Hi all ..... i have joined your site as i need some help. We have 2 pet budgies (sparky and snowy)which we have had in a cage for about 2 years now and have recently moved them to an aviary and they have now started to breed ...... yesterday our first egg hatched and while we are very excited i just want to make sure i do all the right things. I have hand raised 3 seperate lots of 4 babies each time of cockatiel babies and had success with all of them. I found hand rasiing cockatiels gives u a very tame and friendly bird. What i was wondering is...... is it the same for budgies ..... should i hand raise or let the parents do it. I have been online studying this but find conflicting information. some say hand raise some say dont. Please help me as i want to make sure i do whatever is best. I do have the time to dedicate to hand raising but is it safe with budgies.

Rose

Hello and welcome :hap:

 

I have beautiful smoochy babies who love to be petted and adored. They were parent raised but I removed them from the aviary as soon as they fledged and let the parents finish raising them inside. that way i could handle them lots and they would get used to humans.

 

I have not hand reared before, so i cant give you an opinion on that, but i have heard of a lot of love their hand reared budgies

 

I think its one of those topics where its more about personal choice, rather than facts :hap:

I have too, never handraised budgies, but I'm pretty sure you'd be best to let the parents do it, and just handle them a lot. You will still get very tame budgies, but they will get all the benefits from being parent raised!!!

Hi Rose and welcome to the forum. I hope you don't receive to much conflicting advice here.

Hi all ..... i have joined your site as i need some help. We have 2 pet budgies (sparky and snowy)which we have had in a cage for about 2 years now and have recently moved them to an aviary and they have now started to breed ...... yesterday our first egg hatched and while we are very excited i just want to make sure i do all the right things. I have hand raised 3 seperate lots of 4 babies each time of cockatiel babies and had success with all of them. I found hand rasiing cockatiels gives u a very tame and friendly bird. What i was wondering is...... is it the same for budgies ..... should i hand raise or let the parents do it. I have been online studying this but find conflicting information. some say hand raise some say dont. Please help me as i want to make sure i do whatever is best. I do have the time to dedicate to hand raising but is it safe with budgies.

Rose

Hi Rose

I have handraised budgies completely on my own from when they are about 2 weeks old and let me tell you it is a terrible lot of work, yes the budgies are very tame but at the same time I get better results from leaving them with their parents but handling them daily for about 15 mins each day and putting them back in the nest. They receive the goodness from their parents feeding them, the right amount of warmth etc, you dont have the hassel of time, mess, costs etc of feeding them and they are just as tame! I am taming 5 babies right now from the nest.

I agree, I have hand reared also and prefer to leave them with the parents and tame them. Although a hand raised one will be tamer, quicker it doesn't get the "healthy" appeal of the parent reared bird, no matter what you feed them!

A bird who's handeled can become just as tame as a handreared one, the key is time

I think the thing with budgies is that they aren't really the brains of the parrot world Larger parrots from tiels upwards really need that handrearing time as otherwise they can be too smart for their own good, but I find the budgies are just as tame with lots of handling and mum and dad looking after them I keep everything from budgies and tiels up to galahs and now we have also added a Corella and the budgies are much less work

Edited May 22, 200817 yr by melbournebudgies

thanks everyone for your help and from all your experiences i think i will let mum and dad raise them and feed them ..... my concern about hand raising was trying to keep them warm in winter .... but like you say mum keeps them at a perfect temperature.

 

I was wondering if someone could give me some time frames to handle them ..... baby 1 hatched 21st may and baby 2 yesterday but i havent checked today to see if we have a baby 3. Do they mind when i check their breeding box ? i dont touch the babies just look to see how many we have .... but it would be good to know when we can start to handle the babies and how long we shold keep them out for each time .... it sounds like 20 minutes is the time ? any advice would be wonderful.

 

Im confident with cockatiels but bit wary of budgies being the first lot of babies we have had.

 

Thanks again everyone ..... rose :book:

 

 

 

 

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Edited May 22, 200817 yr by birdluv

Hi, welcome to the forums

You can handle the bubs a little from day 1 to check for development signs of illness. They are rubbery little things and are quite robust

 

Handle them more when they start to get feathers. Don't take them away from the parents when you do it until they leave the nest (4-5 weeks)

 

Handle them the most once they have fledged and onwards - this is the age where they will quickly turn wild if left alone.

Edited May 22, 200817 yr by **Liv**

hi everyone ..... just thought i would update everyone and let you know we have 3 babies now and the babies seem to be well looked after and well fed ....... i have decided to let mum and dad raise them but i will handle them as suggested. I hope i got it right - i can handle them briefly while i stay close to mum and dad and when they are about 4 weeks i can handle them for 15 - 20 minutes a day ....... after that i have no idea ...... I have my 14 year old son who is very keen on birds and more than willing to help ......

 

Maybe someone could help with a time frame for the things i need to do to make sure they are friendly little budgies.

 

Look forward to some advice on the timing of things.

 

Rose

I don't normally handle babies until they are 5 days old and ready to have their showrings put on, but sometimes I may handle a younger chick if it needs cleaning of debris or has accidentally been kicked out of the nest or something like that. Most economical way to tame them as a group is to pick the whole lot up for a couple of minutes while they are young in the nest so they get used to being held in your hands. When they get to be a palmful on their own, handle them individually for 10 mins a few times a day. (Or until they poo on you a second time...hehe!)

 

I handle my birds quite a lot more than that, but when they are still little pink babies with no feathers, I don't take them out of the box on their own for very long. Sometimes if I am in a hurry, I leave them in the box and just pat them gently for half a minute morning and evening each day. Then concentrate on them for longer when they fledge. This works well for most of them. I only handraise if I loose the parents for one reason or another, or the parents aren't feeding them properly. Often I have hens with extra-large clutches of 8 or more eggs, and if I am unable to foster them to other hens, I will supplement the feeding of their parents, but don't take them away (unless the parents get savage towards their chicks).

 

Once they are fledged around 4 weeks of age and onwards they need more training time because they turn into terrible toddlers and fly off everywhere. This training needs to be maintained regularly. Daily if possible.

 

I think there are biological nutritional advantages to allowing a natural upbringing with babies eating crop milk, rather than formula. But formula works very well, in the event where a natural upbringing can not be achieved or needs supplementation.

 

I find that birds with good temperament will breed more birds of good temperament. (This is generally speaking as there are notable exceptions on occasions.)