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I'm waiting for my budgies to mate, weird behaviour! I was wondering do budgies practice mating stages or they do it all at once? I watched them a few times and he stops at a certain stage when his leg is on her.

um and one more thing, i female budgie sometimes bites my male budgies tale, i was wondering what does that mean?
And my female budgie keeps gnawing her perch, since it's a mating craving. What can i do to make her chew something else?

Jack, please take Kerry's good advice and do some reading about your birds BEFORE encouraging mating and eggs.

Posted by Kerry C on Fri Jan 22, 2010 6:05 pm: Jack -- Why don’t you take the nest box down and read a few books on the subject of breed. There is a LOT of great information out there. It is a crime to make your birds your first learning curve. There is PLENTY of time to set them up. While you are reading up on everything you need to know....what type of bedding to use as well as warning signs to look for when your birds are in trouble. In the mean time put your birds on a healthy diet. If they are seed junkies you need to convert them over to a HEALTHY diet of fresh fruits and veggie with seed being a tiny part of their diet. During this time your birds will get use to the new environment and changes. Your birds will get in breeding sink with each other. If you local pet shop does not carry a good supple of breeding books, I can highly recommend http://www.abebooks.com Search by subject. Prices WITH shipping can be less that at your local pet shop/book store. Be kind to your birds LEARN all you can. You would never build a car or a house without some sort of instruction. Why would you work with living, breathing, thinking animals and not know everything you could about them and what you want to do with them for their well being???? Chat boards like this are great for ideas, but breeders get resentful when someone is too lazy to read/research for themselves and want to be spoon fed the information. If there is a problem you need to be able to intelligently describe what is going on. You also will need to be able to understand what we are advising and asking as well. Fortify yourself with knowledge. Budgies sadly have the reputation as throw away birds because they are so easy to replace. Knowledge can save a lot of these birds lives.

1. I am glad that you are enjoying the experience. And raising budgies is not really difficult.
2. Budgies are mainly seed eaters. I hope that you are feeding them a diet of fortified seeds.
There is some discussion that those seeds do not make much of a difference, but the odds are
still in your favor. Then, you also need a calcium block (or cuttle bone). The little extra salt that
they need can come with about a 1/4 piece of whole grain bread occasionally. You already
know about fruits and vegetables.
3. Right now, your male is courting the hen, and he is not afraid of her. This is a good thing.
4. Now, get some reading done, like the ladies told you. The on-line sources are good.
I have not seen any inaccurate information about budgies.
5. All of the parrot species require a lot of time and patience, as you already know.
6.. If you had started with a pair of cockatoos, the tone of my reply would have been way different !

Thanks again, Al.