Hi,
Breeding birds take a lot of patience. A few weeks is not very much time, and not nearly enough time for a pair to become bonded and ready to breed. There is a lot more involved with breeding than a good diet, although that is very important. Your birds need to be old enough – are they at least 2 years old? If not, then they should not have a nest box yet. When you try to breed young birds they are not really ready to settle down and breed. They are still developing physically and emotionally. And a young female is at a high risk of becoming egg bound and dying. So if your birds are not 2 years old, this is one reason they are not breeding yet.
You must have the right kind of nest box. Those fabric “fluffy” houses, tents or huts are not appropriate for a nest. They are only intended for young birds to use, and should never be given to adult birds. It isn’t going to be large enough or stable enough. The fabric will harbor bacteria and germs that can kill the chicks. The chicks can also smother to death in a soft house like that. If you want to breed your birds, you have to be committed to doing everything the right way, for the safety of the parents and the chicks. There are a lot of inappropriate things that are sold as nests, such as those fabric huts and coconuts. You need a wooden nest box that is made for Parakeets/Budgies. It will be about 7-9 inches for the height, width and depth, with a single access hole. The top can be lifted to let you check on the birds. It should be affixed to the outside of the cage as high as possible. You can give them some aspen shavings for nesting material, although they may kick that out of the box and use nothing. Be sure to buy natural aspen with no added scents – do not use other types of shavings like pine or cedar because those contain aromatic oils that are toxic for birds. Please remove the fabric house and discard it as they do not need it – they can be very dangerous for adult birds and again are totally unsuitable for a nest.
For the diet, a loose seed mix will not provide the nutrients they need. You should be feeding them a nutritionally balanced diet like pellets or our foraging diets. You can also offer dark leafy greens, chopped veggies and a small amount of fruit. When they have their nest box and are getting ready to breed, you need to feed them an egg food also. This can be a commercial egg food or you can cook and egg with the shell washed, crushed and cooked with the egg. The female needs this to replace the protein and calcium she loses when she forms each egg. She will eat this before and while she is laying eggs, and then she will feed this to the chicks. You can also put a cuttle bone in the cage – they chew on the soft side to get calcium. All of this is very important to keep both parents healthy and to have healthy chicks. The female can die from laying eggs if she is not being fed a good diet.
Once you have them eating a good diet, and have the nest box attached, the cage should be in a private area where they do not see people all the time. You should only be around them long enough to feed them and to do a quick check a few times a day. If they do not feel safe, they will not nest. If a pair gets disturbed too often, they will abandon their eggs or chicks.
Finally, if they do breed and raise chicks, you must have homes ready for the chicks. They must be separated from the parents as soon as they are weaned, or the parents are likely to attack them. This is natural instinct to prevent related birds from breeding. If you keep the chicks, you can’t let them breed with each other – you have to keep them separated by sex. As soon as the chicks leave the nest box, you must take the box down or block the entrance. Then the parents need to be rested from breeding for 6 months. You should only allow two clutches per year. In the wild, they only breed once per year, during breeding season. But in captivity they don’t receive the environmental signals to stop breeding, so it is your responsibility to prevent them from breeding too often. Laying eggs is very hard on the female and she can literally die from laying eggs too often.
I know this is a lot of information, but breeding birds is a big responsibility and it isn’t easy. The first clutch will almost always fail, so be prepared for that. But most pairs get it right on the 2nd or 3rd try. It is possible that your male is genetically weak or inbred which is what makes him so small. If this is the case, they are not likely to raise healthy chicks. All you can do is provide what they need, and then be patient and wait for them to breed. Not all birds will be good breeders and not all pairs will bond.
Thank you for asking Lafeber,
Brenda
