Hints for Beginners
When pairing up your birds, ensure you have sufficient seed
to last the breeding season, it is not good to change the seed
mix part way through a breeding season. The change could have a
detrimental effect on the growth of the chicks, and in extreme
circumstances could be possible for the loss of feathers in your
chicks.
Ensure there is sufficient seed in your cages at all times,
especially when you have chicks in the nest. I usually blow
the husks from the seed pots every day, every second day I sieve
all the pots so as to remove all dust which accumulates in the
bottom of the pots.
Give as wide a variety of seed as possible, you find that the
pairs appear to like different seeds and even that a pair will eat
different seed during the rearing of their chicks. In a study
carried out, the pairs feeding their chicks on plain canary
seed for the first three weeks of rearing, then millet thereafter,
produce the largest chicks.
Vitamins and supplements are generally very good, especially
two months before pairing up, however, never ever give
supplements in the water whilst your pairs are breeding. The
hen consumes large amounts of water whilst breeding, because
of this she would also consume additional amounts of vitamins
if it were to be added to the water. The consequence being,
she would suffer from vitamin poisoning, in addition the chicks
would also suffer from too many vitamins for their body to
absorb. If you wish to give vitamins at breeding time, add a
little to the soft food.
It is not expected to have the same standard of cleanliness
during the breeding season. Some fanciers believe in a deep
litter system during breeding, others clean their cages more
often. What ever system you adopt, ensure the copious droppings
underneath the perches are cleaned frequently, they look
unsightly, smell terrible and cause diseases to spread.
Occasionally young hens can be rather erratic in laying, if
this occurs, transfer the eggs to another established pair,
replacing them with clear eggs. I use small glass marbles.
When the hen settles and is laying normally, you can transfer
the eggs back. However, I only take away the dummy eggs, in
this way if you are lucky, she will go on laying more eggs and
you will have gained more eggs than you previously transferred,
thus gaining a few extra chicks you would otherwise have not had.
Some hens, or even the cocks at times, are prone to
breaking the eggs. When this occurs I find the best way to deal
with it is simply to fit a concave with a hole drilled in the
middle, large enough to ensure the egg will drop through the
hole, the egg is then transferred to another pair. Make sure
there is a bed of sawdust below the hole for the egg to drop
on to.
On the Continent the breeders place a plastic egg into the
nest-box when the hen lays her first egg. This plastic egg
tends to be larger than the normal budgerigar egg. It has two
purposes
- It retains the heat longer when the hen leaves
the nest, so tends to keep the eggs warm.
- When the hen hatches, it stops them from sitting too tight
and crushing the chicks, especially the first hatched.
When your eggs are nearing the date of hatching, I have
found if you soak them in a small bowl of warm water for
a couple of minutes, this does assist them to hatch.
If young hens fail to feed their first chick when hatched,
I find that by giving them an older chick, say 3 or 4 days old,
is sufficient to start them feeding normally. If you haven't
got a suitable chick, try a little warm milk in a teaspoon,
hold the spoon level, holding the chick gently in the other
hand, bring it's beak to the spoon and just touch its beak to
the edge, very gently tilt the spoon, you will see the
crop gradually filling with milk, do not over feed, do not
try to force-feed it, it will flow itself. You may require
to feed it a couple of times before the hen does feed.
Feather plucking can be a curse, there is no cure for it,
and it can strike at any time. If it does occur try
transferring the chicks to another pair. If there is no pair
suitable, there are one or two tips to try.
- If they are old enough, place an open top box in the
cage, a little smaller than the nest-box, the parents usually
keep on feeding them without plucking them any further.
- The other way I have found to work, is by fitting a glass
top on the nest-box, the hen usually stops out and only
enters to feed the chicks
Don't be too quick in removing the chicks from the parents,
providing the parents (Cock) is accepting them, leave them
as long as possible, they certainly thrive better than when
removed. Another good idea is when the chicks are about
4 weeks old, place a small portion of millet-spray in the
nest-box every evening, the chicks will soon copy the hen
in picking at the spray. The result is they have a good idea
of how to crack seed when they leave the nest. Another
thing is to place a small shallow dish of water in the
bottom of the cage when the chicks leave the nest, this
stops them from dehydrating, which is the factor of them
dropping their tails and flights. This is commonly seen in
some aviaries and is often mistaken for French Moult.
Before pairing it is better to trim the vents and
flank feathers from both cocks and hens. The modern
budgerigars with the very dense down and long feathering,
have great difficulty in mating successfully. This is the
major factor in the amount of clear eggs we have all
suffered from in recent years.
When you are a Beginner you tend to think you
must pair as many pairs as you can. The old saying was, you
only get about one good chick in every ten, this quite
frankly is not true, it all depends on the quality of the
original stock, simply pair your best birds, after all
there is no point in breeding stock you are unable to sell.
Never be too hasty in pairing your birds, just because
Joe Bloggs down the road has paired his, there is no
necessity to pair yours as well. Wait until they are in
tip-top breeding condition before pairing. It is always
difficult to decide when they are ready. Even Champions
have difficulty. The best way to decide whether they are
ready is simply hang an old nest-box in the hen flight, the
hens that show a lot of interest in the box you will find
are the ones that are ready. Cocks are different, if the
hen is fit, you will find the cocks generally follow suit.
Never let your young birds go until they are through
the moult, we are sometimes tempted to dispose of a young
bird because we think it is not good enough. This applies
to all fanciers, not just Beginners. It is surprising how
some birds tend to be late developers and do not show their
full potential until after their moult. You often find that
it is a family that has this trait, so until you gain
much more experience, do not be too hasty in disposing of
could be your future winner.
Original text: Copyright 1997 Jim Hutton
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