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Parakeet Breeding

Parakeet Breeding

Reviewed by Petco’s Animal Care, Education and Compliance (ACE) Team

Parakeet reproduction basics | Risks of pet parakeet breeding | How to discourage parakeet breeding | Caring for baby parakeets 

parakeet

If you’re a proud parent to a parakeet (also called a budgie or budgerigar), the thought of being the parent of baby parakeets likely sounds great. However, parakeet breeding is easier for professionals with the facilities and knowledge to support bird families.

Promoting pet bird breeding can be stressful for the pet parent, their parakeets and the babies. If you’re interested in caring for a young bird, it’s better to get one from a qualified, reputable breeder than to try breeding birds yourself.

However, if you have male and female birds in the same enclosure, the arrival of parakeet eggs may be a surprise and a source of stress if you don’t know how to help your pets care for them. Take time to learn about and understand how parakeets mate, how and why to discourage mating and how to support egg development if your birds end up making plans of their own. Check out our Parakeet Care Sheet to learn more about these fascinating and talkative pets.

Parakeet reproduction basics

Parakeets can breed from a very young age. Technically, parakeet mating can begin as early as six months old, when parakeets become sexually mature. Budgies tend to be attracted to other budgies with similar colored feathers, and brightness matters, too—the vibrancy of budgies’ unique plumage can signal that a potential mate is healthy and will likely be a successful breeding partner.

Risks of pet parakeet breeding

While parakeets’ mating rituals, such as regurgitating food to each other, may sound fascinating, pet parents should try to discourage these behaviors before they appear. Breeding isn’t bad for parakeets, but supporting pregnant females, developing eggs and newborn birds at home requires specialized knowledge and may carry various health risks.

The risk of encouraging parakeets to breed starts with having a male and female in the same living space. Even if a pair is of similar size and color and seems ideal for breeding, there’s a chance that they won’t get along. This can lead to fighting and your pets becoming injured—a scenario typically not worth the rewards of breeding.

A pregnant parakeet faces more health complications even when part of a successful mating pair. Pregnant females have unique nutritional needs, which, if not met, can lead to problems like egg binding. This is when an egg becomes stuck inside the female— with potentially fatal consequences. Additionally, baby parakeets can involve a lot of work for the average pet parent. Weaning baby birds typically requires training, and ensuring they don’t become injured in or around the nesting box requires vigilance.

How to discourage parakeet breeding

Because of all the potential behavioral and health risks when parakeets mate, one of the easiest ways to discourage your pets from breeding is by keeping only birds of the same sex together. While some birds still might not get along, female parakeets are typically more territorial than males.

Parakeets of both sexes can live harmoniously, and many pet parents prefer to keep them in the same living space. Keeping them together is okay if they get along well, but you’ll have to monitor them closely for breeding behaviors. If it’s mating season and you house two parakeets of similar age together, you may notice them displaying courtship rituals, including the male spreading his wings and showing off his plumage to the female. Males and females also may display different mating chirps if one is trying to attract the other.

Parakeet mating signs include touching beaks, rubbing against each other, grooming each other and generally becoming close to one another, both physically and behaviorally. Sometimes, even things pet parents do may inadvertently encourage or instigate these behaviors. Mirrors and mirrored toys may confuse birds into thinking their reflection is another bird carrying many of the same physical attributes that make them ideal for mating with. Pet parents stroking and petting their parakeet’s bodies can also send mixed signals, as this form of contact mimics how these birds touch each other before mating. Therefore, pet parents should only pet their bird’s head when showing them affection.

If you notice breeding behavior between your birds, it might be time to separate the pair before they mate. However, some breeding behaviors can be hard to catch if you’re not looking for them—and the actual act of mating can be brief—so your female parakeet may become pregnant despite your best efforts to deter this from happening.

Caring for baby parakeets

If your birds mate without your knowledge and you now find parakeet eggs hatching, you can support your birds in caring for their offspring. However, parakeet parents typically do a great job caring for chicks on their own. For the first few weeks after the eggs hatch, your only job will likely be to monitor the babies for signs of illness or developmental issues. Your vet may be able to give you a list of signs to look out for.

Around the time they begin to grow feathers, chicks will start weaning. Ideally, parakeet parents should do the feeding, as their instinctual regurgitation provides the chicks with ideal nutrition. If the parents are not able to feed their chicks, the chicks will need to be fed and weaned by hand. Hand-feeding baby parakeets requires skill and knowledge, so you should consult your veterinarian regarding how to hand-feed. Take a look at our Medium Parakeet Care Sheet to help anticipate your chicks’ needs before your they are grown.

Featured Parakeet Toys

FAQs about parakeet breeding

How do parakeets mate?

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After the traditional mating ritual of the male “kissing” the female—tapping his beak against hers—the female will lift her tailale if she is ready to mate. The parakeet mating act is described as thebest described through the so-called cloacal kiss and involves them rubbing their cloacae (the organ that collect eggs in females and sperm in males and opens to the outside through the vent) together in a side-to-side motion. TAll this action occurscan be over quickly, so this mating act can be easy for pet parents to miss.

When is parakeet mating season?

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In nature the wild, parakeets typically mate in the spring. While the exact timeframe can vary slightly when they live in habitats, it still typically occurs sometime in spring.

How many eggs do parakeets lay?

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After mating, the female lays the first parakeet eggs should arrive in the nest  within two days. The mother bird may not lay an egg every day, but she will typically stop producing them after she has laidthere are around four to eight. Parakeets become pregnant only once a season, so the female won’t lay eggs more than once a year.

How long does it take parakeet eggs to hatch?

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After mating, the female lays the first parakeet eggs should arrive in the nest  within two days. The mother bird may not lay an egg every day, but she will typically stop producing them after she has laidthere are around four to eight. Parakeets become pregnant only once a season, so the female won’t lay eggs more than once a year. Once a parakeet egg hatches, baby parakeets are typically ready to leave the nest in about four to five weeks. 

Why don’t some eggs hatch?

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There are several reasonswhy an egg will not successfully hatch in a parakeet nest. Sometimes single females housed without maleswill lay an infertile eggs due to cycling hormone levelss, and sometimes a male bird may be sterile. An Infertile unsccessfuleggs will be laiddropped but do not have a chance at survival. Other times, the baby parakeet maydoes not develop correctly within the egg. Parakeet eggs can also be damaged if they fall from the nest perch. If a mother senses something is wrong with her egg, she may also may give it up and toss it from the nest. These birds are very intuitive, and if the female senses a developmental issue with the egg—or it carries an unfamiliar scent—she will reject it. Additionally, some young parakeet mothers may not properly sit on and incubate eggs so that they can hatch tend to their egg nests.

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