Flip

Hi Bazza, Robyn has given you some great advice. I ensure that my budgies have both a piece of cuttlefish and also an iodine/calcium bell (from pet stores) available at all times. My budgies love grated beetroot, broccoli, chopped snow peas and spinach. If you have a gum tree and/or bottlebrush tree in your garden, then you can give small branches from these. Budgies love to strip the bark from the branches and chew on the leaves. Have fun with your new budgie.

Hi BUDGIE LOV3R, I give my budgies and cockatiels eucalyptus and bottle brush branches. They love these and spend a lot of time stripping the bark off and nibbling on the leaves. They relish chewing on small gumnuts attached to the branches as well. I haven’t given them the flowers of these plants, or tried any other Australian native plants at this stage. So not sure about grevilleas.

I'm also going for a hen. Pretty yellow and green pied. I can't pinpoint her age from the photos, especially as pied chicks don't necessarily have bars on their foreheads. Her cere will become tan/brown as she matures. Does she have an iris ring?

I agree with BUDGIE LOV3R. This chick looks to be a male.

The colour of those feathers is unusual. It would help if you could post some more photos to provide a better view. Feather pigmentation will often change after the first moult.

The colour is mauve opaline, and I think cinnamon. Very pretty colouring. From the photos I think that this chick is a female, and under 3 months. The lack of tail and flight feathers is certainly odd. The chick has either received a very severe wing clipping - though that doesn't explain the loss of tail feathers or possibly has French moult. More photos would be good.

Hi Karyn. Melbourne has just had 4 consecutive days of 40 plus temperatures which is pretty extreme for here .I have 3 outside aviaries - holding Aussie/pet budgies, English budgies and cockatiels respectively. All 3 aviaries have plenty of shade. In the heat I disturb my birds as little as possilble. When they are disturbed they tend to fly and become hotter. All feeding, etc is carried out early before the temperature rises. I provide extra water which the can use if they want. I topped the water up during the day - not because they had used it all, but just to provide some fresh cool water. My English budgies spent the hottest part of each day on the sand covered floor of the aviary - looked quite funny. My Aussie budgies and cockatiels stayed on the perches. They did hold their wings out from their bodies and the budgies did pant. As Budgie_Mad said, Australian budgies are designed to withstand temperature extremes. Bear in mind that the larger English budgies are not. All my birds made it through the heat okay. I did have to move all my breeding cages inside into my air conditioned family room however, and then watched TV with the subtitles on for the duration of their stay indoors.

Transferring eggs should be fine. I do it frequently. Make sure you wash your hands first and try not to shake/jiggle them as you move them. Don't overload the foster hen with too many eggs however. Alternately, you can actually remove the other hens eggs and have her incubate just the foster eggs. Show budgie breeders will do this so as not to put too much strain on their birds, to maximise the likelihood of chicks from top pairings and/or where pairs are unreliable incubators/parents. If your hen (the one you like) has already produced 2 full rounds of chicks I wouldn't allow her to incubate and hatch any eggs herself. It puts too much strain on a bird. I rest my budgies for 6 months minimum after 2 clutches.

I'm so sorry Jaffa. You did the absolute best you could. It's frightening how aggressive budgies can get. If you do decide to breed this hen again next season, try and put down at least one other pair at the same time. This gives you a few more options should you need to move eggs or chicks.

I agree with Finnie. That sound like an excellent compromise. You are going to end up with a wonderfully tame chick with all that handling. Budgies can be so varied in their parenting. I have one cock at present who attacks his chicks within several days of them leaving the nest box (I have to be vigilant) and other pairs who all play happy families indefinitely.

Hi Budgie_Mad. Do you have another pair sitting on eggs that you could move some of the eggs to? That way you may be able to save some. I move eggs when I need to - usually when a hen starts laying her second round but still has some chicks in the nest. My record keeping isn't all that it could be so later on I get a big surprise when I see a chick in a nest and can't work out how the parents produced that colour chick- then I realise, oh yeah, that chick has hatched from the foster egg of another pair.

Hi Jaffa, Just wondering how your chick is going? Did you keep her in the brooder?

Just thought I'd share this little story with you all. I currently have 9 breeding cages on my back porch, protected from the weather but not from potential budgie escapes. On Sunday I was cleaning all the cages in a hurry - never a good idea to hurry. I was halfway through, and removing the feed dishes from a cage which held 4 chicks who were now out of the nest and spending their last week with Mum and Dad. To my horror there was a flurry and rustle of feathers and a green streak shot past me and into the sky. Chick number 3, a light green opaline male, was gone! I was furious with myself for this careless mistake. There was no sign of the chick again that day. The following morning there was still no sign of the little escapee. I could only hope that he had been found by someone, and had not met an unpleasant end. I commenced my normal morning cleaning/feeding routine and had just reached the cage of the escaped chick. I was bending down when there was a 'swish' by my ear. Imagine m surprise when I looked up to see the little guy clinging to the bars of his cage. I plucked him off the bars, and popped him back in his cage.I must say I've never seen a bird so happy to get into a cage again (and get a feed from Dad). I guess he must have been perched somewhere in one of our trees overnight and was waiting to make his return. Either that or he's a homing budgie. What a relief! My children have nowchristened him 'Lucky', because that's what he is.

Hi Jaffa. I haven't tried hand rearing a chick before - I don't have the time and am probably too lazy I think. But you should be able to find all the info you need on the forum re hand rearing - so go searching. I find that if I handle the chicks from an early age in the nest box ad cage that they tame up nicely anyway without too much effort on my part. By the way, your chick sounds like he has lots of character. Good luck.

How old are the first 2 chicks in relation to the youngest? I haven't had this situation before, and I am assuming you have no other pairs you could foster the chick to. I would leave it with its parents and provide supplementary feeds so that it grows and becomes strong enough to call for the parents attention. I have provided supplementary feeds to chicks as young as 1 day old where Mum has been an unreliable feeder (using a small syringe) until Mum gets the hang of it and/or the chick becomes strong enough to demand food.. You still run the risk of it being trampled in the nest, but usually the youngest chick is at the centre of the chick huddle anyway, so there can always be a risk of that happening in any nest. If you do remove the chick you must be able to keep it warm and be prepared to provide frequent feeds.

Welcome. I love the last photo.

How many eggs has your hen laid now? Hens seem to be programmed regarding the number of eggs laid. I have hens that consistently lay the same number of eggs every time, usually 5 or 6. I have one hen who lays 10 eggs! All of them were fertile too. I agree with Rachel. Don't move the eggs as this may prompt the hen to keep on laying. Keep a close eye on things, provide plenty of calcium, and be ready to play foster parent should the need arise. The chances are that all the eggs either won't be fertile or won't hatch anyway.

Cute little budgie. I think it's a male. He'll keep the pink cere because he is a recessive pied.

Hi. I use cuttlefish that I collect on the beach for all my birds. I don't wash them but I do sunbleach them.

Hi. Yep, looks to be a female to me as well.

Hi. I assume you have your new budgies in quarantine? Give them a few days to settle down to their new environment, routine and diet. But do watch out for any signs of illness. I keep both pet and show budgies. Like Robyn I have found that the show budgies are generally less active and slower than the pet type. My pet budgies are loud, active, speedy and fantastic acrobats. The show budgies are less acrobatic and agile, and are not as adept in flying (generally speaking) as their smaller counterparts. Just as noisy though. As for how much they eat.....I can honestly say I haven't paid too much attention. I have birds of both types who like to spend their days in the seed bowl (the gluttons of the budgie world), and others who don't. The one thing have noticed is that the show budgies are not always as quick in working out where the food is. I use mason feeders in my holding cages, and I had one new show pair who wouldn't/couldn't feed from this type of feeder. I gave them a bowl of seed on the floor of the cage and they were fine with this. Perhaps try different feeders for your new birds.

I agree with rachelm. Pop the chicks in with experienced mum. She should be able to manage 6 chicks without any difficulty. Also,whenever I foster chicks out to other nests I keep a closer watch on things for the first day just to make sure all is well.

Thanks Paulie. I'll look into that. The audible raspy breathing was certainly noticeable with this hen.

Having the nest boxes on a shelf shouldn't be a problem. Is the shelf is deep and wide enough to give the birds plenty of space to perch either in front of or next to the boxes. If so, should be fine, providing the shelf and boxes are high enough. You will need to be patient and wait until your aviary pair are in breeding condition. They will do better if they can see and/or hear your other budgies.

I agree with rachelm. This chook looks to be opaline.