Breeding pair of budgies

Question
Hello again & thank you very much for your help, I plan to get them from a petshop with a large selection of budgies.. the pet store has them in large flight cages also so they should be fairly easy to sex. I do only want one pair because I can not have too many birds because of where I am living at this time and I already have one love bird and two more coming(allpeach faced and peach faced mutations). I was wondering if I happen to see a male/female pair sitting beside each other would they be more likely to pair bond then a pair sitting oppisite from each other?

And one more thing the cage I plan to get will be 23 inches tall, 18 inches long and 13 inches deep & on a stand making it 58 inches tall, is this ok for a single pair who will porobly get to come ut for exercise some times.



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Followup To
Question -
Hello, I want to get a young breeding pair of budgies to breed in the future but I have no clue on how to sex the young fellows I pick out and was hoping you could help.

I plan to get Tri colored, turiwise, yellow pied or grey... I plan to get one of each color. Also I was wondering if I get the both at the same time and they live together from that day on will they bond properly to breed? they will be 8/10 weeks old, thanks

Answer -
I wanted to provide more information to supplement my response, since you didn't feel I answered your question sufficiently.

Budgies/parakeets are sexed by the color of their ceres (the area above their nostrils).  Normally, a male's cere will be blue and a female's cere will be brown/tan/beige.  However, a female can also have a blue cere, but the edges (frame around the cere) will be white.  This white framing is often difficult to see to an inexperienced eye...it would be the area right where the cere meets the feathers.  Often times, if you don't have a confirmed male right next to the one you are trying to sex, you might not see this white framing.    

Certain mixed mutations/phenotypes (colors) of budgies/keets will have cere colors that are hard to differentiate male from female.  For example, a tri-colored budgie/keet might have a purple cere.  I had a tri-colored keet whose cere was multicolored.  I thought he was male until he laid an egg!   

Budgie/keet ceres don't usually "color out" completely until they are 3-4 months of age.  This is why I stated a bird 8-10 weeks old will most likely be difficult to sex by an inexperienced eye.  Then, with the addition of the difficult-to-sex-colors, you have twice the complication of trying to sex a 8-10 week old bird.  A budgie/keet breeder who sexes all color mutations of birds on regular basis would be able to offer more detailed information on what you should be looking for in a bird 8-10 weeks of age.  However, not even they are always completely correct.  I have a lot of experience with budgies/keets, but most of my customers don't care what sex they buy...they just want one of my birds!  This is why someone more experienced in sexing budgies/keets on a more regular basis should be able to help you out more than I since you want to breed them.  And, even then, you might find "errors" in sexing.  If you want to breed budgies/keets, it shouldn't matter if they are tame or not...the best breeding birds are usually those who are NOT tame.  Therefore, it would be best, with the color mutations you are interested in, to buy birds who are 3-4 months of age to ENSURE you buy the correct sexes.  Otherwise, a better decision would be to buy more than 2 birds, put them together, and let them choose who they want to mate up with.  Just because we put 2 birds together in a cage, doesn't mean they will like each other enough to pair-bond.  Mother Nature's rule is survival of the fittest and birds will mate up with other's who fit this rule.
 
Chrys   


Hi,

Budgies 8-10 weeks of age are VERY DIFFICULT to sex, especially the phenotypes (colors) you mention above (don't recognize "tiriwise").  Sometimes these phenotypes are hard to sex even when they are several months old.  You'll have to do some internet searches and find some experts on budgie/parakeet sexing in order to become knowledgeable enough to learn how to sex budgies of the colorations you want when they are 8-10 weeks old.  I don't have this expertise when they are this young.  I have a hard enough time sexing plain blue and green budgies when they are a couple of months old!  

I can't say in advance if the budgies you put together will pair-bond.  This depends on the individual birds.  Chances are they will pair-bond, but there are no guarantees.  Of course, you have to have the correct sexes paired together.

Sorry I couldn't help more.

Chrys  

Answer
Hi, again.  Just because 2 birds sit next to each other doesn't mean they are of opposite sexes and/or would make a good pair and/or would pair bond.  Siblings very often stay/sit together in a situation like at a pet shop because each is familiar with the other and you shouldn't breed related birds with each other.  Parrots who are just friends often sit next to each other (they could also be of the same sex).  Maybe these would pair bond, maybe not.  Birds at 8-10 weeks of age don't have a clue yet about breeding/mating!  Therefore, a pair sitting next to each other in an aviary at a pet shop may not necessarily be your best choice.  If I had to make a decision like this, I'd pick UNRELATED birds (be careful...at a pet shop in an aviary situation like this, there could be many related birds in the aviary), of CONFIRMED opposite sexes, and the birds who looked to be in the best of health, good feather, active, etc.

The size of the cage you describe doesn't seem large enough for a pair of budgies with dishes, toys, perches, etc., especially if you plan on breeding them.  With a cage this small, you'd have to place the nesting box on the outside of the cage.  In addition, if you don't pull the babies for handfeeding at 7-10 days of age, this size cage is definitely too small.  The size of the stand has nothing to do with the amount of room available inside the cage.

Chrys