Hi Suz,
I want to thank you for being such a responsible bird owner! Not everyone follows advice, if it isn’t what they want to hear. It sounds like you have a fun flock of budgies! There is nothing more entertaining than a group of non-breeding budgies. I do want to correct one of my comments from before. I misunderstood, and thought that Sky & Sunny were females. As males, what they were actually doing when following Rainbow, was looking for an opening to steal her from Kiwi. I know this sounds like nefarious behavior from your little guys, but always remember they are driven by hormones and instinct. And knowing how many budgies you have together, having two nest boxes or really any nest boxes in there was setting things up for disaster. I am glad you asked before things got out of control for you.
You always have the option of not letting your budgies breed. Usually a flock will remain peaceful as long as no nests of any type are introduced, and anything they try to use as a nest is removed. Always remove a dish if you notice a bird sitting in it, and replace with smaller cups. If one or more budgies start to spend time on the cage floor, especially in a corner, rearrange things and put something there to prevent them from claiming it as a nesting site. Budgies enjoy a variety of toys & swings & ladders. You can rearrange things in the cage regularly to keep things new & fun, and this also discourages nesting or egg laying. The early bed time is great, because they may or may not be triggered to nest with longer days. This is one of those areas where you choose the safer option of limiting their light by having an early bed time. It certainly doesn’t hurt them. And moving the cage to another place in the room can also discourage nesting. Although Rainbow missed class that day, because she certainly went right back to exploring her nest box after she & Kiwi were moved!
Before you possibly end up with eggs & then chicks, there are down sides to breeding. Weaned chicks cannot remain with their parents. Usually once they are weaned, the parents start to bully and attack them in an effort to drive them away. This is nature’s way of preventing related birds from breeding. So even when the chicks are adults, they can’t be with the parents, because in captivity, parents will breeding with their offspring and again, related birds should never be allowed to breed. You also can’t put young birds in a flock of adults. It’s not safe for them as they can be bullied, or the adults might try to breed with them. And finally, brothers and sisters can’t live together, again because they might try to breed. Of course in any of these scenarios you can discard the eggs, but budgies should be close to 2 years old before breeding, so you do not want young hens trying to lay eggs because of health risks. So thing brings you to either having to find homes for any offspring, or having more cages. Just something to keep in mind. You can still return Kiwi & Rainbow to the flock, and just not let them have a nest or claim any place in the cage as their nesting spot. And if you keep them separate for breeding, everyone will adjust with time.
I know this is a lot of information, but it’s good to know all of your options! Enjoy your flock!
Thanks for the updates,
Brenda
