Expert: Chrys Meatyard - 5/19/2007

Question
Hi, about a year back I bought a blue male budgie which was 6 months old back then.. thus, it should be mature by now.. i decided to breed budgies, after much research, I bought a female green from a pet store and they weren't really sure about her age.. but she has brown crusty cere, with no bars on her head and gray coloured iris.. her size is quite big and little bigger than the male.. so, i assumed that she was mature enough for breeding and already in breeding condition (becoz of the crusty brown cere)..

it has been a little over a week since she has been introduced to the male in cage and they seem to be friendly with another.. i haven't seen any sign of aggression and occasionally the female accepts food from the male's beak, while other times she becomes stubborn and doesn't accept food from him.
Also, i've seen the male put one of his legs on her back, but the female shows no reaction and simply moves away...

i assumed they were bonded and about 3 days ago from the date of this post i placed a nestbox in their cage with some pine shavings in it.. they dont seem to be interested in the nestbox.. they sometimes sit infront of it and seem to be looking at it but i have never seen them go in. also, the female acts absolutely crazy, she hangs from the walls of cage, bites the cage wires, does alot of running on the cage floor and sometimes does backflips while hanging...

I would really appreciate it if u could guide me as to what i should do at this point.. thanks

Answer
Hi, Nigel.

Take the pine shavings out of the nesting box.  Budgies don't like anything in the bottom of their nesting box.  This is most likely why they are not going in the box.  See what happens after you do this.  Other than this, your budgies sound like they are normal.

Chrys