Greetings everyone, I am seeking opinions on wether or not I should continue breeding. Benefits vs liabilities etc. To share my history:

 

Several years ago a friend and old boss of mine sent me home with several pairs of budgies that she had been given. She owns a bird store and really didn't have the time to breed and run the store. I took them home, created a lovely community breeding area in my back yard (lots of toys, nest boxes, foraging areas etc etc) and began breeding. As I learned more about breeding I changed my tactics a bit and moved my pairs into smaller aviaries with two pair per aviary, did monthly and quarterly environmental testing etc etc. It's been a truly amazing and fullfilling to be a bird mom like this and I love it. The draw back is that I am contacted by the store when folks have budgies they want to re-home. I have Quadrupled (or more) my initial flock with re-home birds. With this being said I am now in a quandary regarding the breeding aspect. It's so hard to see more budgies coming to me from folks who no longer have time for them. I feel that I am adding to the problem by creating more babies that will be passed from owner to owner.

 

I would love some opinions from folks on this topic so that I might make a truly informed decision regarding the continuance of breeding or transitioning into a non profit rescue. I would certainly not rehome my lovely flock, but I am seriously considering stepping away from breeding for the above reasons. Have any other breeders ever felt this way or had concerns like this?

 

Please help.

 

Best Regards,

Featherhead1351

Current Flock count 39

Hi Featherhead.

 

I think that both breeders AND rescuers are in a great position to help budgies in the grand scheme of things. You just have to figure out which direction is best for you to go in. I'll elaborate.

 

As a breeder, you are adding to the rescue problem if you merely breed, rehome the birds, and repeat. There are rescue birds who could've had the homes your birds took or the space in your aviary that your bred birds occupy.

 

On the other hand, as a breeder, you are in a very unique position to educate those who buy your babies. You are in a position to offer the public a healthy, disease tested budgie, one that is already tame (not handfed necessarily but tame) and one that will come with a care sheet. One that will make someone new to owning budgies (or even not so new) appreciate these birds for what they really are. Maybe their next budgie will be a rescue because their first one opened their eyes to how wonderful budgies are.

 

Another thing to consider is how picky you are with your breeding. Are you picking pairs purely based on colors or do you have health and longevity in mind? Budgies suffer from shorter lifespans and genetic defects/weaknesses so often due to careless breeding. Are you up for the challange of breeding longer-lived, healthier birds?

 

It's all up to you in the end. I just wanted to point out that there are ways to help budgies whether your breed or rescue. Breeding them properly is actually much harder than rescuing them. It really depends on how you feel though. It's a personal choice and you've got to do what will make you feel better about yourself at the end of the day.

It is a tough decision. Education is the most important piece of this to me. New bird parents are screened for intent and home environment, educated on feed and environmental concerns. Proof of appropriate housing is required and toy education is included.

 

Ensuring that there are healthy disease free birds is the other primary concern. I don't breed for color I breed for health. My breeders have chosen their mates from a colony environment and DNA mapping is done to ensure that they are not related.

 

Rescues that come in are seperated from the breeders during quarantine and vet checked after 90 days to ensure they are disease free. They are then introduced into a colony aviary for adjustment to their new lifestyles - seperate from existing breeders. Though I do work to re-home the hand tamed birds that come to me after an appropriate quarantine time and vet check. New parents for re-homes go thru the same education process as above including information on re-homed birds.

 

I agree that there are many advantages to both breeding and rescue. A friend of mine once said that she constantly struggeled with selling babies - take greys for example...they tend to be used up in a couple years and become neurotic pluckers then dumped back into breeding if they are not housed appropriately with good parents. So is it worth it to promote that vicious cycle and hope that by screening and educating your new parents you are increasing the pool of folks open to rescue and continuing the education?

 

The decision is really difficult. It would be easier if budgies were on the endangered list or if they were hard to come by. Unfortunately (or fortunately - depending on how you look at it) they are easily attainable and readily available everywhere.

 

I really appreciate your post! The more I hear the easier I hope it will be to come to the right decisions.

I think it's wonderful that you go through all that effort to ensure good lives and homes for the birds.

 

It really is a tough decision. There are certainly no shortage of budgies and that's why I encourage breeders to work on health and longevity rather than pretty mutations. Mutations are wonderful to look at and I don't see anything wrong with wanting the pretty colors if you put health and longevity as a top priority and looks as a secondary hope. But in the end, we'll only continue to lose birds to tumors and other weaknesses if people continue breeding carelessly.

 

It doesn't sound like you do this at all, though I would worry a bit about breeding birds whose backgrounds are not clear on such a semi-large scale.

 

I hope you figure out what works best for you. I guess another good way to think about it would be to look at why you breed now. What do you get out of it, what makes it worthwhile to you and beneficial to the birds? Then, look at what you could be doing if all your effort was put into rescue. The reward would definitely be great and the birds would certainly benefit. Are you thinking of doing this purely out of guilt though, or because your heart is into it?

I myself have cut down on the amount of breeding that I let my birds do because I have been accepting rehomed birds.

If you still like to have some breeding, allocate one cage that you'll let the breeding continue and keep your others for rehomed/rescued birds.

Whatever you choose to do ( I have both breeding and non-breeding birds ) .....I am under the impression that you weigh up all the pros and cons and think very seriously about the welfare of your birds with the utmost care.....well thats what I see here anyway.....and thats to be commended. I think any bird would be lucky to live with you.

Cheers karen

Edited January 2, 200718 yr by Bubbles

Thank you for the kind words! They are all my kids

 

Good questions regarding pros and cons and why I started breeding in the first place. I have done some serious thinking and am still weighing everything out. I made a list of pros and a list of cons and wrote down all the reasons why I started and why I have stayed in the arena. It's really a tough call. For now all my breeders are in their winter aviaries taking a break from breeding and hanging out in the breeder colony. I think thats good for them to get a break and be non breeding social birds during the off seasons.

 

My heart is pulling me into a rescue path more than a breeder path or perhaps just a limited breeder path of 1 clutch per year from current breeders.

 

I really appreciate all of your input. I have been mulling this around for some time now - almost a year actually - and to talk to folks who are this close to the breeder venue has been very very helpful. This is an awesome community and I am very pleased to be part of it :sad:

 

Featherhead