Detailed Guide to Making a Budgerigar Breeding Box
Budgerigars kept in the south can breed in all four seasons. If summer temperatures are too high, it is still advisable not to let the parent birds sit on the nest. Under artificial keeping conditions, a dark nest is used for breeding, and the darker the better. The birds lay eggs in the darkest part of the nest, and during incubation the darker it is, the less easily the birds are startled, so the breeding success rate is naturally higher. Let us take a look together below at how to make a budgerigar breeding box!
At What Age Can Budgerigars Breed
Budgerigars reach sexual maturity at 4 months of age, begin to come into season and mate, and can then be used as breeding birds. Once mature, budgerigars can breed in all four seasons of the year, generally laying 4 to 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, and the incubation period is 18 days. The male and female parent birds raise the chicks together, and the brooding period is about 30 days. During incubation, the female bird is relatively sensitive to outside disturbances, so keep the environment as quiet as possible to avoid the parent birds abandoning the nest after being startled, which would affect incubation and brooding. For winter breeding, the room temperature for the birds should be kept above 20°C, with relative humidity of 45% to 50%, and indoor air circulation should be maintained. The peak breeding period can last 3 to 4 years, after which the breeding rate gradually declines. In order to purify and rejuvenate the breeding flock, breeding birds should be continually replaced.
Buying a Budgerigar Breeding Box
The plastic houses generally sold on the market are only for ornamental purposes and for parrots to rest in normally. If used for breeding, they are certainly not warm enough, and the eggs may also fall out. So owners had best buy a budgerigar breeding box. Budgerigar breeding boxes are generally bought online, and some are made of pine (usually fir), which is sturdy and not easily chewed through by budgerigars, and durable!
1. Nowadays more and more customers are asking for pine nest boxes, mainly because pine is harder than fir. It is not so easily bitten through and is highly practical.
2. The pine nuts are liked by many animals and birds, and pine leaves are also liked by many insects. The pine resin of pine wood attracts many insects, and pine forests provide habitats, so there is a lot of bird activity. Therefore, pine wood is absolutely environmentally friendly and pollution-free.
3. Wild birds build many nests on pine wood and rarely build nests on fir, so pine nest boxes are more suitable for birds to breed the next generation.
Making a Budgerigar Breeding Box Yourself
[Materials] Cardboard box, cotton, soft branches, leaves, and so on, anything that feels comfortable and can keep warm will do. If you have wood shavings, it is best to put them on top.
[Shape] The breeding box can be made horizontal or vertical. A vertical type will cause the female bird to climb up and down during the egg-laying period and lose strength, while the horizontal type does not have this drawback.
[Making] 1. Use soft branches to build a small nest (a small box will also do, as long as it is built up with branches). 2. Line it with two layers of cotton. 3. Line it with a piece of cloth. 4. Put in a few leaves. 5. Spread on wood shavings.
[Dimensions] Generally, a budgerigar breeding box should be based on a wooden box of 32 cm * 16 cm * 16 cm (length * width * height) or 16 cm * 16 cm * 32 cm (length * width * height). If you make it yourself, the nest entrance diameter is generally about 5 to 6 cm.
[Access Door] Remember to make an access door so you can check the condition of the eggs at any time. When parrots breed, wood shavings are generally used as bedding. The female bird may hold the wood shavings in her beak and peck them around, or throw the wood shavings outside the box or pile them on one side of the breeding box. These are all normal phenomena.
[Partition] Although whether there is a partition in the middle makes little difference to the birds' hatch rate, it is best to have a partition in the middle. 1. It can create the most suitable environment for the female bird to breed and give the female bird a sense of security. 2. The partition in the middle can effectively prevent the chicks from falling out of the nest box during the fledgling stage.
[Key Point] The key to making a budgerigar breeding box yourself is the bedding. What is generally placed now is wood shavings, the kind sold in pet markets for hamsters, which is cheap and can be used for a long time. When spreading it, it is best to make it thicker but not too loose. If it is loose, the parrots will reach the bottom after just a couple of scratches, affecting the incubation effect: first, the eggs roll around; second, it is not warm; third, the chicks easily get their feet caught.