I have my pair set up, and when I switch up their cage yesterday and put the nest box high up and outside the cage instead of inside, the female went in the nest box a lot more. But the thing Im worried about is she may be to aggressive towards the male. For example: when the male does his mating rituals, such as flying from perch to perch chirping, his head feathers are up, he bobs his head to feed the female, and the female takes the food, and all seems good, but then sometimes the female will strike at the male forcing him to scoot away or fly away. This makes me think that they wont ever mate. Or other times my male will do all that, and then fly away, or something. So I think I may have 2 problems here, my female is too aggressive, and my might not be aggressive enough.

 

I dont know if they are mating when Im not around, like this morning I saw the male doing his rituals, and I just closed the door and let them be, maybe they mated, but I dont know. Do you think I should switch out the female?

Female Budgies are by nature quite aggressive, even to their mate, just keep an eye on them & if things seem to be getting out of hand, like if she is pursuing him around the cage & really trying to bite him, it might be better to remove the male. But this is reasonably rare; mostly they just have their spats & get on with life.

Yeah I know what you mean. Im not worried at all that she will hurt the male, but if she is a compatible breeding partner, if she is striking at the male when he is trying to mate with her.

She is just telling him " Not right now" it seems. It will change.

Alright that sounds good. And sorry for all my questions about this topic lately. I just want to make sure everythings okay.

Alright that sounds good. And sorry for all my questions about this topic lately. I just want to make sure everythings okay.

Asking questions is a good thing :yellowhead:

ugh here we go again, another problem seems to have come up. Around the females right notril the brown crusty cere seems to be going away, but only on that side so far. If that is the case, then I will have to take her out and put in another female.

NOOOO!!!okay so the best and worst thing just happend, I came home about 2 hours ago, and I hadnt checked on the pair till maybe 10 minutes ago. This is what I saw.

 

First both the male and female went inside the nest box, and thought it was a little strange, because Ive never seen both stay in there at the same time unless the male is in, and hops right out when the female comes. But they were in there for maybe about 1 minute.I have heard that budgies sometimes will mate in the nest box, any truth to this? But the male came out, and after awhile so did the female. So they did that one more time, and after the second time the female put herself in the mating position. I got pretty excited that I was seeing her do this for the first time, then the male gets on her back, and is about to start mating, and of course he falls off the front of her . After he flew back up to where the female was she struck at him like she normally does. Haha I felt so close, and now I feel so far haha. What Im hoping they were doing this before I saw them, and were successful

 

Im pretty sure the perches I have in there are fine, they are a little skinnier than the others I have seen, but no big deal.

Edited December 25, 200717 yr by hops523

Sounds like its going okay so far. BUT skinny perches arent good for mating. You need thicker ones, not thinner for good grip for the hen who has to support both their weight while they are mating.

What about mating in the nest box? They were both in there for awhile, and thats never happend. And right after they came out and tried to mate on the perch. I have heard that budgies will sometimes mate in the nest box. Is it pretty likely thats what they were doing?

 

If so Im hoping for some eggs in 5-7 days, maybe

Edited December 25, 200717 yr by hops523

What about mating in the nest box? They were both in there for awhile, and thats never happend. And right after they came out and tried to mate on the perch. I have heard that budgies will sometimes mate in the nest box. Is it pretty likely thats what they were doing?

 

If so Im hoping for some eggs in 5-7 days, maybe

Its probably more likely they were trying to prepare the nestbox together than mate inside the nestbox. Some budgies do mate in a nestbox, but in all my hundreds of birds I have never known of it at my place. If there perches arent satifactory I guess they would consider it as the only option. If so and eggs are laid and mating happens in the nest box, the eggs could become addled or broken. But I doubt that is what is happening here.

okay makes sense, thank you. I will let you guys know what happens.

 

Oh and do you think it would be okay for me to still change the perches?Or would they get too disturbed?

Edited December 26, 200717 yr by hops523

okay makes sense, thank you. I will let you guys know what happens.

 

Oh and do you think it would be okay for me to still change the perches?Or would they get too disturbed?

If your perches are too thin I would change them.

Alright Im going to the store tomorrow with a list,I'll add perches to that list.Do you think that the "natural wood" perches would be okay? On my list I have:extra cuttle bones, more millet, some oat/groat mix, grit(debating if I should put in cage or not), some of that "condition" seed. I have everything else I need, but can anyone think of some extra things to get.

Alright Im going to the store tomorrow with a list,I'll add perches to that list.Do you think that the "natural wood" perches would be okay? On my list I have:extra cuttle bones, more millet, some oat/groat mix, grit(debating if I should put in cage or not), some of that "condition" seed. I have everything else I need, but can anyone think of some extra things to get.

Buy some thicker dowel in alength from a hardware store and cut the lengths you need. Do you have calcivet ( calcium in liquid form ) .....its better than cuttlebone.

No I dont. I wish I did though. I cant find it anywhere around here. I'm going to call one of the local bird shops to see if they have it, but I doubt it.

No I dont. I wish I did though. I cant find it anywhere around here. I'm going to call one of the local bird shops to see if they have it, but I doubt it.

CALCIVET is most likely an Australian brand name. Ask for liquid calcium supplent for birds. Calcium supplement not vitamins.

alright sounds good. I will do that. Oh, but about the perches, would it be okay to put the natural wood ones in the breeding cage? Like this one:

http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?...ly&keepsr=1

ugh okay so heres the deal, I got two 12" manzanita perches, and they dont run all the way across the cage. I will take a picture of it in a second. But the other ones I had were 17"-18". Do you think it will be okay? Heres a link of the perch http://www.birdguys.com/manzanita-bird-perch-12in.html

 

Also they arent used to these type of perches, do you think this will effect their breeding? Both of the just were on the sides of the cages, because they wouldnt stand of the new perches. The female is standing on one of them now, but the male is still on the side of the cage.

Edited December 27, 200717 yr by hops523

I think you might be overthinking the perch issue. You need the perches the new way we helped you set them up but if you need thicker perches just buy some thinker dowel ( round wood ) from a hardware store and cut to suit. The new perches can wait until they have finished breeding.

Relax... Relax... Relax... If it's going to happen it will happen. They may even be able to pick up on your nerves. The picture you posted awhile back looked good. Just leave them to it and see what happens. Keep up their fresh greens etc... and give them some space. Being first timers, they may just need time I know how you feel though, I was like that when I first started... you just want it to happen... the mating, the eggs, the babies etc... you'll be exhausted when it's over (Laughing out loud). maesie xxx

Kaz: wow I feel so dumb right now haha. In your post before this last one you had said that, and I read right over it haha. But what I did was I fould some long perches from another cage I had, and I put them mto fit the breeding cage. They are nice and wide.

 

But Im really debating if I should switch out the female. It looks as though she is coiming out of condition, and nothing has really been going on with her and the male. I want to wait to see if anythings happening, but if shes coming out of breeding condition, theres nothing I can do, except switch mates, or take out the nestbox. I still want to breed, so switching mates seems like my only other option.

alot of my hens even whilst breeding change cere colour... they can still breed... cere colour is just an indicator not a strict rule to go by.... i think they seem like they'll work well. Just gotta wait out the hard yards of the bonding until you reap the benefits from the productions dont give up hope yet!

well the thing is they should already have a bond, theyve been together since they were about 2 weeks old. They are both now 20 months old.Im trying to wait it out, but she seems too aggressive, she strikes at the male after he feeds her and then gets too close. I have a long post to post up about what has happend and everything, but I dont think I should because I already have a lot in the section.

 

Oh wow this is ridiculous. okay so things have kind of changed, its weird how they are sometimes. The female let the male mount her again, since the perches were wider he had a good chance of getting it right this time. Well he tried to get his positioning, and actually was on her back for awhile, but never achieved the correct position. He fell off and the female was tolerant and let him fly back up, and try and mount her again, but it didnt happen. And after he got of the last time, the female struck at him again.

 

Even though they didnt achieve this position, is there anyway she could still lay fertile eggs?

Edited December 28, 200717 yr by hops523

well the thing is they should already have a bond, theyve been together since they were about 2 weeks old. They are both now 20 months old.Im trying to wait it out, but she seems too aggressive, she strikes at the male after he feeds her and then gets too close. I have a long post to post up about what has happend and everything, but I dont think I should because I already have a lot in the section.

 

Oh wow this is ridiculous. okay so things have kind of changed, its weird how they are sometimes. The female let the male mount her again, since the perches were wider he had a good chance of getting it right this time. Well he tried to get his positioning, and actually was on her back for awhile, but never achieved the correct position. He fell off and the female was tolerant and let him fly back up, and try and mount her again, but it didnt happen. And after he got of the last time, the female struck at him again.

 

Even though they didnt achieve this position, is there anyway she could still lay fertile eggs?

 

It may happen on one of those times you arent watching them :bluebudgie: