When are budgies ready to breed? (1)

You might be curious about this if you have a couple of budgies yourself. In fact, there is more than one way to tell when your budgies are mentally en physically ready to breed.

Young parents

I'll start off with the most obvious one: age. You must know how old your birds are before you put a nesting box in the cage. Even though budgies are physically ready to breed by the age of 6 months, they are simply too young to rear offspring. Six months for a budgie equals about 13 years in human age, these budgies are too young and not mentally ready to be parents. In the worst case, the mother could eat the eggs, abandon the nest too early or attack the hatchlings. So you can already see, there are some things to be considered first, before you put a nesting box on the shopping list.

Photo © Milan on My Opera

So when are they ready?

The youngest that most budgie breeders accept as safe is a full year. Many feel that 18 months is even better. It's better to give your birds all the time they need before they start on a nest.

What if I give them too much time?

You also might want to know if your budgies are too old to breed. Female budgies mostly breed when they are between 1 - 3 years old. When it comes to male budgies, this can be extended to six years.