by Zanizaila » Mon Nov 07, 2011 10:23 am
Ok, you are only thirteen, so I will try to go a bit soft with you.
First off - why do you want to breed? For your own sake? For the birds sake? (If it's the latter, how is it for their sake? If it's the first one, I think you really need to rethink it.)
Budgies and Cockatiels are very overbred and while I don't live in New Zealand, that's how it is in most of the world (where there are pet birds anyway), so I guess it's the same in NZ. They are horribly overbred in pet stores and by people who just buy a couple of birds and thought it might be cute to let them have offpsring.
So you're not doing the birds a favor at all by breeding them when there are too many already.
If you still want to go through with it, I would say leave bird breeding to those who really know what they are doing - meaning, become one of them if you "have to" do this, don't just breed a litter or two because it might be fun. It's much harder than might one think and you really need to know birds to do it.
The parents, especially the mother, has to go on a special diet long before and during breeding. You need to know what to do if she has any problems with the egg-laying, you need to be prepared that she might die, you need to know what to do if the parents won't feed the young, and then you have to go up and feed the chicks every two hours for weeks and weeks. (Otherwise; please don't hand-feed them, only if their lives are at stake.) Do you have thousands of dollars for vet bills, if anything goes wrong?
The following is not an "accusation" on you, don't take this personally at all, it's just that I have thought a lot the last few years about why people often feel the need to breed their animals. It's like when someone is really interested in a certain type of animal, they feel the need to go from "a simple pet-owner", to the automatic next stage = breeder.
But why is it like that? You can enjoy the animals and become really knowledgeable about them without breeding them, putting more lives into a world which is already overpopulated (with birds as well, yes) and unkind to animals.
So, there are already too many, we don't need any more birds put in cages, the birds won't be happier, and it will just cost you a lot of money, time and probably tears when the birds (mothers or chicks) die, because that's what happens, even if you're careful.
So why do it?
Proud slave of Saga and Cirino, and missing Yondo and Egon.
...and there is a world difference between supporting aviculture and supporting birds. - Greg Glendell
We're a bit far apart, although I probably would have bought some of your babies if I could since I'm sure you're a good breeder and that I would get quality babies from you. 
