What are the signs of breeding readiness? Whats the youngest age for breeding recommended? I heard 10 months for males and a year for females. I had posted a long intro,but I accidentally deleted the whole thing! I'm new here,by the way. I may post a few pictures of my budgies some time. I have a male(age 9 months) a female(age about 18 months) and a pet that I don't breed,she's a female(age 9 months or so..I don't exactly know since I got her from a pet store..before I got the others..) The male and older female need names. If you could,post suggestions. The male is: White with blue patches. He's very sweet to the female and adorable. He's curious,naturally, and always likes to boast by puffing out when the two females 'fight' through the cage bars. The older female is: yellow with olive green on her stomach. She has some odd 'upside down' or something bars on her wings. I don't know what that's called. She's got a scowl on her face,from her feathers,and she's persistent and protective of her territory. She loves the male. The younger female is: Mixed pastel colors,named Whisper. A nonstop bundle of bratty cuteness and curiosity. Very sweet sometimes,though she's a true female and has contant bratty outbursts of nibbling my fingernail(she refuses to bite my finger,just my nail for some reason). I love them all,but need some advice on breeding my pair. Thanks! :nest:

The minimum breeding age is 1 year. By waiting untill your birds are at least a year old, you will have a better chance for success because the birds energy will go into breeding rather than into maturing and breeding at the same time.

 

Signs of being ready to breed include: ripping-up newspaper, birds mutually feeding each other, males trying to click their beaks to the females, or tapping their beaks on the perches. The male's cere--the band above the beak--will be a bright blue. The female's cere will be a dark brown. These colors are hard to distinguish in some color mutations. The birds will be extremely active and the female will call to her mate.

Edited January 4, 200619 yr by Budgie-Boy

There's so many signs of breeding going to take place, some of the main ones are mentioned above. Probably the most obvious that you'll notice is mutual feeding and preening...the males run up and down the perch bopping his head and his pupils will go big and small(dialate) as he bopps his head and tries to tap his beak on the females beak or the perch (anything that is hard enough for it to make a decent noise)

I would definately wait until you personally are sure of their ages and then let them breed if you want to. :nest:

oh and I nearly forgot....Hi, Welcome!! :(Laughing out loud):

Hi.. Welcome. I hope you'll post some pictures of your birds and some more about them. I'm not a breeder so can't really help you there. For names, how about Patches for the male? Darcy for the female.. maybe.

It not really mutual feeding per say since only the male will feed the hen. If the hen is feeding the male it means he his sick and need to see a vet.

 

As all say above you need to wait for the male to become one, so another three months where they can bond strongly and you can gather as much as you can :nest:

 

By the sounds of things you have two pied, by the placement you spoke of your older hen is a recessive pied and spangle, the upside down bit on the wings. In my sig picture the one on the left is a spangle.

 

To check if your male is a recessive or dominant type have a look at the eye if it had the white ring called the iris ring all the time (not just when excitingly bonding with his mate) and his cere is blue then he is dominant. If his cere is still pinkish and there is no sign of ring he would be recessive and his markings will be in the same sort of area as the hens.

 

Whisper sounds so cute Welcome tot he place I hope we can help with what you are after and more.

 

Names are hard with out seeing them but here goes - (hen)queeny, vixen, mustard.(male) Timmy, Digger, Jake.

(Laughing out loud).....I meant mutual in the way that she allows herself to be fed instead of feeding herself :nest: but your right the hen doesn't feeds the cock she allows herself to be fed....she does give him scratches and nibbles though (my words for preening etc.)

Edited January 4, 200619 yr by Bec

:nest: and the look of bliss on their faces while they get a grooming (as I call it )

Edited January 4, 200619 yr by Nerwen

and the look of bliss on their faces while they get a grooming (as I call it )

(Laughing out loud)...have you noticed that the boys like to be scratched more than they like to scratch......typical! :nest:

Well,the male's cere is pink and the female's is definately brown. The male's eyes are all black with,what I've noticed, a dull grey around the pupil. They are like my bird Whispers,which I wasn't sure about. I must get photos asap. The male loves music and whistling. I've noticed whenever he hears my music playing,or when i whistle,he bobs his head and approaches the female. She loooves it and approaches him,as if expecting a kiss. He'd usually walk away from her,then bob his head and approach her and kiss her. He was bobbing his head on his mineral block,too. I though maybe he 'fed' it or something. Whisper is a character! She is so hard to recapture to put in her cage at night. I usually have to spend a good 10 minutes trying to get her to put her in the cage. What exactly is pied? I know little about the dear birds types,but wanted to know..what type of babies could I get out of the two? I want a white male from them,hopfully in their first clutch,so I can have him as a pet. Also,is it okay to hand-rear any chicks? and what is the chances they will breed? I heard sometimes birds don't breed..

Hi and welcome. :hap:

 

Pieds, I know. Pied is a mutation which can be identified by the markings on the bird. I have three types right now.

 

One form of Dominant Pied resemble this in some fashion. The body color is broken up by the head color, whereas in a "normal" colored bird it is not. There is a "head patch" on the back of the bird's head that is devoid of the normal barring.

 

 

Another form of dominant pied looks like a normally colored bird, except for the "head patch". There may also be a few oddly colored flight feathers but otherwise looks like a normal.

 

 

 

A third form is the doublefactor dominant pied. This bird has all the markings of a recessive pied (which I do not have any of, sorry :hap: ) but has a visible iris ring like most all budgies do. You can't see it in this picture, but he has a greyish-white iris ring.

 

 

A recessive pied is a bit more spotchy in the markings sometimes, compared to the picture above, but with the same pink feet, a pink beak, and in males - a pink cere, but no visible iris ring. The eye will remain baby-black or even plum-colored.

 

 

Your male is too young to breed. I would wait at least 6 - 9 months before pairing him up. As a general rule, if both parents are dominant pied you will get mostly pied babies with a small percentage being normals (that is, no pied genes inherited). With one green and one blue bird, unless the green bird carries a hidden gene for blue all the babies will be green, with the babies being able to produce some blue chicks if paired with another blue bird. If one of your birds is a recessive pied things get a little more complicated, but you can still expect pieds.

Edited January 6, 200619 yr by Rainbow

Budgies are normaly easy to pair and breed compaired to other types of bird. Your two sound like they arebonding well and happy to resived each other as mates. Pictures would help to work out just what they are and so what sort of babies you would get. As to hand rearing, that would be something you would have to make up your mind up about area geting all the info. Sorry I cant help there since i havn't done so. But many say (and I argee) leaving the chick with the partents to raise and handling them,once fulyl with feathers, for small amounts of time many times over the day you get tame babies.

Well,I have some photo's taken,but I must get them up. I have no time today,but I got a good picture of the pair, the male, the female,and Whisper. I got a front and back view of the male and female,but just a front view of Whisper,since she has a sudden fear of the camera. Thanks for all your help,everyone.