Expert: Chrys Meatyard - 12/18/2006

Question
First off, thank you for the invaluable info I have found on this site.  I started off with a "male" budgie this past February.  Two months later, I got another male budgie.  We loved them so much that my fiance and I got two more male budgies in October.  We were told that if we got a female after having three males, that they would only bother the female constantly so we should stick with males. No problem so far.  In November, the first "male" budgie was starting to show major interest in getting into my shirt sleeves.  We thought he was just being cute and playful, so my fiance made him a makeshift sleeve out of cardboard and a cut-off sweatshirt sleeve (it is like a tunnel).  For three or so nights we had to chase him out of the sleeve to get into the cage to sleep.  The next night, he was being very insistent and we looked in to find an egg.  Two days later another and so on and so on until we had four eggs. While the egg laying was going on, we noticed one of the most recently purchased sweeties was obviously the daddy.  I really didn't think the eggs would hatch after talking to my local pet store owner.  It seemed there would have to be certain conditions to have them hatch.  We wanted her to sit on them for 20 or so days like we had read and then her just lose interest.  As of today, we have two babies.  I am now certain the other two will hatch also.  She is still in her sleeve with the eggs and babies.  She does get out to eat and the daddy does feed her while she is out.  My concerns are:  He does not really get into the sleeve to feed her, but she does come out and he feeds her then?  Is this enough for her and her babies?  We can sort of get a look at the babies while she is out, but because she is way back in the sleeve, we can't fully see how they are doing.  I have read that they can get the crop milk stuck to their beaks if mom is a messy feeder and all sorts of other problems.  Can we touch them at this age?  What signs should we look for if there is any problems?  Should we move her to a breeder box now?  Are there amy special foods we should give her?  She looks scroungy since she has laid, how do we know if she is ailing? Should I put cedar/pine shavings in with her?  She shredded the cardboad inside for insulation and she rejected the other material I gave her. We now think one of the other males is a female.  I do not really want to breed them.  All four share a really big cage.  How can I keep them from mating again or the othet two just in case?  I know seperate cages would work, but I do not want to move one cage to another part of the house that does not have the same activity and business as the family room.  Our budgies get a lot of out of cage time, so they would all be together a lot anyway. I have read so much, but still feel like I know so little.  If we had intended to breed them, I would be better prepared.  Any info or tips would help. I am up worrying about them a lot. I guess relying on the pet store to sex the birds was not trustworthy.  Should have known, we had gotten two "female" hamsters before from them also.  hehe  I did read the ten things to do to discourage breeding which was helpful ( I clicked on a link from this site).  Thanks in advance.  

Answer
Hi, Heather.  Thanks for posting!

In responding to your questions:

1.  I don't know if this is enough food for both mom and babies.  There probably isn't enough room in the sleeve for mom, babies, and daddy, so this is why he feeds her outside the sleeve.  Not the best setup...what happens when the babies are old enough to move around...are they going to fall out of the sleeve?  You can remove the babies for inspection and then put them back inside the sleeve.  Don't be afraid to handle them when/if you need to.

2.  Parrots don't have crop milk...only pigeons and doves have crop milk.  Parrots feed regurgitated seed and other foods they eat.  The babies crops should be full and their crops should empty.  If their crops don't empty and/or mom isn't keeping them full, then there are problems, and you'll need to step in to ensure the survival of all birds concerned.  

3.  You can try moving her to a breeding box, but she might not accept it and abandon her babies.  You can try, but just be prepared to move all back to their original location.  

4.  You can try offering her other food, but if she's not used to eating other foods, she won't accept them because she doesn't recognize strange foods as being food!  Parrots aren't like us and accept anything edible put in their cages...they don't know if food is edible, a toy, or something else.  This is something they learn.  

5.  If she looks scroungy to you, this all could be too much for her to handle.  If she's not getting enough food, her health could be at risk, not to mention the babies.  You may need to pull some/all of the babies for handfeeding in order to take the pressure off mom and dad.  You could put some pine shavings (not cedar) in the sleeve in order to keep the babies from coming into contact with their feces.  You should also be cleaning out this sleeve when it needs to be cleaned so the babies and mom don't sit in their feces.

6.  To keep them from mating, you need to separate the males from females.  If you keep them together, keep their available light source to 10-12 hours per day and don't keep anything inside the cage that resembles any type of nest (including the sleeve).

7.  Male keets have blue ceres (area above the beak); females have white/brown/beige/tan.  Multicolored birds might have multicolored ceres.  This should help you determine the sexes of your birds.

Here's my website for more information you might need, including information on handfeeding baby birds:

http://www.angelfire.com/falcon/birdinfo/index.html

Come back with any additional questions.

Chrys