Breeding my budgie and gender telling...

Question
Hi Chrys, I was thinking of breeding my budgie, but I need to know what you need and what you do. I am pretty sure my budgie is a girl but I am not positive because the vet that told me didn't have too much experience with birds. Is it right that a girl budgie can have either a brown/tan/beige cere or a blue cere surrounded with white??? Ok, I was planning on breeding my budgie with my friends budgie, my friends budgie is definitely a boy and is in a very healthy condition...how do you introduce the budgies properly and how will you know if they plan on nesting together??? What happens if they attack each other when I put them together...if they attack each other, is that normal or should I separate them? Also, how do you tell if the eggs are fertile and if the cock or the hen tries to break the eggs does that mean it is not fertile...ok, thank you Chrys...if you have anything extra to tell me about please tell me that when you answer this question...
Thanks.

Answer
Hi, Bridget.  Thanks for posting!

You are correct in your information on how to sex budgies.  You can't "borrow" a bird from your friend and expect the 2 to mate and lay eggs like a cat or dog would in order to produce puppies or kittens.  Birds have to live together and pair-bond before they will even think about mating and producing offspring.  This means the 2 birds would have to live together for months in order to just bond.  Once birds pair-bond, you wouldn't want to separate them as birds mate for life.  If you want to allow your budgie to breed, you need to purchase a male that can live with your female from here out.  

You can introduce birds to one another in different ways, depending on the personalities of the birds involved.  You can put them together immediately and see how they act toward one another or you can set them next to each other in separate cages until they get used to each other, then put them together.  I prefer the latter since you don't know how they will react toward each other.  Then you can gradually introduce them to each other outside the cage to see how they will get along.

Once eggs are laid, you can candle them to see if they are fertile or not.  Egg breakage can mean an egg isn't fertile, but some birds develop a nasty habit of breaking all their eggs for whatever reason.  Sometimes birds will break their eggs if they feel their offspring will be in danger.  So, there's various reasons why birds break their eggs.

I would recommend you gain much more knowledge of birds and the breeding process BEFORE you allow your bird to breed.  There's much you need to learn!  Visit my website for more information:

www.angelfire.com/falcon/birdinfo/index.html

Chrys