of the box for the last five days. Dad has also taken a shine to this baby and has made several unsuccessful attempts to mate with the baby when the baby has asked for food. Whilst this is disturbing, I have seen this before and decided that if it gets worse, I will remove the baby who now seems to generally be able to feed itself. The problem is mum and dad's relationship. Over the last week or so they have become quite aggressive to each other. Dad often flies at mum as if to attack and mum is frequently seen pecking him. If I put something in the cage like celery, they fight over it. Gone also are the lovey-dovey kissing sessions. As the babies have got older mum seems to spend a great amount of time out of the box whereas normally a mum would be thinking of starting another clutch. Some of this is because she almost has to sneak into the box sometimes to get in as dad will often fly at her. She spends much time on a seed feeder in the corner furtherest away from the box. Absent mum or agrressive/over protective dad?? Today I arrived home to find mum with a bloodied closed eye with blood around the eye in a 1cm diameter. I instantly removed her to a separate cage to assess and protect her. Luckily her eye is okay as initially I thought it may have been pecked out. Later I added the oldest chick to her cage that dad has recently been hassling. This was to stop dad from hassling the baby and also give mum company. In addition as I do not know what has occurred I can only assume dad has attacked mum. Perhaps dad got too amorous with baby and mum stepped in?? So initially the plan was to let dad raise the babies, but the niggling thought was what if dad was the problem and mum stepped in. I suspect the two youngest babies may also be female. Will he be trouble for them? I also was not sure if he was actually feeding the younger ones so I placed them temporarily on the bottom of the cage to see if he was feeding anyone - to no avail. One thing though when I went to return them to the box he flew down on top of them as if to protect them. Having returned the babies to the box, I brought mum back to observe the behaviour. At this stage they had been separated 6 hours. Instantly he flew at her and tried to block her from returning to the nesting box. Why would he be so protective of the box? Does he think she is a problem or is he attempting to protect his harem? I have never seen such aggression between parents - only female budgies. Maybe one has a mental illness? I then decided to take him out and put him in the separate cage with the oldest baby. Instantly he attempted to mate with the baby, so I have returned the baby to the nesting cage (she still sleeps overnight in the box even though she can eat and drink for herself.) So the plan is to make sure mum is feeding the babies by midday tomorrow. If so, I will return dad to the aviary. If not, I will have to swap mum and dad again and remove the oldest baby to a separate cage with mum. Of the other three babies, two may be in fact cracking seed themselves -not sure about drinking. But the youngest was a runt and five days younger than the closest sibling, so he still has quite a way to go and will need feeding. Continuous handfeeding is not really an option though. So has anyone experienced this behaviour before between parents? What would/did you do? Any comments/suggestions will be appreciated. I let you know what happens if for nothing else to share the experience with others.

Well Hello All, I'm not exactly new, but I haven't been here for 6 and a half years. Can you believe that? How could I?!? (gasp) But it's true. Funny how life get's like that hey? Anyway, I decided to return - the good samaritan - and all that time I've had budgies. It got down to two for a long time there. And then I bred them for one family's worth and then I had four. And then both of my males (Butter who I'd had since like 2007/2008 and his son) died and so I was left with the two ladies. (Who it's my personal opinion got pretty sick of each other's company.) Then my little sister got excited about breeding budgies so she bought two little lads from the budgie guy up the road and here we are. Two of them (the older female, Oi and the blue boy) have paired up and the other two just ignore each other by the looks of things. And now we're just waiting for Dad/Grandpa to make us some new breeding boxes hopefully soon and we'll be able to start this awesome hobby up again. So that's the run-down on this slacker's life. Can't wait to get back into the BBC thing and brush up on everything I've forgotten. Love, Miss Katie

High Thought I would start a thread rather than hijack others. So at this time I have 7 birds in an outdoor aviary. 4Hens & 3 cocks. All hens are interested in breeding boxes including "Mary", grey spangle hen who is being quite disruptive and just wants all of the boxes for herself. Today I completed my first breading cage and plan to put the longest standing pair into it tomorrow. This pair will be Zilla, a cinnamon Cock and Bell a nice cobalt blue hen , these two have been dirty dancing for quite some time now. I think Mary will have to come out of the aviary and spend some time living with people. This will leave 2 pairs in the aviary Snuggles Yellow spangle? cock and Tink a pale yellow hen, and Jaws Yellow spangle? cock and Bell, a Blue pied hen. This is my first serious attempt to let my birds breed so here goes.

Hi, we had a dad budgie escape from a breeding cage 3 days ago(30 aug). Mum is sitting on 6 eggs due to hatch early September and rarely leaves box. I am worried that she will not be able to raise the 6 babies by herself and hand feeding is not an option. This is her second clutch - first clutch of 2.infertile and 3 dead babies in eggs and she started laying the second clutch ( all appear fertile this time) before I had removed the first so she has been sitting contiuously on eggs for over 40 days. My options are:- 1) do nothing and hope she can manage by herself. 2) introduce another male in the hope that he will court her over the next few days and then assist with baby feeding once babies have hatched. Threat - he may hurt them? 3) Let another current dad assist her. She is in a double breeding cage. I could remove the centre partition and hope that the other brilliant dad will look after both clutches. The other clutch has 1 egg left and 6 babies and is the second clutch for that pair. The father is a brilliant dad who feeds and sits on eggs and babies. 4) transfer all or some of the eggs to the other pair. I was considering transferring one or two eggs to the other clutch while there is still an egg left in the aecond clutch. This could preserve at least some of the babies from our lost dad and reduce the load on the single mum. I guess there is a chance that the other mum could reject the eggs - even smash them.. If I was to transfer all the eggs over time, i worry that a possible clutch of 13 may be too much for my brilliant parents. Any experience or advice would be highly appreciated. Thanks

Hi, I am a new breeder. I am cabinet breeding and have four pairs set up. All with everything they need, cuttlebone, mineral blocks, calcium blocks, veggies everyday, constant supply of food etc... My first clutch was laid and on the due date the first baby hatched (another one due today). After two days though this baby died. I'm unsure why, I know these things happen, nature and all but I really want to prevent any future "preventable" deaths. I found the baby this morning, it had a completely empty crop :/ The parents are first timers, but both are over a year old. I have hand rearing stuff in case, but I was hoping the parents would do a good job, any advice? So far my breeding set up looks great and it is all from the research I had done prior, I spent hours going over every topic of this forum and the FAQs as well, but maybe there is some information I am missing? Thank you

I have an aviary with lots of breeding boxes. One of my females has found a mate and started laying eggs. Today she was due to lay her third. I checked the nest box but only saw one - then I noticed that there were two on the floor of the aviary. One cracked and broken from the drop and the other in tact which I put back in the box. Why are the eggs being thrown out of the box? I noticed that there is another female in the aviary who has been showing a lot of interest in the same next box. She hasnt got a mate but she does go in and out of the next box when the laying hen is not in there. Could she be throwing the eggs out? I have now separated the laying hen and her mate into a breeding cage. She seems content in the nest box and hasnt left the eggs since I brought her in. Does anyone have any advice or tips for me please?

This may seem like a silly question, but it has been doing my head in and I'd appreciate some advise and thoughts please. I have a large aviary that I have 4 budgies in. They have had one lot of bubs without any incidents. I have some more budgies in a few large cages, but they are just enjoying life and not breeding. I do not want to colony breed as I don't wish to invite trouble with hens killing and fighting. I have a bit of trouble getting my head around keeping pairs in flight/breeding cages as I like all my birds like them to have heaps of room but I can't fit 30 aviaries on my property with only 2 birds in each lol. Nor do I want my aviay going to waste because all pairs are breeding in flight cages/breeding boxes. I guess my question is, do breeders who are breeding in the flight/breeding cages for two sittings then return them back to the aviary for a rest. Once breeding season starts do I catch them all and return them to the breeding cages. Does this stress them out with all the shifting about? What do other breeders do? Do you leave them in the flight cages all the time but take off nesting boxes after 2 rounds. Do I sell the aviary and have them permately in the flight cages/ breeding cages. Any help and tips would be greatly apreciated.

My female budgie, Laila, laid her first ever egg on 25 May and went on to lay 7 eggs. Two of them were infertile and 5 hatched. The last of the 5 came out of the nest box abour 4 days ago and so we took off the nest box. Today Laila laid an egg in the cage. We attached the nest box back and placed the egg in there, which Laila burried in the wood shavings. We placed it on top again and she burried it again. Is it normal for a budgie to lay eggs so soon? I really do not want to have any more budgies in my house (already there are 7 now), but I could give them away if they do hatch. Laila is a small bird and doesn't fly much - she can only fly downwards, but not upwards. She is a very active budgie and keeps herself occupied with the toys, but I am worried what impact it would have on her health to be having more babies within such a short time. Would she go on repeating this egg laying process all the time? How can this be stopped? Is it okay if we don't attach the nest box, in which case I guess she won't incubate the eggs and they won't hatch? Thanks for your suggestions and advice.