Budgi

[Karimi]

Dear friend I have some problem with my budgies the fight with each other when the lay eggs and kill each other’s baby. I have so many nest for them but still the fight on nests can someone advice what to do plz.

[patdbunny]

Yeah, that can happen. That's why I don't colony breed anything.

Can you individually house pairs?

How large is your aviary and how many pairs are in there?

[waqasbilal]

Dear

Although Budgie’s breeding result is very fruitful in separate pairing but due to heavy cost and time taking it is not possible for everyone to rear Budgie singly. Budgie loves to live in a colony but there are some problems to keep Budgie in colony bellow are some problems in Budgie colony which I faced and was very disappoint

1. Fighting very deadly and kill each others
2. Breaking eggs
3. Killing checks

I think we faced 90% problems due to lack of knowledge, we can over come on said problems with understanding nature and needs of Budgie.

Here are some tips to safe your birds from these problems.

Size of Colony

Number of pairs should not be exceed from 5 to 6 pairs although Budgie’s breeding result is very good in a big colony even 50 pairs but colony having 5 to 6 pairs is ideal size.

I am rearing Budgie in 3 different styles with different results

a) Single pair average production 4 to 5 checks in a clutch
b) 5 pairs average production 4 to 6 checks in a clutch
c) 30 pairs average production 2 to 3 checks in a clutch

Cage for Colony

Cage should be in a reasonable size, cage for 5 to 6 pairs should not be small then 4 X 3 feet

Boxes for Breeding

Boxes with 6 X 6 inches is ideal for Budgie and should be placed in top most area in the cage small box is a main reason of falling checks, I found every good result with 6 X 6 box.


Sitting Sticks

Sitting sticks should be placed bellow the boxes with minimum 1 to 1.5 feet difference. It is my observation that if sticks are very near or above the boxes, budgie fight every deadly during selecting boxes and specially mating time, it continue during laying and feeding checks and consequently they kill babies even adult birds.

Diet

Diet is the most important facture in changing bird’s behavior we can overcome almost 80 % problems by providing them balanced diet. I observed most of people give unnecessary foods to their birds which is the major reason of falling or killing checks. Here are some key points regarding diet of your birds

1. Provide your bird seed pallets regularly and their pots should not empty during breeding.
2. Calcium is very important need of your birds especially during breeding, most of birds pluck feathers due to lack of calcium and some time they eat their own checks to full fill the deficiency of calcium, you can purchase calcium blocks form market for them.
3. Most of people provide oily foods to keep their birds warm in cold and even use Cod liver oil which is very good for birds health but the excess of these things are very bad, due to excess of cod liver oil bird can start laying during feeding checks and some time they kill their checks for again laying
4. Green food is very important for birds and it is essential part of their diet but spinach is very dangerous for your birds if you are giving them regularly and in large quantity, I use spinach just to boost my birds for laying and I always found its result within 3 to 5 days , if you are giving spinach to your birds regularly then your birds can be start laying and they will through checks out of their boxes so provide them spinach just when your birds are ready to laying and free from checks.

Dear all above points are my own experiences and I am enjoying a good result by adopting these tips .


Regards

Waqas Bilal
Lahore, Pakistan