Should I Support My Friend Who Is Thinking About Breeding Her Pet Birds?
A friend of mine has 2 pet parakeets that are still young. When she bought them she thought they were both male, but one may be a female. She has bean talking about the possibility of them breeding. I don’t know whether I should support her or not. She has never had birds before, and has never bread a pet before (that I know of). Can someone give me some pros/cons/information on breeding parakeets at home so I can be more informed about this?
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No; I don’t think you should support her in that.
Ask her what her purpose in breeding these birds is. If she is planning to just breed them for “Fun” or to “make some money,” then she is sadly mistaken on what Aviculture entails.
Like dogs, I believe parrots should only be bred with the intentions of adding something good to the species. Not all parrots are candidates for breeding; they should have sound temperment and good genetics; and further, I believe Budgies should be allowed free-flight in large Aviaries and be allowed to choose their mates, so that nature allows the birds to only choose the mates who have the best potential; or in this case, the best genes to pass on.
Ask her if she can physically show proof that she knows the parents of her birds, and that they are not related. It would be very ignorant of her to breed these birds without knowing their history, genes & relatives.
Also ask her what she plans to feed the parents before, during & after breeding season, since many budgies are VERY hard to convert from their typical seed-only diets onto healthier foods with higher lipid & protien content during breeding season.
Ask her if she knows how to fix splayed legs, undershot beaks, how much research she has done and if she knows how to properly handfeed baby parrots in the event that one or both of her parent birds do not take care of the babies.
I would say “no”. Just because you have a male and female bird, you may not have birds that will breed. Also, when you start breeding, you need to know how to take care of the babies if the parents don’t (if you’ve never hand-fed a baby bird before, it’s almost like having a human newborn — you have to feed them every hour or so in the beginning, and that means 24-7). Multiply that times several babies at once. It’s also a LOT easier to kill baby birds from improper handfeeding.
Breeding them is a bad idea if they’re pet store birds because there’s no way to know their genetic backgrounds, like if they’re inbred or would be likely to pass something bad to the chicks. It’s also a bad idea if she hasn’t researched it extensively (which if she had, she should already know not to breed them without knowing anything about their genetic backgrounds) and decided that she’s willing and able to do everything like spend a lot of money, handfeed the babies (which if that needs doing, has to be done so often that she wouldn’t really have time for much else), and get the birds to an avian vet (who should always be available) anytime something goes wrong with the parents or chicks because there’s a lot of breeding-related health problems that can happen.
I assume she is doing this for money? I recommend having her go to petfinders.org to see how many unwanted birds there are out there. And support her by suggesting she read up on it first. LOTS of things go wrong when breeding animals (especially birds) can she afford a significant vet bill if a bird gets ll due to a gestational/egg laying problem. I guess it ls like being a parent – I certainly hope she knows what she is getting into and does research.
Personally – I think people should adopt pets as opposed to buy/create them. I suggest petfinders.org – you can find virtually any kind of pet from a dog or cat, bird or horse – even chicken!
The phrase “adopt on until there are none!” is on the back of my car bumper!
Not if you think it’s wrong.
Go to petfinder.com and show her how many budgies are up for adoption on this one site. And there are many, many more sites like it.
I agree with you. There are far too many budgies being bred and up for adoption for her want to bring more into the world.
Her parakeets need to be at least a year old to be sexually mature enough to breed. Although it may seem like fun to breed her birds, she needs to realize they will no longer be interested in her and that she will have entire flock on her hands soon enough.
Also, if something goes wrong, her inexperience with breeding could lead to death in some cases. If she wants to go through with this, make sure she is in close contact with an Avian Specialist and a vet as well as other successful budgie breeders in her area. http://s14.invisionfree.com/justbudgies/http://www.wineintro.com/forum/http://forums.budgiebreeders.asn.au/http://www.birdtricks.com/Parakeet