I would like to hand raise a budgie please help?

Question

i breed budgies all the time so i know how to breed them

i have even chosen a baby i would like to hand raise

i would just like to know

how i can keep it warm and how often should i feed it

Answer 1

Undoubtedly the best staple diet for the budgie is millet seeds and canary seeds. Be sure to get these from your pet dealer or seedsman because he specialises in such and won't fail you. A millet spray is greatly appreciated by most budgies, in fact a great pastime for them.

Cuttlefish bone is obtainable from most pet shops and seed stores. A piece should always be available as it is the source of supply of lime which is so necessary when birds are laying eggs and rearing young. Sand of medium grade should be sprinkled over the floor of the house and also supplied in an earthenware vessel. A shelf placed inside the window is a suitable fixture and on this shelf can be placed earthenware or enamel dishes for food and water; the water pot need be only a small affair as budgerigars do not drink or bathe very much; water must, however, be available and fresh daily.

When the feeding dishes are being replenished it is unnecessary to throw out the old seed. It should be "blown" clean by holding the dish at the level of one's mouth, shaking it vigorously from side to side and blowing off the husks; the new seed can then be sprinkled over the old and there will be less waste.

Green Food

This, in some form, should be supplied regularly, because it contains most of the vitamins so essential to your bird's health.

Almost any green food that a budgerigar will eat does it good. Spinach, beet, lettuce, cabbage, groundsel, dandelion and seeding grasses are all excellent. The last are specially recommended and budgies are particularly fond of them. A turf of grass, roots and all, put into the cage or aviary is a fine way of giving green food, and the birds will enjoy biting it and tearing it to pieces after they have eaten the green part.

Care should be exercised that all green food is absolutely fresh. Stale or withered leaves or ones that have been frost­bitten should never be offered, as such have not only lost their feeding value but may cause intestinal trouble in your birds. Unless green food can be given fresh, it is best with­held altogether.

Fruit and root vegetables are not normally eaten by budgerigars, but if your birds will eat them they will benefit by doing so. Apple, carrot, or turnip cut into slices all make good green food substitutes, especially in winter time when green leaves are scarce.

You can give your budgies all the green food or fruit they will eat, but do not leave uneaten pieces to lie on the cage or aviary floor and eventually go bad, for reasons already given.

Answer 2

I don't recomend hand raising babies because they need to be fed a specialized baby formula until they are weaned, NOT seed or other food. Like any other baby, they need formula, and feeding it can be potentially deadly. The formula is usually a powder base that needs to be kept in the fridge, then mixed with hot water before you feed it.

First off, you have to heat the water BEFORE adding it to the formula. The temp. MUST be between 104 degrees farenheit and 106 degrees farenheit. Any hotter then that and it will literally burn a hole through the crop of the bird. Any colder then that and the bird can easily get a bacteria infection and die (the food contains a lot of bacteria and it is the higher temp. that makes it safe). That alone is deadly.

Next, you have to feed it to them with a syriange. There are two holes down a birds throat, one is to the crop, the other is to their lungs. Insert the syriange down the wrong way and you drown them.

Plus, if you overfeed the bird, the crop explodes. Underfeed it, the bird can easily get sick, and die. Its sometimes hard to tell if a young bird is underfed because the feathers hide the sunken in crop and you have to know what to feel for. Sounds scary, doesn't it?

The fact that you breed them is a good start. I would find a reputable breeder in your area and ask them to mentor and train you (find a parrot or conure breeder, almost every large bird is hand fed to keep them tame). After they say you can confidently hand feed, then hand feed.

EDIT: For some reason I don't know if I believe you when you say you know what to feed it. If you know how to hand feed then you should also know how often and how much to hand feed. Sorry, thats just the impression Im getting...

Answer 3

In my experience budgies are the hardest birds to handraise, and just not worth the effort.

I've handraised tiels, quakers, bourke's, lovebirds and budgies and had nothing but problems with budgies.

Seeing there is no difference in the friendliness of a budgie either hand reared or taken for hand training at weaning it really is a whole lot of time and effort for nothing.

If taken from the nest at 10-14 days (most common age when handraising) you will need to feed it 4 or 5 times a day. I feed at 6:30am, 12:00pm, 6pm and 11pm. Occasionally at this age they will also get you up around 3am for a feed.

Heating is very important. A chick not kept at the correct temp can result in slow Crop emptying ,cold babies that can not regulate their temps, overheating babies, just to name a few probs and can quickly and easily lead to death.

A commercial brooder is the best way to go, but these can run in the hundreds of dollars.

I've had great success with my little home made brooder...a plastic aquarium, heat pad and heat lamp, but you need to keep a VERY close eye on the temp at all times as these aren't exactly "accurate" like a commercial brooder. The temps in these need to be checked right through the night as they aren't self regulating.

I love handraising birds but it's hard and constant work. You can't take time off and your life needs to be organised around being home to feed.

Honestly, save yourself the effort....budgies just don't take to feeding like other birds, and you will get the exact same results (without the time, cost and effort) is they just take it and handtame after weaning.

Also if you don't have a mentor show you *how* to properly handfeed you run a good risk of killing the chick.