budgiegalah

Wow, i had not come back to check replies for some time. Genericblue: I LOVE my budgies and love all animals. I rescue animals and give them loving homes. These are all rescue birds. I did not pick and choose them based on sex or colour. I never said i could not be 'bothered' with anything. I said I would leave the raising of young to the birds as I dont believe in hand raising. My birds have a home, I don't need to find them one. For those who are interested... she never laid an egg. The nesting behaviour has virtually stopped despite the branches that I put in each day - they tear the leaves off but thats about it. I also have not witnessed any mating for several weeks so fingers crossed they have given up (for now).

How sad Do breeders that actually care about the birds ever sell to pet shops anyway? Considering the conditions in pet shops and the impulse sales that go on, i would think only those in it for the quick cash would give their birds to a pet shop. Not a fan of pet shops at all myself and stay right away for fear of seeing horrible sights within.

jaznjj do you have a photo of a 'flight'? not sure what that is - is it just a long cage? Where can i get calcivet from? Pet shop, farm produce store?

Ah okay, thanks. If i do let them breed I won't have anything to do with raising the nestlings although i imagine having access to check on their progress is ideal.

Hi Kaz, thanks for your reply. I will not solitary confine her. I just can't do that to a social animal. I realise its the only way to stop the behaviour though with the male. I knew the problems I would get into when I got a female but I had to save her from a bad situation (alone in a tiny cage in a public place). I am thinking of getting them this larger cage now, then they are 'starting again' so to speak. What do you mean by putting the nestbox externally?

I have an outdoor aviary that is not in use.. I could put them there oneday. But will 2 budgies turn into 100 budgies? I wouldn't want to sell them! I imagine the offspring would inbreed eventually if all kept in the same aviary? Couldn't have that happening. Then there is a whole new world to learn about as far as diet etc for the parents... hmm I just dont know!

Hi everyone, my first post here. Let me start off by saying Im not a bird breeder, and I've never bred birds in my life. I have budgies as I saved them from dire situations, but i generally dont support the breeding of pets (no offence or anything, i just think there seem to be too many needing homes already, although this may not be so much of an issue with budgies!?) With that out of the way, I do obviously love birds but am getting a little worried about one of my pairs. I have a 2 males in one cage together, and the other cage is a male and female. I put them together as the other 2 males are rather agressive towards this 3rd male, and also didnt want the female being alone. I have tried as hard as possible to discourage breeding behaviour by limiting daylight hours, providing no nest sites etc. But despite that i guess their instincts still kick in. I've only seen them mating once, that was around 3 weeks ago (I dont watch them 24/7 so they may have done it more times since). No eggs have been laid, but the past couple of weeks they've been ripping up the newspaper at the bottom of the cage as well as dragging the seeding grass that i give them to eat into the corner, where the ripped up paper is. They are obviously trying to make a nest. The cage isn't large at the moment, around 60cm wide, 35cm deep and high. I had planned on getting them a much larger cage soon, one of those mini aviaries on wheels from ebay. I am worried that the female will become egg bound, today she has been sitting on the bottom of the cage every now and then, and i went and looked and her vent was 'pulsating' - i have a feeling there is an egg there. I have never seen an egg bound bird but read there would be an obvious rounded vent area, Im not seeing that but perhaps Im just not familiar enough to tell. I am pretty rural and have no avian vets within 2.5 hours from here, i prefer not to have to take her unless i absolutely have to. She is still jumping from perch to perch and eating okay. Im aware i should give more calcium, is egg biscuit a good way to do that? Should i just mix that in with seed or give in a seperate bowl? These budgies are fussy eaters and the only non seed things they take are spinach, corn and some sprouts but they hardly touch the sprouts. Ive tried many types of vegetables but they avoid them all besides those ones. They do love any type of grass that i can find that has seeds in it. They go crazy for it and eat it very fast... however this pair now eat the seeds then drag the grass to a corner as nesting material. So my dilemma now is, do i just let them continue with their instinctive behaviour? There is no nestbox so i imagine an egg may not even survive in this cage. Now i am thinking i should put a nestbox in.. or do so in their new larger cage soon. I am just getting guilt feelings that Im making it difficult for them to express their natural behaviour! Any suggestions? Being inexperienced, would it be stupid of me to just let them do their thing? In the meantime, the boys in the cage next to them seem to want to get at her, one of them also rips paper up, and constantly hangs to the side of the cage near her cage and scrapes his feet back and forth on the ground! Any ideas would be appreciated, sorry about the long winded post!