What are the signs when a budgie is ready to mate?

[britany]

I've got a female and male budgie, lately I've been reliasing that the females cere has gone completely brown and the males is just the same, the male usually sings to the female and they're always together.
I have recently just put a nesting box in and the first day I put it in the female started looking around in the box, but now the female doesn't care about it and is leaving the box alone.
Could this be a sign that my bird wants to breed?
Because I really want to have baby budgies!theyre so cute!

[Marrie]

Moved this to the budgie section

Before you mate them make sure you do your research. You want the hen on a mostly fresh diet, with plenty of calcium available to avoid egg binding (cuttlebone and seeds/pellets are not enough if you are breeding). You want to know how to hand feed in case they should reject their chicks, you need hands on training with this, youtube videos are not enough. It is VERY easy to kill a chick if you aren't used to hand feeding. You want to know the signs for the common issues and what to do if you run into them - egg binding, sour crop, malformed eggs, etc. You want to have an avian vet available in case ANYTHING should go wrong with the clutch or hen. You also want to make sure you have provided proper UV exposure and humidity levels.

Breeding is a lot of responsibility, it is a lot more than just getting cute babies. If you have done all that already, great! And good luck in getting your clutch.

Here is a website with some information about budgie ceres color changes when they are in the breeding mood:
http://www.birds-online.de/allgemein/geschlecht_en.htm

[Kerry C]

Britany

It's obvious from all your questions you have yet to pick up a book on breeding budgies. There is a LOT of fantastic information already written on this subject that it is a crime for you to make your birds be your only learning curve. Also don't be one of those people who must be spoon fed this information. Those who have taken the time to read these books don't mind helping people with problems, but we HATE to spoon feed the information who would rather not do their own homework.

Chat boards are great for tips, but not the place to cut your teeth on vital information on a subject. Please do your birds a favor, take down the nest boxes. Work on converting your birds over to eating all types of fruits and veggies not just greens. During this time pick up some books on breeding budgies. Don't have a good soruce for these books? I LOVE htt://www.abebooks.com Just type in the name of your subject and you will get great results.

[britany]

i just cant get my birds to eat their fruits..and they're not touching their cuttle bone eaither..
and i do read books..its just that this is the first time i have tried to breed my birds and im just rying to get some good tips before i read my books which should be the other way round but anyway..
thanks!

[britany]

and also in my first text thingy i just wanted to know for sure if my birds were ready to mate and i do know the signs i was jst being extra extra sure

[britany]

and ive just borrowed some books from a near by library about this subject

[britany]

i hope the books do help or else i will have no information what so ever cos those are the only bird books about brreding them in the library..