Hi Neil,
I’m very sorry for your loss and for the poor little budgie. It’s not a good idea to put a much younger budgie in a cage with a mature budgie. At one year old, the budgie is sexually mature, although should not be allowed to breed until it is at least 2 years old. The problem with a 1 year old budgie is they are newly hormonal and tend to be very hormonal – and very ready to mate – not breed and care for chicks – but ready for the mating part. This is why you can’t put a young one with it. The older bird wants to mate, and wants nothing to do with a young bird. The younger bird has nothing to offer the older bird. So yes, the older bird is likely going to attack and pick on the younger bird. It sounds like the older bird wouldn’t let the baby eat enough, and also picked on it a lot, and the combination of not enough food and possible internal injuries contributed to her death.
It’s also worse to put a young female with an older male, because her hormones can get triggered too early and she may try to lay eggs while she is still too young, which puts her at a high risk for egg binding. Unfortunately, some budgie breeders who breed for profit, and especially if they breed their birds in a colony, are not selective about ages or relations, and let young birds breed as well as let related birds breed. While budgies breed in colonies in the wild, nature has a way of preventing early breeding or inbreeding. Ideally, a budgie breeder should have each pair in their own cage, and this way they know each bird is only breeding with one another. With a colony, a lot of inbreeding tends to happen, which results in weak chicks with genetic issues.
I’m sorry for your experience. If you were planning to breed, then you need to look for a budgie around the same age as the male. And really, it is best to wait until both birds are 2 years old before putting them together, in order to keep the female from laying eggs too soon. She may be capable of laying eggs as young as 8 months old, but she really has some physical and mental development to go through. Forming and laying eggs is a big strain on her system, uses up a lot of her calcium and protein, and requires fully developed muscles for moving the egg though her reproductive system and finally laying it. I do agree with the breeder who told you to keep them in cages side by side until they are used to each other, and show interest in each other. And caging them together can be a gradual process – often having to separate them a few times before they can remain together all the time.
I’m sorry about the baby budgie – I know something like that is very traumatic, especially when given questionable advice. But there are different levels of bird care, and breeding, and we advise based on what we learn from breeders who breed high quality birds for show.
Thank you for asking Lafeber,
Brenda
