Hello. I've owned budgies as pets for 10 years, but this year I have decided to breed them. I have never bred budgies before so I need a bit of help. So far what has happened:

Well spring has just started here in New Zealand. I have two budgies a yellow hen :oliveb: and a blue cock . I've been reading some books lately and they say to put the nest box in the cage when the budgies are in breeding condition, when their ceres are certain colours. Both birds are old enough to breed. My hen has a brown cere that is all wrinkly, but my male has a purple cere which is blue at the top. I have never seen his cere change colour before and all the books and things say that the cere has to be bright blue when he is in breeding condition. They both play together and he feeds her.

Any way, I made a nest box and lined it with tissue and a bit of shredded paper, then I hung it up in the cage. They have never seen a nest box before and seem to be scared of it. So now I have put their seed bell next to it so they'll go near it.

Am I doing everything right? Could you give me some tips?

Thank you

i have learnt that you cant make them go into it if they dont want to (Laughing out loud), i put my boxes up about a month before they used them, after a couple of weeks they did start to go in and look around etc though, so good luck!

Love Dawn

How old are your birds? I wouldn't breed them if they are over 2 years old for their first clutches and shouldn't be bred till they are about a year old. What did you make the nestbox out of? How big is the entry hole? Your pet shop should have parakeet breeding boxes. Take out the paper and tissue and replace it with pine shavings. Some hens don't like a lot, or any at all and if this is the case she will throw it out. The females cere has to be a reddish brown and the males cere has to be blue or purple. The female ceres change to white, but the males stay blue. When I first added mine it took a few weeks for them to go in it, I also placed millet inside the box so when they did go in they had a treat for going in. It was then several months before I had my first clutch of eggs. But when I added the boxes the second time they were in the boxes within days and eggs soon followed.

Good luck

 

You sound like your doing the right stuff (reading up on it and checking the health of your birds first)

 

As Nasal tufts said remove the tissue and add the shaving, this make it more nature to the bird and give something for the hen to kick out and 'fix' her nest if she doesn't want it. Your male sounds fine and the fact that they are bonded so much to the point of the male feeding her thing sound good. It took my hen around 2 weeks to enter the nest.

 

Make sure you give them freah food like carrots or lettuce. Adding some boiled eggs mashed up fine is really heatlhy for them. Also at pet shops you can get condition food which will help keep them in top form. Make sure they have an iodine block (bell) and a cuttle fish (they will chew throught that every quickly when laying ing raising)

 

errm that's all i can think of right now. Keep asking questions.

Nerwen and naseltufs are right. I try shredded newspaper and it was out in a flash.