Breeding Exhibition Budgies

Breeding Exhibition Budgies is quite a challenge. Many people who have visited my bird room to purchase birds are interested in breeding their birds. This can be limited to a single pair in a house and providing them with a nest box to some of the huge breeding facilities you can see online.

I could write a book on this subject and indeed there are many books available that would assist the Novice. This is just a simple guide just to assist.

My setup is a relatively simple affair i have 24 breeding cages with nest boxes hanging on the outside of the cage. I also have a small communal flight that I breed 4 pairs of colour budgies in. Budgies. If you are wanting to breed good quality exhibition budgies then single cages are the way forward. Many people successfully breed budgies in Aviaries’ and if you are not concerned about which budgies get together this is a good way to breed budgies. It does come with problems as Hens will sometimes fight to the death over a nest box. This article will concentrate on breeding budgies in cages.

At the beginning i will say that the better quality the exhibition bird is, the more difficult it is to breed. The large Buff hens are particularly difficult to breed. The will mostly lay infertile eggs or no eggs at all. Colour budgies are the small version of the exhibition budgies. These are particularly easier to breed. They invariable lay fertile eggs and successfully rear their chicks. Full size birds are best bred between 1 and 3 years of age

There are 4 stages to completing a successfull road of breeding.

1. Choosing and pairing of the budgies. Choose a pair that you think will best compliment each other and place them in the breeding cage ( the most successful pairings are those that have already paired up in the flight)sometimes a cock and hen will just not get on. If the 2 budgies are not interacting with each other in around 4 days then I either replace the Cock or the Hen. I place sawdust in the nest box, most hens will remove some or all the sawdust. But i will keep putting it in until she stops. I use the finer sawdust to start with a graduate to the Corser stuff through the breeding cycle.

2. The laying of the eggs within a day or so the Hen should be going in and out of the nest box. Over the next few days she will start to swell in her vent area. Her droppings will gradually change to a large gloopy mess. At this stage you should start to expect a egg. If after 2 weeks there is no sign of a egg you should starts to consider replacing the Hen. The Hen should lay the egg with out any difficulty she should lay further eggs on alternative days usually from 4 to 7.It is important that the hen sits on and incubated the eggs. I inspect the nest box daily. If you find the Hen is just not sitting properly you can transfer the eggs under a hen that is sitting as she should. The worst issue a breeder might have at this stage is Egg binding. This will sometimes occur in the young ad the old Hens. You can normally tell if the hen Is egg bound By her change in activity. She will normally stop sitting on any eggs and sit on the cage floor. This can be very dilatating for a hen. The eggs should be removed. Or the hen removed to a warm area sometimes they will reingest the egg. Other times they may die if the egg is not removed. It is a relatively simple process I can send a video of how its done to anyone that asks

3. Are the Eggs fertile? usually on the 4th egg you can tell if the egg is going to be fertile, although some eggs do not start incubating until the second egg. You can tell if a egg is fertile of not by holding it to the light ,at around 8 days you can see blood vessels’ a clear egg you cannot. After ten days the fertile eggs turn to a more grey look. (if you look at the top picture you can see that the top left egg is the only fertile egg in that clutch. Some clutches have no fertile eggs at all. Some have a couple of the earlier eggs and some have a couple of the later eggs and sometimes they are all fertile. That is the perfect scenario and probably only happens 25%of the time. The most common with the quality birds is a clear round. If I get a clear round i replace the pair. Some people allow then to try again but this tends to be a longer process to produce another round of eggs and in my experience they are most likely to be clear again. Sometimes fertile eggs will go addled which means they have not developed properly and the chick or embryo has died if so you can see the egg has taken on a more brown or dark grey look. Once you are are you should remove this egg.

4. Are the eggs Hatching. If the eggs are incubated correctly they should begin to hatch between 18 and 20 days. If you inspect the eggs around this time you should see the beginning of the hatching you can see that the chick is pipping the shell the chick inside will turn in the egg and break the surface as it goes. If you place the egg against your ear you can hear the chick doing this and later on it will be cheeping. All being well the chick will emerge from the egg. Sometimes this can take 36 hours. If the chick is not getting out of the egg, it can be assisted but this carries risks if you do it too early the chick will bleed and die ifs its too late the chick will be too weak and die. Sometimes the first 2 eggs will hatch around the same time. After that the chicks will hatch every other day.

5. The rearing of the chicks. The most crucial part of this stage is that the hens feeds the chick soon after it hatches. The Hen will know the chick is hatching because it cheeps in the egg. The Hen will grind up the seed into a milky paste she will then feed this to the chick. She must do this within four hours of the chick hatching, if she does not the chick will die. Many maiden hens struggle with this early feeding. It is important you check that the crop has food in it you can easily see this as there will be be a small crop with yellow food in it. If the Hen has not fed the best option is to swop it with another chick from a different nest box that has been fed. A lot of people will say that they have chicks that have been squished by the Hen. Normally it is because the chick has not been fed and died. If there is no option to move you can feed the chick your self. I can send any one a video of how to do this this if they ask.

As the chicks grow it is important to check daily that the chicks are being fed. As the grow the cock bird will also feed the chicks. Chicks will normally be fully feathered at 5 weeks old. When the chicks are around 3 weeks old I start to put a small amount of millet sprays in the box. This gives then Hen something to do and the chicks learn to eat from it.

Another issue that can occur with Hens is that they will start to feather pluck. You can tell when they start to do this because the down stats to disappear and the the main feathers coming through on the chicks back disappears. This will progressively get worse and she can strip the chicks of all the feathers. If this happens you can move them to other pairs other pairs will happily raise other chicks. If this is not an option you can remove the hen hopefully the cock bird will take over the feeding duties. On occasion it might be found that the cock bird is the culprit, if so remove him the hen will raise the chicks on her own.

They will start to leave the nest box and sit on the floor of the cage. The Cock bird will generally feed the chicks from the stage on. This is now another crucial stage. The Hen will be wanting to start laying another round of eggs and at this stage can be unpredictable towards her chicks. Sometimes she will see the cock bird feeding the babies and misinterpret this as a rivel Hen. On the odd rare occasion she will attack the chicks and kill them. When the babies can be seen cracking their own seed it and eating it is time to remove them from the cage. Some chicks will go back in the nest box and will begin to sit on the perches. You must remove them at this stage for their safety.

I place them in a baby cage specifically for them, I can then check they are eating properly if not I will feed them to make sure they don’t starve. They are given Millet Sprays soft food and canary seedwith a normal mix of seeds

After a couple of weeks the babies are moved into another flight with the older babies.

After a month or so I will put them in a flight where they can fly around.

If you have any questions or issues you would like advice about text or WhatsApp me and i will do my best to assist

I often have Breeding Budgies and Baby Budgies for sale. If you have a look on this web site you can see the available birds. If you see anything you like let me know and I will arrange a visit for you to come and have a look