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Question:

February 25, 2021

Why is my male budgie not breeding!?


I have a male budgie who’s about 1 year old and his cere also looks like he’s mature enough to breed. But when the female accepts to mate, he just climbs on her and do nothing. I don’t know why he won’t do anything after flirting for so long


Answer:

Hi Gary,

Captive raised birds tend to become sexually mature at a younger age than in the wild, but they really are not ready to be breeders yet. Your little guy is barely mature at one year old. It would be best to wait at least 6 months before giving the pair a nest box. The female should be closer to two years old, so if she is also only a year, again, I would not be breeding them yet and definitely not give them a nest box yet. When young birds are set up for breeding, they often make mistakes or develop bad breeding habits that ruin them as being breeders. Females are at a higher risk of becoming egg bound and dying. Both male and female are still developing physically and emotionally, so while they may start mating, they tend to only be interested in mating and not interested in settling down to care for eggs or chicks. Young pairs will ignore eggs and keep mating, or they don’t incubate the eggs regularly, or the worst habit – they eat the eggs. When a pair starts these behaviors, they rarely stop so they never manage to hatch chicks. Give your pair some time to finish maturing and developing and you are more likely to see success from them down the line.

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda

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