How to keep budgerigars, and what food is best for them?
As is well known, budgerigars are beautiful, interesting, and easy to keep, which makes them a popular pet to raise. Budgerigars also breed easily, so keeping them can increase economic returns. So how should budgerigars be kept? What food do they eat? Let's take a look.
How to keep budgerigars?
1. Cage
A relatively large rectangular metal cage should be used, with dimensions of 40 cm long, 35 cm wide, and 35 cm high. The bottom of the cage should have a drawer-style sand tray (dropping tray) for easy cleaning of droppings. The nest box for budgerigars is a horizontal nest. The nest box is a small rectangular wooden box 25 cm long, 14 cm wide, and 14 cm high, with a partition in the middle dividing it into inner and outer chambers. The outer chamber has a round hole leading to the outside with a diameter of 6 cm, and a similar round hole with a diameter of 4 cm is opened in the partition between the outer chamber and the inner chamber as the doorway for the birds to enter and exit. Clean drinking water should be replaced every day, droppings should be cleaned once a week, and in summer take care not to expose the budgerigars to direct strong sunlight.
2. Food
The feed should be mainly millet and barnyard grass seed, and some hemp seed or perilla seed should also be fed, but the amount must not exceed 10%. To ensure the nutrition the birds need, green vegetables (Chinese cabbage, rapeseed) and inorganic salts (bone meal, oyster shell powder) should also be fed regularly. This bird tolerates coarse feed, and concentrated feed should not be fed too much, so as to avoid fat deposition and effects on egg laying and reproduction.
When feeding, be careful to blow away the husks in the food dish. Green vegetables should be washed and disinfected before feeding (a 0.1% potassium permanganate aqueous solution can be used), drained, and any leftovers should be removed the same day. Pay attention to cage hygiene and frequently clean the sand and droppings. Food and water dishes should be scrubbed 1-2 times a day. Although budgerigars are not very afraid of cold, too low a temperature will affect reproduction, so the indoor temperature in winter should not be lower than 0°C.
3. Temperature
In winter, attention should be paid to keeping warm, and the indoor temperature should not be lower than 16°C. Summer temperatures are relatively high, and when they are generally above 30°C, ventilation should be strengthened. Budgerigars like to eat feed with husks. Usually the diet should be mainly millet, barnyard grass seed, foxtail millet, or egg millet, with some green vegetables fed every day, and oyster shell powder or bone meal as standing feed (you can also place a whole piece of cuttlebone in the cage for them to peck at). Budgerigars reach sexual maturity at 4 months of age, begin estrus and mating, and can then be used as breeding birds for reproduction. Budgerigars can breed all year round, generally laying 4-7 eggs per clutch. The eggs are white, with 1 egg laid every day or every other day. When the third egg is laid, the female bird begins to sit on the nest and incubate. Incubation is mainly done by the female bird, and the incubation period is 18 days.
4. Breeding
Budgerigars are easy to breed, but crossbreeding should be avoided to maintain the purity of the breed. For the health of the offspring, parent birds 1-2 years old should be chosen for pairing. After the male and female mate, the female soon begins to lay eggs, one egg every other day, for a total of 4-9 eggs. Once the female starts laying eggs, she does not leave the nest until incubation is finished. During this period, she relies entirely on the male bird to carry food and feed her. The incubation period is about 18 days. Budgerigar chicks are altricial birds and cannot live independently within 25 days of hatching, relying entirely on the adult birds for feeding. The method by which the parent birds raise the chicks is: the male bird feeds the female bird, and the female bird then feeds the chicks. After 28 days of growth, the chicks can eat on their own and live independently. At 5-6 months old, they can reach sexual maturity.
What food do budgerigars eat?
Budgerigars like to eat feed with husks. Usually the diet should be mainly millet, barnyard grass seed, foxtail millet, or egg millet, with some green vegetables fed every day, and oyster shell powder or bone meal as standing feed (you can also place a whole piece of cuttlebone in the cage for them to peck at).
Points to note when keeping budgerigars
1. Budgerigars are simple to keep and easy to manage. They tolerate coarse feed, have strong constitutions, are not prone to illness, and are easy to breed. Budgerigars have a hooked upper beak that is strong and powerful, and they like to gnaw wood, so bamboo cages cannot be used; metal cages must be used. As a leisure ornamental bird, a small electroplated metal cage can be used, with perches and hanging rings set inside for the parakeet to play with.
2. Budgerigars can be kept in pairs or in groups, generally using wire cages or box-shaped cages lined with iron sheets. Each pair of birds should have an activity space of more than 0.5 cubic meters, otherwise reproduction will be unfavorable. The bottom of the cage should be made drawer-style (with iron sheets nailed on) for easy pulling out, cleaning, and sanding. Food and water utensils should be deep, large, and sturdy to prevent them from being bitten and damaged.
3. In winter, although their feathers are thick, you still need to give them warmth; just install a small light bulb on the cage.
4. In summer, you can poke a few holes in the cap of a plastic bottle, fill it with warm water, aim it at the cage opening, and let the birds shower. After washing, dry them off.
5. If you find that they refuse to eat no matter what, starve them for a few days, then put the food back in the food trough.
6. When the birds are depressed, open the cage door, (after opening it, close the windows tightly) then put some food in your hand, and after a while it will fly onto your hand to eat.
How to choose healthy budgerigars
1. The parakeet's body feathers should be clean and glossy, and the feathers should be close to the body rather than fluffy.
2. The parakeet should remain normally active and lively, with eyes wide open and spirited, and should not always huddle in one place with its head tucked and eyes closed.
3. Any bird with a tucked head and closed eyes, loose and messy feathers, unwillingness to move, drooping wings, or soiling around the vent and diarrhea is in a diseased or weak state and should not be purchased.
The above are the methods and points to note for keeping budgerigars. To raise budgerigars, you need to select healthy parakeets for breeding, then use reasonable and healthy feeding methods, and understand the points to note in keeping them. Only in this way can you successfully raise beautiful and healthy budgerigars.