Hi there, I'm going to be getting two hens tomorrow around about 3 months old. Later I will put them in with my two males which are 1.5 years old. I do not want the hens to breed till they're over a year old so about end of this year. Will the older males pressure the hens to breed? Or will they act like adults and look after the younger budgie hens? I won't be encouraging any breeding behaviour. Oh and my males have never bred before. I remember when I had zebbies and canaries it got quite messy with the whole breeding thing.. you couldn't stop the behaviour.

Some males think any female put in a smaller place like a cage ...with them are there for pestering for budgie sex. You will have to watch. If that pressure is put on them you may have to house them seperately.....as the stress from that may make them sick.

I'll try to give them as much space as possible. My budgies are very tame and are outside the cage for an average of 5 hours throughout the day so hopefully that will stop any dodgy behaviour going on...

 

Another thing, I have read that when breeding you should have a pair per cage. Would it be out of the question to breed two pairs in one cage if I had two nest boxes in there? I guess the pairs might disturb one another, just double checking on this one.

 

Lastly, what are budgies like to breed? I've had canaries and finches before and they were all really fickle and would disturb/annoy others at every chance they got.

I'll try to give them as much space as possible. My budgies are very tame and are outside the cage for an average of 5 hours throughout the day so hopefully that will stop any dodgy behaviour going on...

 

Another thing, I have read that when breeding you should have a pair per cage. Would it be out of the question to breed two pairs in one cage if I had two nest boxes in there? I guess the pairs might disturb one another, just double checking on this one.

 

Lastly, what are budgies like to breed? I've had canaries and finches before and they were all really fickle and would disturb/annoy others at every chance they got.

 

Best one pair to a cage for breeding or you risk fights, stress, broken eggs and damaged or killed chicks. Two boxes for two pairs is half as many nestboxes as you need to have in colony breeding. There must be choices. Best one pair to a cage in all ways.