Buddgie/Parakeet Question?
I got a budgie about 2 days ago. I love the birds so much there beautiful. My one whom I have had for 3 months is blue/aqua blue. My other the brand new one I got 2 days ago is yellow with a lime green chest with a line of yellow going across the chest, and has lime green incented in the wings.
I just read this article and I hope its true.
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art58212.asp
I have a budgie the other who looks Identical to the young male budgie in the picture. The cere is exactly same color. Te other has a blue but it has white with blue faded in between the white. Its saying its a female.
I am excited though, they both bonded quickly, both are young and have stirppes on the forhead. I got her, the suposivly female by the article suposeivly female, 2 days ago I put her in the cage with my other by the article male. She wasnt scared like I thought it be she walked all over and was cherping away.
1.) Is the article correct, could I have a male and female budgie pair?
2.) What does it mean if one regergitates its food to the other?
3.) If I want to have babies, do I need to take the babies out when born to feed them anything special or will the parents do it all and I wont have to do anything until there weaned and I can start to handle them?
4.) If I do breed them do I ned to change there food or add somthing to it?
I am very suprized, the one with the pinky prple like it said in the article male that I should have is food agresive when I put my hand in the cage but, he lets her eat and feeds her.
They say they like toys, only my female suposive female does.
ANything else to add??????
- beth
As far as I know a female budgie has a brown cere But get a book on raising baby’s there’s a lot u need to know that i’m not gonna bother typing. Hope u co have one of each enjoy them.
The article is correct, When a bird regurgitates its food, it is kind of like throwing up, a bit of food comes back up. Some birds move their heads up and down. The one will feed the other with regurgitated food. If you have babies which I do not recommend. You need a wooden box, you can get a most stores. You do not need to feed the babies the parents will, unless one gets rejected. If that happens you need the proper food, a syringe(without needle) and food at an exact temp feeding every two hrs. Budgies like toys to play with you usually will find a bunch a pet stores. Good luck and enjoy your birds be sure to clean cages ofter, change water often.
My female budgie has a pink cere, and it turns brownish when she is ready to mate. Males generally have a light blue to purple cere. However you cant just go by the color of the cere, if you want to know for sure you could take your budgies to an ACV Avian Certified Veteranarian (sorry cant spell today), and they can do a blood test to determine that for certian.
I recently got my female and added her to my flock, my other budgie is male. I am not too certian on the care for baby budgies, I have learned that the more you handle them when they are young, the more tame they will be. Which is better for any prospective owners if you decide to sell them. You will need to get a Nesting box that you can hang on the outside of their cage, they attach right to the door. and some nesting materials, all of these can be purchased at your local pet store for a pretty decent price.
I suggest that you continue to work with your food aggressive budgie, continue with hand training, and such and offer treats from your hand for good behavior. As far as toys go, my birds have lazy days and not so lazy days. Maybe that ones just bashfull to play infront of you, you never know what they are doing when your gone. They do love toys, but get bored easy, make sure you switch to a different toy or two each week i keep about 10 different ones on hand, i put two or three in the cage like bells, swings, rings, ropes, and foriging toys that they can tear apart. and after about a week i take them out and add some new ones, when i get back to the first ones i had in its like they got entirely new toys.
make sure you let them out of the cage for at least an hour a day to fly around, play, and get some decent exercise. my birdies have a play gym that i set on top of their cage, when they see me get it out of the closet they fluff up their feathers and get all excited.
another thing they like is to play in water, so you could put a small tuperware dish with warm water in it ontop of the cage and let them splash.
when one regurgitates into the others mouth that is a sign of bonding and that they trust eachother. it is an especially good sign when they preen eachother, it means they are happy and like eachother very much. i think i covered quite a bit of your question and then some, sorry i cant answer more about babies.
People keep saying BLUE FOR BOYS AND PINK FOR GIRLS. This is not exactly how to sex a budgie. No wonder so many people come home with budgies from petstores believing they have one sex when they have the complete opposite.
Sexing a budgie is all about the Cere colour but certainly not what people on here keep saying. The fact is there are so many budgie types that what type they are also dictates their cere colour…for instance boy budgies will NEVER have a blue cere if they are recessive pieds, albinos, lutinos, fallows, and so on. ….so there is no blanket rule for sexing budgies based on the blue and pink statements.
Basically in any young or baby budgie, any cere with a lot of white on it, including white with a hint of blue…is a FEMALE.
Any cere that is pinky purple is a MALE.
Here is an article I wrote that may help you…
If anyone comes on and say
BLUE FOR BOYS AND PINK FOR GIRLS they will be wrong. That only applies in certain kinds of budgie and only after they have had their first moult. You can contact me for further help if you like or try the forum I am admin of at
Your budgie that has the white and blue cere is a female. So, YES it sounds like you have a male and female.
Your budgies are very young and you would have to wait a year before breeding them. In the meantime do NOT put a nestbox in their cage for any reason. They need to grow before using calcium needed for growing bones for making eggs.
The regurgitating food is what budgies do to help each other out …it isnt just about male female pairing up and leading to mating. Its also what very young baby budgies do and often a slightly older one will feed a baby budgie as well.
These questions are good one BUT it is too soon to be thinking about breeding as they are way too young.
3.) If I want to have babies, do I need to take the babies out when born to feed them anything special or will the parents do it all and I wont have to do anything until there weaned and I can start to handle them?
4.) If I do breed them do I ned to change there food or add something to it?
So, research and study here well before they are old enough to breed so you are prepared.
Do not listen to anyone who says put a nest box in their cage.
Hope this helps you