Breeding Budgies

[SarahBeth9394]

Well it turns out that I think I have at least one female if not two. So I want to start reading up on breeding budgies and getting at least one good hand raised tame one. I know google is my friend. But the question is with all the disinformation out there I was hoping y'all could direct me to some good sites on breeding budgies. Hubby isn't wild about the idea but I don't really care. I have 4 budgies that just wont tame down and I would like one that will.

 

[NewHopePoultry]

I bred budgies a few times. I stopped afer I lost my favorite female to egg bound. It does take some work,but in the end its worth it (or so I think)
The best site I found was this one:
http://www.budgieplace.com/breeding.html

In most cases you can tell it they are male or female by the cere. Males are blue and females are white, light beige, reddish, or brown. Theres a few colors (albinos, lutinos, fallows, and some recessive pieds) that yuo can tell the sex by the gere,but generally you can.

 

[SarahBeth9394]

I knew about the color of the cere. But today I noticed one of the boys went from a blue cere to a pinkish brown. So I went a googling and found out that at maturity the cere color can change. Now this isn't my first time with budgies but I had never read that before and both our other budgies had blue cere's that stayed blue. One of them I thought was a girl has an almost white cere with just a tiny hint of blue which I've also read can be a girl depending on age and maturity. They are all young birds but I don't know their exact ages. Now I think I have 1 green and yellow pair and 1 perkiwinkle pair.

Oh and thanks for the link.

 

[babylady4]

It is fun if you do manage to get babies. Ours hatched out 7, but thankfully 2 died ( I am not trying to be mean, I do not have the space for 11 budgies).

I have an old China Hutch converted into a nice aviary for them so they can get decent exercise. This also prompted them to breed..... thankfully no more babies since that one time!

 

[SarahBeth9394]

I hate to say it but I would be happy to rehome the ones that don't produce since they aren't taming down. They don't freak out when I feed them but when I hang a treat they get weird. Once my hand is out of the cage they are fine. I can't pick a single one of them up without a frenzy and none will hop on my finger. I can't even get my finger to any of them to hop onto.

 

[TurtleFeathers]

The cere on the male will be blue - when he is sexually mature, it will be a bright, but deep blue. The females cere will be pinkish when young, but will turn to a dark pink, brick red or even a chocolate brown when sexually mature.

I hand raised budgies for many many years - my breeder friends used to think I was crazy because budgies "weren't worth it" because youngsters could be easily tamed and they didn't sell for much. Well, first, I was in it for FUN, not money, and I'm here to tell ya, a parent raised/store bought young budgie might be easily tamed, but it will NEVER be the cuddly sweet pet that a handraised baby budgie is!!!

If you need any help, just PM me! Good luck!

 

[jojo@rolling acres farm]

I've bred kept and bred budgies for years. I have to respectfully disagree with a couple of comments on the color of the cere on baby girls. I've always found that baby boys have smooth to shiny pink cere's and baby girls have light blue cere with white margins around the holes. The light blue/chalky white color then turns to a light tan color as the female matures and then finally to a dark crusty brown when the hen is in breeding condition. The baby boys cere turns from the smooth pinky/violet color to a darker violet and the bright/dark blue when in top breeding condition- it stays pretty smooth and does not appear crusty and uneven over the surfact like the hens do.

It's always harder to visually young white faced blue birds by color. The normals are the easiest for me to sex as babies. Even Lutinos are easier to sex than the White Faced Blues for me.

Having raised several species...I'd have to say I learned the most from breeding budgies and probably enjoyed them the most too! It's really fun to open a next box to see six or seven fat little babies looking up at you in various stages of pin feathers...and they all can be different colors - so neat!

Hand raised bugies can make tremendous talkers and can be real little clowns.

Joni