Budgerigar Breeding

A cock Budgerigar has a blue cere which is the bare skin situatedbetween the top of the beak and the front edge of the feathers. Ahen's cere is brown, and the time to think about breeding is whenthese ceres are brightly coloured, the birds are healthy and tight-feathered, and should be at least eight months old. Breeding startsany time between December and early spring. You can certainlybreed from budgies if you keep them in a large flight cage, butthey will do better if you have an aviary. The first essential for asuccessful breeding season is a nest box, or if you have an aviary,several nest boxes - more than one for each pair of birds - whichshould be situated as high as possible, sheltered from the weatherand placed in such a position that the sliding door can be openedwithout disturbance. A budgerigar nest box is about 23 X 13 X13 cm (10 X 5 X 5 in) and is made of plywood with an entrancehole at one end. The other end consists of a sliding glass paneland also a sliding wooden panel. The floor of the nest box is fittedwith what is known as a 'concave', a thick slice of wood with ashallow concave cut into the top, which is where the eggs are laid.No nesting material is added.

When the birds are in breeding condition put them together if they do not already live in the same cage or aviary flight. Theyshould start to court by snuggling up together on the perch andrubbing beaks. The cock will also feed the hen with regurgitatedseed. However, if the two birds just do not get on, you can do oneof three things; replace the cock and try again, house the birdswhere they can see another breeding pair which should stimulatethem, or failing that put a mirror or two in such a position that thebirds can see one or more reflections of themselves. Budgies aregregarious birds and will breed more readily if they are part of aflock.

Budgerigar breeders pair up their birds to breed offspring of aspecific colour and if you are interested in this aspect of the fancy. If you just want your petbudgies to breed, it does not matter what colours you pair up andyou can match green and blue or whatever you like. You may beinterested to know that some breeders have been trying for alifetime to breed either a pink budgie or a black one, and in factsome years ago someone put up a lot of prize money for either ofthese; it was never won, though there have been several claimsrelating to pink budgies. On investigation they have all been found to be frauds. It is rather strange because there are violet budgeri-gars and violet is made up of two pigments, red and blue. You canbreed blue budgies but not, as yet, pink ones. Similarly, when youconsider the vast number of these birds that are bred each year itseems surprising that a melanistic (black) specimen has not beenthrown up somewhere.

Anyway, whatever colours you put together, provided that thebirds are happy with each other they will copulate and the first eggwill probably be laid between seven and 14 days later. The henstarts incubating immediately but she will continue to lay an eggevery day until the clutch is complete, which can mean anywherebetween three and seven eggs. The eggs take 18 days to hatchand while she is sitting the hen is fed by the cock, and when thechicks hatch they are fed on regurgitated, partly digested seed byboth parents. The chicks will leave the nest box four to six weeksafter hatching and they will continue to be fed for a few days afterthat, so if you want to remove the youngsters wait for a good weekuntil after they have left the nest. The parent birds will probablystart nesting again, but after a third lot of chicks have flown,remove the nest boxes and clean them for next season otherwiseyour budgies will wear themselves out.

It is not always easy to sex young budgies from the colour oftheir ceres and you may need to wait a while to be sure aboutwhether the birds are cocks or hens. Young birds are known asbarheads from the dark, pencilled edges to the feathers on theforehead as opposed to the clear heads of adult bird.