When one first starts out in the pastime of breeding Budgerigars, the prime objective for that person is to get the birds breeding. At this stage, quality is not really the significant factor and tends to be over-ruled by the desire to produce numbers. It is probably true to say that this is the only period that you will have in the hobby where quantity will come ahead of quality. While some breeders may disagree with this statement, it is my belief that the only way to learn about breeding Budgerigars, or any other type of bird for that matter, is to get on and do it. Fortunately for the beginner, the lesser quality birds are more prolific and so many of the breeding problems associated with top quality stock will not be experienced - yet! However, the basic management skills can be learnt, together with facing a number of the more common setbacks.
Following the initial learning period from both a breeding and management viewpoint, the assessment of quality features that are required for a winning bird will gradually be grasped. As this comes about, so your view of selecting pairs for breeding purposes will change. No longer should the objective be to produce as many offspring as possible but the emphasis now becomes centred on improvements in terms of quality and then developing the skills of getting the higher quality birds to reproduce in quantity. At this stage and from here on, every pairing you make should have a common aim and that is to reproduce youngsters that are better than their parents and can be used for either exhibition purposes or as a part of the next year’s breeding team.
Fine In Theory
What I have just stated; only pairing birds that are capable of producing outstanding youngsters, sounds fine in theory but in reality it is far from straight forward. Experience shows that certainly for Budgerigars and perhaps for many other species of bird, breeding patterns do not appear to follow true, as does many other types of livestock. It would seem, based on personal observations, that the reversionary influence to return to the wild state is very strong in our birds. Hence the reason why "the bad ones far outweigh the good ones" and you can expect to retain perhaps only 10% of each year’s young birds. Equally, the dominant natural green colour of the Budgerigar would soon take precedence over the various other beautiful shades.
Despite the unpredictability of breeding results it is still imperative that the best available birds are used in your breeding team. However, it should be stated that your team should consist of well-bred birds that are related, rather than offspring produced from "flash in the pan" results from chance pairings. Even is they are of apparent superior quality. These birds may, of course, be used but should be treated as outcrosses rather than main stream producers.
Specific Features
From time to time, you will discover that certain families of bird will show specific features in their breeding results. These could manifest as far better hens being produced than cocks or all of the Normals are good but any Cinnamons bred are poor, for example. In these instances the selection process of which to keep and which to dispose of is done for you. The way to take advantage of your bloodlines is to gain the knowledge of each family’s strengths and weaknesses and then combine them in the attempt to strengthen the stud overall.
For a person in their first few years in the hobby the ability to inbreed is limited because most often, the background of the individual birds in question are not fully known. The objective of all fanciers should be to develop a winning family of birds of their own origin. The best starting point for this exercise is a really good cock bird that is highly fertile and is prepotent. Prepotency simply means that he has the greater capacity in the pairing to transmit his good features into his offspring. Once again, this would appear to be a simple process but one which is unfortunately, more likely to fail than succeed. Prepotent cock birds of outstanding quality are very few and far between and so the better course of action is to proceed slowly and carefully. The first objective would be consistency in your group of birds and then when the quality has a common footing across the stud, which it can now be called, then advancement throughout can commence.
Good birds produced from chance pairings tend to take you back to point one after a couple of years. Also, in general, both parents are equal contributors to the resulting offspring and it is evident that a greater degree of consistency can be achieved by producing chicks from parents with common backgrounds. With surprising regularity, nature arranges that those features which we see as faults in our birds come to the surface. Carefully selection using the skills of the individual to eradicate as many of these faults as possible is the way to produce winning birds.
Two Areas Of Examination
On this basis there are two distinct areas of examination in the selection of suitable breeding pairs. The first is concerned with the attributes of each partner from an appearance and pedigree viewpoint for each bird. Using this criteria will enable us to pick a compatible and balanced breeding pair with the objective of producing better babies. The second, which is equally as important, is the consideration to be made at the time of pairing that assures the birds’ willingness and ability to reproduce
When two birds are selected to be paired together, one’s first consideration should be based upon their visual compatibility with much emphasis being placed upon the avoidance of the duplication of faults. You will, of course, realise that what you can actually see masks many other characteristics which are carried genetically hidden. It is at this point that the need for an organised breeding system is observed as being an essential requisite because the breeder must be aware, to as much extent as possible, the nature of these hidden features. In this context our birds are not very obliging as they hide their bad points along side the good ones and so either can emerge.
This organised breeding system is recognised in all aspects of livestock reproduction as employing close breeding techniques with the aim being to double up on the good points while eliminating the poor ones by breeding within families. The closeness of the family pairing will depend but if you are pairing say mother to son then this known as "in-breeding" where pairings of cousins in called "line-breeding".
Implement A Fix
Here we become aware of the importance of keeping detailed records, not only of the parentage, hatching date and habits of our stock but also of their visual strengths and weaknesses so that we can trace back to the origin of unexpected results and thus implement a fix. For example, if unexpectedly we find that we are starting to produce young that have central cap flecking, from apparently clean parents, our records should tell us at which point in the past we introduced an element into the family which created this originally recessive feature that has now come to the fore. Armed with this information we can formulate our progress and effort in its elimination.
We have already touched upon natures desire to return our birds to their natural state and this must be borne in mind when choosing pairs. It is highly doubtful that if we possessed the perfect cock and the perfect hen, when paired together they would produce replicate young. Because of the pull to return things to their former state certain desirable features in our pair need to be exaggerated in an attempt to compensate for this phenomenon.
Following the planning of pair selection prior to the commencement of breeding is the actual pairing itself. We have already sealed our destiny so far as quality is concerned in this process and now is the time to see that it is fulfilled in terms of quality. For it is within our birdrooms that we induce the willingness of our birds to reproduce.
External Stimulants
It has been discovered over the years that assuming physical fitness and maturity, there are certain external stimulants that result in the production of specific hormones that create the desirable breeding conditions required for reproduction. These include heat, light, food, an obliging mate and nesting conditions.
Budgerigars, unlike many other species of bird are not particularly susceptible to light stimulation or photoperiodism as it is scientifically called. However, many breeders throughout the world induce their birds to moult some three months prior to their breeding seasons by eliminating all artificial light and then over the coming weeks, the length of day is gradually artificially increased until at the point of pairing up there is some 16 hours of "day light" available and at the same time a minimum temperature of 450 F. is maintained. During the day lengthening period the birds will have completed their moult, will think that it’s Spring time and breeding condition will ensue.
It is perhaps worth pausing for a moment and considering what the indications of breeding condition there are in Budgerigars. For both sexes feather perfection is not required, however, they should not be in a moult. For the cock bird breeding condition can be measured by the blueness of their cere and by their behavioural activities. They will be seen to be flying with exitement and enthusiasm and landing with a great bounce. They will be lively and dance upon the perches. Cocks will rap beaks, be seen to be talking to each other with beaks pressed together and eyes dilating. Mutual feeding will also take place. As for the hen, she will have a nut-meg brown coloured cere and will be chewing at all accessible parts of the aviary; perches, window frames, doors and walls in a very destructive manner. They will also be lively and active about their movements. Above all, the aviary will have a fever pitch of noise and atmosphere that is quite distinct with excitement.
Mixed Flocks Recommended
Following on from this natural stimulation, albeit by artificial means, we should be attempting to still further emulate nature. In the wild, Budgerigars live together in flocks with the sexes mixed; they are gregarious. In the past it was fashionable in many Budgerigar breeders establishments that, outside of the breeding season, sexes were segregated. The reason for this was given as to initially avoid pair bonding and to increase sexual activity when the birds were introduced to the opposite sex in the breeding cage, thus improving the chance of fertile eggs. It is my recommendation that budgerigars should be kept in mixed sex flocks whenever possible. When segregated the hens tend to become lethargic and overweight and the cocks gain no sexual experience, while mixed flights bring about activity and improved fitness. Finally, pair bonds are not difficult to break and will not impair breeding results as originally thought.
In line with our overall plans, we wish to choose the various partners within the breeding cages and so to break any bonds that may have occurred in the mixed flight the sexes require segregation. This can take place four weeks prior to pairing which will provide ample time. As the designated pairing time approaches our breeding cages should be made ready plus any other maintenance jobs in the birdroom carried out.
In the wild, so far as the Budgerigar is concerned, it is the hen that chooses and prepares the nest site. She will fly off to the breeding area on her own and make ready. After approximately 3 days the cocks will follow, a brief courtship will ensue and mating will take place across the colony. To imitate this, my method is to place the hens in the breeding cages on their own on the designated day. The nest box will be in place and accessible. Sawdust will be placed inside the box - this does not act as a stimulant but will give the hen an opportunity to customise her own nest at other than the expense of chewing the box itself, some hens will eject all of the sawdust while others just arrange it to allow for the eggs and herself.
Here she is left for three days. During this period she will examine and gain confidence in her new surroundings, including the nest box and by the third day she will be raring to go.
Introducing The Cock
In my view, the best time to introduce the cock bird into the breeding cage is first thing in the morning as it is then that they are most active. When this takes place, due to the readiness of the hen, she will often stand for mating as soon as she is aware of his presence. However, if mating does not take place immediately there is no need for concern as different birds behave and react in different ways. So long as they appear to take to each other there should be no problems. It is worth noting that certain birds may never be seen to mate but fertile eggs are still produced. This is because mating may take place inside the nest box for instance or more likely during the periods when you are not in the birdroom. Alternatively, it is possible for birds seen mating regularly to still produce infertile eggs. Budgerigars are rarely sterile but cock birds do experience a cyclical production of sperm which means that they have periods where they may be seen to mate but will not be producing any sperm.
From here on there is little that the breeder can do to progress matters and nature must be allowed to take over. Very few breeding seasons are experienced without one, two or even a series of set-backs. These will be the subject of a future article.
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