My Female American Budgie(parakeet) Has laid an egg. Now what?

Question

Ok, I have been trying to Breed my budgies for quite some time, and I just recently caged the two I am trying to breed together with a nest box. They have been spending a lot of time in the nest box together and yesterday my female laid her first egg.
In all I have 5 birds. Alexander Flury(Alex for short) a Lutino 'Teil. Lilly my nesting female green budgie. Baby, Lilly's Mate. Kitten My lone female Budgie. And Sweety, My Ash variety Ring Necked Dove. They are free flight except for the dove as she is older. And the Nesting pair I have kept caged to Prevent an egg cracking inside Lilly and getting infected.
I have hand raised birds before(Rehabilatating wild American Robin chicks) And I have a *VERY* good Avain vet. I have been bird keeping for many years and this is the first time my birds have bred. Anybody have any advise for me?

Maybe I didn't make it all that clear. I have the basics covered, Cuttle bone, egg food, dried greens, millet etc. Im just looking for misc advice. I have read up already and I suppose Im just making sure I didn't forget anything important. I have a humidifier running to help the laying and hatching processs. Im keeping the room warm.

Answer 1

Let her sit on it for a couple days then take it away before she eats it. You don't want them to get a taste for eggs, because they will never be a suitable mother after that. If you are positive that it's fertilised, then wait because it might hatch. It's important to not let the eggs break or let the birds eat them.

Answer 2

Some advice you got from these guys is wrong. MIKI M had very good advice. I bred quakers before. You know obviously not to touch the eggs or the mother will reject them. I learned from the first time I bred my birds and thought it woudl be nice to put another female in the cage that the couple didn't like that idea. Very bad idea. They were in a rage so I took her out after just a couple minutes. The best thing to do is let the couple take care of the eggs. If they are like quakers the male and female wil alternate sitting on the eggs. They will also be very protective and even if they love you they will not want to be bothered. once the babies get the feathers growing, if you wanted to then you could start hand feeding them. you would have to keep them away from the parents for a while. I kept my babies in a 20 gallon aquarium with a heating pad covering half the bottom (underneath the aquarium). that way if one side got too hot they could move to the other side. The birds did well that way. I had some cedar woodchips inside. That helped with smells. Hope this helps.

Answer 3

You should read up before you start to breed. There are many places on the net to do so. Budgies are the easier of the pet birds to breed.
You need to cage them with a nestbox alone. Give them some peace and quiet away from your other birds and you. You need to get them some cuttle bone which will help in the making nice hard shells for the eggs. Millet spray and zupreem parakeet pellets and a good budgie seed mix. I sugguest that you get some egg food. (Like Petamine) You can put all this in your cage and make sure that there is plenty of food. Then nature with take it course and you should have babies.

Good luck! Email if you want to for more help if you need it....

Answer 4

She will lay a few more eggs before she decides to sit them. She will also get rid of any that are not fertile. Don't touch them. She will break them if she senses that you have bothered her eggs. She will slow up on eating and her mate may also feed her while she sits the eggs and possibly he will take turns with her. Most eggs hatch within 2 or 3 weeks once she starts to lay them. She does need to be in a room with less traffic and less noise. Something about the excitement disturbs them. Anyways. Once they hatch, let the pair care for them until they get their feathers. After that you can if you have time hand feed them but it is not necessary. Good luck. I hope this helps. There are several bird groups that are part of the yahoo family. They are all very helpful with problems and questions. They will get back with you in a few minutes.

Answer 5

well i would let the lone female in and see if they accept her to help three birds are better two and be sure they have a place to bath in as the female need to keep the eggs moist dont touch the eggs or the chicks when they are born let the parents deel with them give the parents small seed so the regurgitation food is smooth and as long ans your budgie is leying put a drop of lemon juice into the water to prevent eggbinding and constipation have a nursery ready for if she abandoneds the chick get formula if you have worked with hand rearing before you should be ok but be shure to study up if you have not



good luck

Answer 6

I'd say you have the basics down, it should be fairly common sense from here on.
don't go in to the nest box if you can avoid it, give the birds extra vitamins, and make sure it is as quiet and stress free near their nest box as you can get it.
she will likely lay a few more eggs before she really starts sitting, but unless she completely abandons the nest , don't bother it. let her do her thing, and she will do just fine.
hope this helps , and good luck with your birds.

Answer 7

just leave it alone. watch her if she sits on the egg then everything is going good. if in three or four days shes not sitting on it take it out your bird will not eat the egg as stated above but if they sit on an egg for a certain amount of time and nothing happens and it happens often they will not care about any other eggs they hatch and wont even attempt to sit on any more they have. also egg laying in female parakeets tends to make them aggressive. i had a female parakeet whoo was by herself and she literally laid 4 eggs in a couple weeks every couple weeks. she sat on the first few but i was told by my bird lady all about the parakeet and egg laying stuff. i had to take mines egg as soon as i found it, but she got extremely mean and would run from one side of her cage to the other just to bite you for being near her cage. keets are very different than other birds. i also have an amazon parrot and an umbrella cockatoo. they are great. good luck

Answer 8

Let nature take its course, and supplement their diets, alternatively, arrange an incubator and hand rear the baby yourself if the egg has been fertilised. But this takes a lot of patience and is only recommended if you are home all the time anyway, as newly hatched babies need continuous care.
Either way good luck

Answer 9

You're doing everything exactly right. All I can say is touch it as little as possible and let her do with it what she will. You probably already knew that, but hey. Oh, and make it comfy for her. She'll like that.