i want a boy and girl parakeet.help!?

Question

i want both genders but i want to know if it will be to much of a responsibility if they have babies. if they have babies...what should i do?? i've only had my hamsters who had 11 babies but im sure its way different with birds........

Answer 1

If they have babies, you'll be way over your head, unless you stay a home with no children everyday. Budgies shouldn't have babies unless they have a nesting box, and are over 6 months old though. You have to hand feed the babies every few hours (if you go to school they'll starve to death), and if you've never taken care of baby birds they're more likely to die than to survive...you could just let their parents take care of them though, but then there's the question of what to do with the babies. If you desperatley want a boy and a girl, get two seperate cages, but keep your eye on when they're together. Good luck :)

p.s. if a female lays eggs, she'll need more nutrients like calcium in order to stay healthy.

Answer 2

Whether or not you can handle the responsibility of baby birds depends on how much time you have to spend and whether or not you WANT to hand-feed the chicks. You do NOT have to hand-feed the chicks - the mother and father will ususally be more than happy to feed the chicks to the weaning stage.

Hand-feeding by a humans mean that you will be permanently removing the chicks from the nest at about 1-2 weeks of age and feeding them for the remaining 3-6 weeks (round the clock) until they are weaned (self-sufficient and eating on their own). For the first week or so you will be getting up in the middle of the night to feed them at least once; and then 3-4 times during the day. As they get older (3-4 weeks) you will gradually cut out the midnight feedings but still need to feed them 3-4 times a day; and gradually cut back the feedings (during weeks 4-6) by slowing introducing soft foods, millet spray, seeds and pellets. Most will usually be weaned anywhere between weeks 5 and 6; but it is a process that you will need to read a lot about and preferrably get verbal and/or personal instruction from an experienced bird breeder and hand-feeding person. And, once you decide to pull them for hand-feeding you cannot change your mind and put them back after a week or so because the parents will be out of that "phase" of the breeding cycle and will probalby not feed the babie and may even kill them at that point because they have will have already possibly started on the next clutch (group of eggs) of chicks, or go out of the cycle all together.

The other thing to consider is what to do with any babies you do have (whether they are parent-raised or hand-fed by you).

If you would like to explore this in further detail, please feel free to email me directly.

You may also want to take a look at my profile and I think other can have access to "My Answers" which are down below on the left hand side. If so, check out some of the other questions I have answered, maybe some regarding parakeets or hand-feeding birds. If you click on the related question you will be able to see my answers, as well as some of the other people's answers.

Answer 3

parakeets only have 3-6 baby clutches and they are alot of responsibility. there is alot u must do 2 take care of the babies and the parents need special foods for extra nutrition. once the babies are weaned u could sell them 2 a pet store but even getting them 2 nest is difficult sumtimes. if u dont put nesting supplies in the cage the wont breed. and sometimes the female may lay eggs that arent fertilized. the birds have 2 b at least 6 months of age b4 THEY even think about breeding anyway.

Answer 4

I don't recommend it. First off, most budgies have some sort of diet problem. Seed only diets don't provide adequate nutrition, and most budgies (like most little kids) don't really eat enough fruit and veggies, even if those are offered. And when you get a breeding pair, they will mate and lay eggs pretty regularly. The thing is this depletes the female's body of nutrients, and eventually she will start having health problems (and vet bills for any kind of bird can be amazingly high, because only a very few vets have that specialty). It's kind of fun to raise a clutch of babies from eggs, but then you get attached and don't want to give them up, and pretty soon you have WAY too many budgies. Leave the breeding to breeders who have lots of experience handling and treating breeding, sick, and baby birds.

Answer 5

I would say only get one because 2 birds will get to attached to each other and wont be as tame and loving. I think that they are most likely to have babies. Maybe try putting then in separate cages.

Answer 6

it wont be a lot of responsibilities because the mother and father will do everything just give the mom and dad some food and water and buy the parakeets a cage and a nursing "home" box and it will be fine