budgie laid eggs

Question
Hi Chris, i've had a male and a female budgie for about 3 years. Two weeks ago the female laid an egg and ignored it. Instinctively i put a bunch of crinkled/shredded paper at the bottom of the cage for nesting and rested the egg on it in case she wanted to sit on it.  She kept ignoring it. After four days it was cold so i threw it away.  Four days ago she laid another one.  Same thing.

I can't imagine that a chick embryo could develop without being warm. I don't have time to watch over the birds all the time and wouldn't know how to incubate the eggs. I figure that the female either doesn't know what to do or doesn't want the eggs.

Did I do something wrong?  What should I do if it happens again?

BTW I've owned about 10 budgies over the past 15 years, usually 3-5 at a time. It took several tries to figure out the best number given the size of the cage, which has room for four.  I discovered that when I had three birds, two would pair up and one would get picked on.  More than three and there was too much to clean up every day, plus they dropped everywhere when I let them fly around indoors :O}

I'm not an expert but have tried to care for them. I read that they can live up to 12 years. A friend had one that almost made it to 15. Most have died after 3-5 years of what must have been strokes, or perhaps egg-binding now that I have read info and blogs on websites in researching the current situation.  I would love to see these birds live more then five years.

This is the first time that a female in my house has laid an egg. The two birds were pals when I saw them at the store so I bought them together.  They are very healthy and happy together and I take good care of them. (There is a cuttlebone and gravel with calcium that the birds eat.) I think I'm doing about as well as any amateur bird owner, but this situation and the short lifespans have me scratching my head.

Thanks for your help

Answer
 Hunt,

The short life span has more to do with the birds intial lifestyle. Pet shop animals are not typically cared for in the best of ways. They are usually bought and sold by the hundreds by breeders that raise purely for profit. 5 years is about the MAX you will get from a pet shop budgie although some do make it longer (12-13+ years) and even 15 years, which is rare. Birds that I have seen make it 12-13 years are fed a pellet diet, alot with fresh greens and fruits on a daily basis. They require these things for a long healthy life.

As for egg laying and egg hatching, a nest box will generally bring out the instinct in budgies to build nest and sit on the eggs. While you instinctively put the nest material down, the birds did not. Nest building and the whole works that follows brings out their desire to sit on eggs and raise the young. Some birds will sit on the eggs just fine, only to kill all of the babies when they are hatched! It is nature, you can't force them to do what they just don't have in them. Also the eggs may or may not have been fertile at that point. Female budgies will lay eggs regardless of wether they have actually mated and made the egg(s) fertile. If you are really interested in raising budgies, you should invest in some books and online research in regards to budgie breeding and hand feeding/raising baby budgies. After that you should look into getting a nesting box of appropriate size and let them do their work. If they have the instinct in them, they will raise the eggs successfully.

 Best of luck.