Budgie contraception?

[weelouie]

Right now I have six budgies in my big cage. Three of them are juvenile chicks from the pair of adults, they are almost grown up. Now the cock is busy courting and mating with the hen again. I don't have a nest box in the cage. I don't want them to hatch any more chicks if I can avoid it. 

Will they lay eggs and hatch chicks without a nest box? Will it cause problems if I don't give them a nest box? Will this prevent them from hatching another clutch of eggs? Or will she lay them elsewhere like in a food dish or on the bottom of the cage if I don't give them a box? Is separating the sexes the only way to prevent breeding? 

[milliej]

Hmm I've sometimes wondered about the gene pool in aviaries where budgies are kept as 'pets' and they interbreed with close 'kin'. I would imagine they'd be more prone to weak immune systems and in danger of having health problems or even deformities?
How long have you had the breeding pair? If they've mated over time and only had one clutch they may not have another but not having a nest box should help hopefully! My two mate regularly but the hen has never laid eggs (no nest box) it's a bit of a guessing game though, some of our members have aviary's and/or multiple birds so hopefully they can offer some help when they see your post.

[OP]

I don't suppose a vasectomy would work or even bromide.

[weelouie]

Oct 10, 2016 16:33:08 GMT milliej said:

Hmm I've sometimes wondered about the gene pool in aviaries where budgies are kept as 'pets' and they interbreed with close 'kin'. I would imagine they'd be more prone to weak immune systems and in danger of having health problems or even deformities?
How long have you had the breeding pair? If they've mated over time and only had one clutch they may not have another but not having a nest box should help hopefully! My two mate regularly but the hen has never laid eggs (no nest box) it's a bit of a guessing game though, some of our members have aviary's and/or multiple birds so hopefully they can offer some help when they see your post.

I rescued these budgies only a couple of days ago, they were left behind when a tenant in my building moved out. They were crammed into a small, filthy cage. It had a nest box which was also filthy, so I threw it out. Today I tried attaching a bird bath to the cage to see what they'd do. First the hen explored it carefully, then the cock did the same thing. When they realized it wasn't a nest box, it was ignored after that.

It didn't take long for me to figure out "who's who" based on their behaviour. Three of them are very young, fully fledged but the youngest still depends on the parents to feed her. She's clumsier than the other two, probably because she was the last to hatch. Today I was watching the male teaching her how to feed out of a dish. There's another male who's older than the chicks but still young. He hangs around with the alpha male, and I'm wondering if he could be from a previous clutch. However, everyone else is yellow and green pied (except the father who's yellow and dark blue-green), he's pure blue and white pied.

I was also concerned about inbreeding, as well as running out of space with new chicks being hatched. I don't know the gender of the chicks yet but I was worried that their father might try to mate with them when they grow up. 

[skysmum]

As long as there is no nest box or anything that resembles a nest you wont have a problem, the hen will probably keep dropping eggs for a while, if you just keep removing them she will stop, moving things around in the cage on a regular basis will also knock her off her stroke. Lovely birds and well done for taking them in

[Hezz]

Keep changing things around, shorten their daylight hours (ie put them to bed early), some suggest leaving the eggs, if any are laid, but I have not tried this myself. If the hen is insistent you might have to separate her and put her into a "stressful situation" to break the cycle.

[weelouie]

Update: So far I haven't seen any eggs, but this morning I noticed one of the young ones digging in their grit dish, then sitting in it like it's a nest. I checked but there are no eggs anywhere in the cage. As a precaution (and to reduce the mess) I moved the grit dish down near the bottom of the cage at the front so it feels less secure than an ideal nesting spot. I haven't seen her in it since. I think I've got my work cut out for me because now the blue and white cock has begun wooing the younger birds (whose gender I'm not 100% sure of due to their young age). His singing and complex head bobbing gestures are quite amusing to watch!

[Hezz]

Young budgies love to nestle down into their seed-pots etc; it is not necessarily a nesting behaviour, as in laying eggs, but more as chicks wanting to have that nest feel around them, not wanting to completely be part of the big bad world.