How to Breed a Pet Parakeet

Breeding your pet parakeets can be easier than it seems. If you provide the right conditions for your pet, your parakeets will breed successfully. Proper nutrition and a good nest box will stimulate your parakeet's urge to breed, so if you dedicate yourself to your pet's well-being, you'll be rewarded with a healthy brood.

Things You'll Need

• Breeding cage
• Nest box
• Ceramic dishes
• Seed mix
• Soft bird food
• Nesting material

Instructions

Sex Your Parakeets

1. Plan on buying a "true pair" in order to breed your parakeets.

2. Know that blue parakeets will have a bright blue cere, or upper beak area.

3. Expect that your male parakeet's cere to be pink if he is a white and yellow parakeet. You'll need to ask a bird professional to sex white and yellow birds, because the ceres are very similar in color.

4. Look for a rough cere on parakeets. On any color bird, this indicates that it's a female and ready for breeding.

5. Breed parakeets aged around ten to eleven months old, which is the ideal age to begin breeding them.

Buy a Breeding Cage

1. Look for a breeding cage before you've brought your birds home. They will require an extra large cage to breed successfully.

2. Prepare the nest box for your parakeets. Look for a box with a single entry area that measures approximately eight inches square. Do not add the nest box to the cage until you are ready to breed your parakeets.

3. Add ceramic food dishes to your breeding cage.

Breed Your Parakeets

1. Watch your parakeets closely to determine when you should prepare the cage for mating. You will know when your parakeets have pair bonded when you see one feeding the other and doing a special "dance" that includes mounting the other one.

2. Feed your parakeets a special fortified mix to prepare them for breeding. Choose a blend of seeds prior to egg laying, and a soft food mix afterwards. This can be purchased at any quality pet store.

3. Begin feeding your parakeets their fortified mix a few months before breeding.

4. Add your nest box to the cage when you see that the pair of parakeets has bonded.

5. Provide soft nesting material in the cage. You can purchase a nesting mix and leave a little in a dish in the parakeet's cage, and they will begin to build the nest on their own.

6. Watch your male bird after your female parakeet lays eggs. He will enter the nest box to feed her, and she will only exit the nest box to drink water or defecate.

7. Wait until the baby parakeets hatch and mature. They'll almost be the same size as their parents when they emerge from the nest.

Tips & Warnings

• Just because your parakeet produces eggs doesn't mean that they will hatch. It's fairly common for two females to produce eggs.

• Finch breeding nests won't work. They are too small and won't provide your parakeets with the room needed to raise the brood.

• When feeding your birds, remove the seeds prior to giving them soft food. Parakeets will always choose seeds over soft food, which provides them essential nutrients and is easy to regurgitate for the babies.

Resources

• Visit Lisashea for over 900 articles about parakeets.
• Learn about parakeets at Budgieplace.
• Buy supplies for your bird at Tri-statebudgie.