New Additions??? Continued....

Day 12 Feb. 26- And then there were 4!!! Rosy laid her 4th egg tonight! I had a feeling she would be laying an egg today....I notice that the day that she lays an egg her poops are extremely big!! I know, that's kind of gross, but it's something that I noticed!

Here's an updated picture:


A bit of budgie trivia:

* Budgies are native to Australia and in the wild they live together in flocks of up to 100 birds. These flocks often gather into clouds of hundreds of thousands or even millions.
* "Budgie" is short for budgerigar which is an Aboriginal word that means "good to eat".
* Blue is a primary color and is easily produced in budgies. It was the first color to appear in the budgie after its domestication. In the wild, budgies are green.

New Additions??? Continued.....

Day 10. Feb. 24 - So.....I was wrong! In this case I am happy I was wrong! I just checked and there are now 3 eggs!!! Here's an updated picture:

New Additions??? Continued.....

Day 10. Feb. 24 - I think maybe this will be a two egg clutch (which isn't unusual, a clutch can be anywhere from 2-8 eggs, with the most normal clutch of 6 eggs). I think Rosy has begun incubating the eggs. She is spending almost all of her time in the nest box and only comes out if something or someone approaches the breeding cage. I checked the nest box this morning, and the eggs were warm to the touch, an indication that she has been sitting on them.

Incubation period is 18-20 days, so if all goes well, the first chick should hatch on or about March 12th.

It's still possible that Rosy will continue to lay eggs even though she is sitting. The last clutch of babies I had each hatch a day or two apart, so by the time the last egg hatched, the first chick was MUCH bigger. Here is a picture.
You can definitely see which one is the oldest compared to the youngest! These babies are now grown, in fact...one of these babies is Rosy Cotton! (though I couldn't tell you which one without doing some research of my files...)

New Additions??? Continued.....

Well....Rosy surprised me! She laid her second egg today!! So, she laid her first egg on Day 7. and her second egg on Day 8. Here's a picture of both eggs.

New Additions??? Continued....

Day 7. Feb. 21 - THERE'S AN EGG IN THE NEST BOX!!!! Rosy Cotton continued to throw all the nesting material out, until there is only a very thin layer in the bottom. I checked after we got back from church and there's an egg!!! I'm so excited! The reason she laid the first egg on the cage floor is because she didn't like all that nesting material!

She continues to spend a lot of time in the nest box, but I don't think she is starting to incubate the egg. They don't start incubating until they've laid all the eggs they are going to. Once they start incubating, they never leave the eggs. They depend on the male to bring them food and water.

Day 8. Feb. 22 - I saw Rodney and Rosy Cotton mating this morning, so expect another egg soon, probably tomorrow.
Here is a picture of Rosy and Rodney's egg!! It's about the size of a jelly bean.

New Additions??? Continued.....

Day 5. Feb 19 - Not too much to report today. No new eggs yet. The only new behavior, is that Rosy Cotton has proceeded to throw almost ALL of the nesting material OUT of the nest box! Boy, what a mess! There are wood shavings EVERYWHERE! LOL

Budgies in the wild don't use any kind of nesting material. They just lay their eggs in a hollow tree. The use of nesting material is said to improve incubation. It also helps to prevent a condition called "splayed leg" in the babies. This is where one or both of the babies legs begin to turn outwards, like a severe case of knocked knees. What happens is, the baby isn't able to get a firm grip on anything in the nest and their legs keep sliding outwards, resulting in splayed leg.

The very first budgies I ever raised were "accidents", so I wasn't prepared. Mama bird just laid the eggs in the bottom of the cage and incubated them there. I did not expect for the eggs to hatch, so when they did.....BOY was I surprised!! Because of the incorrect surface, one of the babies ended up getting splayed leg. I was able to correct the problem by putting a splint (made of a small piece of sponge) on the babies legs. I was then forced to hand feed the baby. I named her "Pip", and to this day she is my favorite budgie, and my most friendly budgie.

Here you can see Pip with the splint on her legs.

















Here I am hand feeding her.















Here is Pip (she's the white one on the left) with her sister Merry. Her legs are perfect! :)

New Additions??? continued.....

Last evening Rosy Cotton laid an egg!!!! Bad news is....she laid it in the bottom of the cage! So, I put the egg in the nest box so that she would hopefully get the idea that THAT is where she is supposed to lay eggs!! I checked later in the evening, and somehow she had buried the egg under the nesting material. I unburied it and didn't check again until today.

Day 4. Feb 18 - This morning when I checked.....the egg was missing!!! I searched through the nesting material, and finally found the egg, but it was broken. :( I don't know if Rosy Cotton ate it or if it just got broken from her scratching around.

Rosy Cotton is spending more and more time in the nest box. It seems every time I come into the room, she is in it. I don't know exactly what that means, but I hope that it means she is figuring out what it is for.

I expect to see another egg tomorrow. They generally lay eggs every other day until they reach a clutch of between 2-8 eggs.

New Additions???

It's been a long time since I've written anything in my blog (I told you I wasn't very consistent with this sort of thing). I now have something interesting to write about, so I will try to post something every day.

On Monday, I decided to try and breed a pair of my parakeets (budgies). Back in the Fall I had tried, but the pair I chose (Rodney and Tapell) just weren't interested in each other, so the attempt was fruitless. After returning the pair to the aviary, I decided to watch all of my budgies (I have 9 of them) to see which pair was already bonded. Low and behold, Rodney is bonded to a different female!! Her name is Rosy Cotton (after Samwise Gamgee's wife in the "Lord of the Rings"). Originally I had named her "Frodo", because I thought she was a boy....then her cere turned pink and I knew I had picked the WRONG name, so sticking to the Hobbit theme, I chose Rosy Cotton.

I've decided to keep a daily log of the process.

Day 1. Feb. 15 - They were singing and eating soon after being put in the breeding cage. They were still nervous and flighty and spooked easily.

Day 2. Feb. 16 - They were more relaxed and ate seed, but didn't touch their "soft" food. (In this case, it was cooked plain pasta, corn and raw parsley). Some very exciting news.....Rosy Cotton went into the nest box!!!! This is a very good sign. She also began chewing on the opening on the nest box, which is also a good sign. Female birds are very persnickety about their nests, the chewing shows that she cares what her nest looks like and wants to "make it her own".

Day 3. Feb 17 - They are VERY relaxed. They only get nervous when I reach my hand into the breeding cage to change their "soft" food. They have spent much of the afternoon preening each other and feeding each other. Rosy Cotton has gone into the nest box numerous times, and Rodney sits right outside the opening and even sticks his head inside to talk to her. They are still eating seed and are now eating the "soft" food as well. I have not witnessed any actual mating, but often times you don't.

This is a picture of Rosy Cotton when she was a baby. She looks pretty much the same, only her cere (the part right above her beak) is now a tannish/brown color, and she is bigger. I hand raised her from a baby. Her parents were my very first budgies. Her mom is "Bluey", whom I affectionately call "Mama". Mama is approximately 7 years old, so I no longer breed her. Rosy Cotton's dad is "Spock". Unfortunately, he passed away about 2 years ago.


The green and yellow bird is Rodney. I bought him in a pet store. I also bought the blue bird next to him at the same store. Her name is Teyla. One year ago tomorrow, Teyla died. I can't be certain why she died, but suspect she had night fright and killed herself by running into something in the aviary.

If Rodney and Rosy Cotton lay eggs and then hatch them, I will take pictures along the way and upload them.