Breeding and Exhibiting Budgerigars

Budgerigars have a breeding season which extends from February to September in the southern hemisphere.

The best age to consider breeding your budgerigars is when they are over 12 months old.Females over 4 years old and males over 6 years should be "retired" from breeding.

They will need a special budgerigar nest box which can be purchased from most pet stores. Budgerigars may be bred in a colony in an aviary but you will have to provide more nest boxes than you have pairs of birds and even then you may have some fighting between hens. It is easier to pair the birds up in individual breeding cages and this also allows you to keep records of breeding, avoid inbreeding, aim to produce certain colours, and also to limit the number of babies you breed in any year.

Budgerigars lay between 3 to 10 eggs (the average is 6) and they take 18 days to hatch. The babies are born naked and blind. The eyes open at 6 days and by 28 days the babies are usually fully feathered and ready to leave the nest. By the age of 5 - 6 weeks they will have all the wing and tail feathers, be able to fly and be weaned by the parents.

Breeding budgerigars is a fascinating hobby as they come in so many colours that there is always the excitement of seeing what colour the baby birds will be. Most budgerigar breeders also make a study of the genetics of colour breeding in the budgerigar.