Parrots are funny flocking birds that people love to keep at home. Wavy parrots with bright coloring are popular. If you decide to buy yourself birds, it is advisable to take several individuals at once, because parrots in nature live in large schools, they will be quite bored alone, and this can affect not only the mood of the feathered friend, but also his health.
If you have been keeping such birds for a long time, then sooner or later you will have to think about how to breed budgies. In the article we will answer all the questions that a bird owner may have, starting with creating comfortable conditions for the reproduction of offspring and ending with proper nutrition during the breeding season. This question is not easy, so you need to prepare in advance.
How to determine the sex of a parrot
Before you start breeding budgies, you need to pick up individuals of different sexes. The difference between the male and the female is clearly visible on the wax. This is the skin located at the base of the beak. In males, the waxwort has a bright blue coloring, and in females it can be either white or brown. It’s impossible to understand the gender of young animals, since the peel on their beak is not yet pigmented, you can make a mistake when buying. This is important to know, as unscrupulous sellers try to sell the goods, so they can slip two males to an inexperienced breeder. However, the sex of birds before 3-4 months cannot be determined.
Advice!
When breeding budgies at home, it is very important to select a pair that is not related to relatives. Offspring from such birds are unlikely to be viable, usually they have congenital malformations and soon die. It is better to buy birds for breeding from experienced sellers or in different places. In pet stores, amateurs often work who do not know where the live goods come from, therefore they have no idea about family ties.
How to pick up a pair of parrots
If you have one parrot, and you decide to buy a pair, then immediately planting them in one cage is not recommended. About a month you need to hold them in different cells, but placed close to each other. The birds will get to know each other better, but will not be able to fight. After combining the pair, you need to observe whether they liked each other or not. It is very important. Relations in a pair are visible to the naked eye. If a good relationship has developed, then the birds will sit side by side, scrubbing each other's feathers, the male will treat the female with food. It is interesting to watch how the birds caress their beaks, as if kissing, the female closes her eyes with pleasure. Aggressive behavior or complete indifference will also immediately be apparent to the observer. In this case, the offspring are unlikely to wait.
Another important point to learn before breeding budgies is that the male must be either the same age as his girlfriend or older than her. By the young, the female may show aggression and not accept his courtship. Unlike other birds, it is very important for budgies to have mutual sympathy between male and female. Then the current couple spends many years together, jointly caring for the offspring.
Budgerigar breeding age
Birds of this species become sexually mature already from 5-7 months, but this does not mean that at home at this age you can hope for offspring. Birds are ready for breeding by 12-15 months. At an earlier age, the female may die when laying eggs. The best period for fertilization is 2-4 years of life. Only healthy birds can be mated. This is evident by their behavior. The male should be active, mobile, well-fed, but in moderation. If the parrot is sick and weak, then the female lays either completely empty, unfertilized eggs, or the chick dies inside the shell.
If the parrot is exhausted, then the eggs hatch badly, and they do not feed hatched chicks, which often leads to the death of young animals. If the birds are healthy, mating takes place in due time, then the ability to reproduce is preserved up to 8-9 years. It is advisable not to overload the female, giving her a break. It is enough if birds breed 1 or 2 times a year.
Creating an enabling environment
Before breeding budgies, you need to strengthen their diet. About 2 weeks before the mating process, they give a mixture of eggs, semolina, carrots, add more vegetables and fruits to the diet. Be sure to pre-saturate the parrot's body with calcium, which is necessary for the formation of an egg shell. To do this, place a container with chalk in the cage or buy chalk for hanging on a cage. It is good to give crushed eggshells in a plate. Some experienced breeders, creating conditions for breeding budgies, add a couple of drops of fish oil, for example, pouring millet to them.
The best time for the first mating is summer or early fall. Firstly, during this period a lot of seasonal vegetables and fruits, parrots receive a full-fledged fortified food. Secondly, the average favorable temperature in the room with the cell should be from 20 to 30 degrees. Thirdly, for breeding you need a long daylight hours, at least 16 hours.
Nesting house
A cage is not suitable for breeding budgies. In order for the female to accept the courtship of the male, it is necessary to put a house such as a birdhouse. There are plastic products on sale, but it is best if the nest is placed in a wooden house. It can be plywood. Its location does not matter, it can be vertical or horizontal. The only thing the breeder needs to remember is that the birdhouse needs to be hung on the opposite side of the door, otherwise the female may not want to equip the masonry place because of anxiety, deciding that the place is unsafe. Sometimes the owners as a house fit rounded clay pots. They are made of natural material, so birds also nest there with pleasure. If the bird laid eggs directly on the floor of the cage, then this must be stopped by moving the clutch and the parrot into the house. Other females can break other people's eggs.
Another stage of preparation of the house is to lay the floor with dry small sawdust with a layer 3-4 cm thick. You can mix them with the colors of a pharmacy dry chamomile. This will help avoid parasite infestation. Be sure to make a recess in the masonry house. Its depth should be at least 2 cm and a diameter of 10 cm. There, the female will be able to lay eggs, and they will not roll on the floor. Also pay attention before purchasing a house so that the lid on top is removable, otherwise it will be impossible to clean it.
If in the aviary the breeding of budgies takes place with several pairs at once, then for each you need to prepare a separate house, otherwise the females will start quarreling among themselves, and sometimes such skirmishes are fatal. After each nesting, you need to remove the box and thoroughly disinfect it, rinse with boiling water, rinse with an antiparasitic agent. This will destroy all the insects that wound in the nest.
DIY nest box
Before you start to breed budgies at home, you can build a house for parrots yourself. The horizontal box is considered the most convenient, it has more space for growing chicks, the female calmly enters and leaves outside, not afraid to crush the unhacked offspring. Product dimensions are presented below.
- The bottom is rectangular with sides 15 cm and 25 cm. It is made of a thick board so that it is possible to make a small rounded depression in the center with a depth of 1 or 2 cm.
- Height - 15 cm. For a round inlet, the so-called notch, the diameter is 4.5 cm.
- A perch is necessary for the male to sit down while feeding the female. A round stick should peek out 10 cm from the box, and a wide step 10 cm wide and 3 cm high is attached inside. The female becomes on it before entering the masonry territory.
Be sure to remove the top cover for inspection of the nest, its cleaning or, if necessary, disinfection. Masters recommend making nests from dried boards, they serve much longer than plywood, do not dry out, forming cracks.
How to understand that courtship has begun
In the male, the waxwort turns dazzling blue, outwardly it becomes mobile, quickly flies from place to place, however, like the female. A loud current of the male is heard, which calls the female to mating. Approaching a chosen girlfriend, the male touches her beak, brings her food. If she accepts his courtship, then this is the first sign of consent. Another clear sign that the nesting begins when the female flies into the house and in the beak takes out sawdust from there.
Mating occurs as follows: the female crouches low, and the male sits on her back, clutching her wings to her body. At this point, fertilization occurs.
Mastering the nest
How to breed budgies at home? This question worries many bird owners. The main thing has already been done. The time was chosen correctly, the birds met and liked each other, the food was selected rationally, with calcium supplements and fortified feed. The house is installed, and the female begins to settle down in a new place. First, she will climb into the building, look around. And in the event that she likes the nesting place, she begins to take courtship of the male.
When the time comes, the female lays eggs inside the house. You can understand the moment of laying the masonry by the movements of the tail in the rhythm of breathing in the female, the litter in front of the masonry becomes more frequent and is located, as if in a transparent bag. The process of laying occurs gradually, one egg every two days. Clutch can last two weeks, more than eight eggs do not exist in budgies.
When the latter is demolished, hatching begins. Only the female sits on the eggs, and the male carefully brings her food in her beak, belching the eaten. During this period, you can not disturb future parents, without the need to once again do not look into the cage.
Offspring
After the hatching begins, the chicks are born after 16 or 19 days, in the same order in which the eggs appeared, that is, one chick is hatched every two days. They hatch completely helpless, no feathers, pink skin covers the body, eyes are blind. The female feeds them independently, the food is processed by enzymes from a special gland so that it is not difficult for the chicks to swallow it.
Chicks grow quickly, the size shows who was born before the others. If you are familiar with the rules of how to breed budgies at home, then do not forget, after all the chicks have hatched, and this is immediately clear from a quiet squeak from the house, pour more feed into the bottom of the cage. Also, the chicks need cleanliness, so inspect the house, remove garbage and waste from it. If some chick is dead, then he must immediately be removed from the nest.
Chick development
How to breed budgerigars, you already know. Let's see how the baby birds look and develop after birth. On the first day they are naked and blind, instead of the eyes, dark spots are visible. In some places the body is covered with a yellowish fluff. Head and legs are large, neck is long. After a week, eyes begin to open. And already on the 8-10th day short rudiments of feathers appear, first on the head and back. From day 11, the body is completely covered with down, at the same time sprouts of fly and tail feathers begin to appear. From down feathers, you can already determine the future color of the baby. If they are gray, then the budgerigar has the usual color, if white, then the young growth turned out to be light or with an opal pattern.
The next stage of development is the upper covering feathers on the wings and tail feathers. When the chicks turn 3 weeks old, the feathers are freed from their covers, and the birds already look almost like adults.
Conclusion
Keeping and breeding budgies is fascinating, but also responsible. If you want to have healthy chicks and still not overwork the female, then nesting can be arranged no more than 2 times a year. Even if the female has already managed to lay new eggs before the chicks fly, they must be removed together with the house. You are unable to prevent fertilization, but in the future the female will be able to rest. Good breeding!