For the last year or so my female budgie has been laying eggs. It’s dangerous for them to constantly lay eggs so about 6 months ago I figured out the combination to get her to stop laying - high quality fake eggs and a budgie nesting box. When I first got everything set up a way she liked, she sat on the fake eggs and stopped laying her own.
She sat on the nest for about three months and then abandoned it for two weeks and then started laying again. When she’d lay an egg, I’d replace it with the fake egg and after about 10 eggs, she stopped laying and started nesting again. At first I’d do a check in the box every day but once she’d not laid any eggs for a couple of weeks I’d just check once a week when I was cleaning.
Well last night I woke up to odd peeping sounds. “Hmmmmmmm” I thought, “either she has developed asthma or there’s a baby in there”. This morning I waited for her to come out to eat and had a peek inside - TWO babies!! And one egg that’s obviously going to hatch.
My flock has just doubled! I don’t think I’m going to help her with the hatchlings (they’re so tiny, I’d be afraid to pick them up anyway) and just let nature take its course. She’s a first-time mom so she may know what to do or she may not. She doesn’t let the males into the nesting box so she’ll be doing it all herself.
While I can appreciate it’s hard to accurately measure the total size of a flock of budgies accurately in mass or volume, surely you meant that it doubles in membership or population, right?
(Yes, totally pointless nitpick. Isn’t that still what we do here?)
I’ve given our budgies a nestbox twice. At about 7 - 10 days I pull the chicks and hand feed them the rest of the way. I’ve handfed larger parrots; budgies are probably not good birds to learn on.
Thanx for pics. They should be fine if they make it out from the shell. Lots of healthy food and water for the parents will help them not get too depleted from feeding the chicks. I have an outside aviary for my budgies, its always hard to throw away the eggs, but I learned that leaving the nestbox in there not only causes babies:smack: but too much fighting amongst the females who want to use it, even if none are laying eggs.
The babies are doing well so far. She’s feeding them and eating more than I’ve ever seen her eat in the 7 years I’ve had her. It’s amazing to me that she knows what to do with these squeaky, pink, rubbery things. Their crops are full but I don’t know what she’s doing with their poop. I’ve checked in the box a few times for messes but there aren’t any. I’m proud of her, she’s an excellent mommy. She nestles them side by side and then stuffs them underneath her. It’s all super cute.
Check on the cage bottom directly below the nest hole. Budgies usually drop their chick’s feces out of the nest to keep the interior tidy (at least mine did).
What’s in the bottom of the nest? They are prone to developing splayed legs if they’re on a smooth flat surface. A hollow in built up soft material is best.
We raised an accidental hatchling to adulthood. Scritch was a great little bird, full of personality. She’d crouch on my shoulder at night and whisper into my ear while I was on the computer.
They’re in a budgie-specific nesting box. The sides are smooth wood but the bottom is a bit rougher and in the centre is a little dug-out nest shape. I have soft, white nesting material in it but she always pushes it away. Do you think the semi-rough bottom is OK for them?
I actually have two boxes so what I’m going to do for cleaning is have one box clean and ready to go, put the babies in it and then I can clean the other one without rushing. I’m also going to remove the 4 remaining eggs today and quickly destroy them. I don’t know if they’re fertilized or not but I just don’t think she’d be able to feed a large batch by herself and I want to give the two the best chance of surviving.
