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Is my girl too small?

CharlieBirb

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So I am hoping to breed my Budgie girl, Mabel, with her partner Benji, but I am concerned about her size. She is very small for a budgie, but 100% healthy. She weighs about 33g, but is way smaller than Benji or Charlie, who both weigh 35g. I just worry that she may be too small to pass eggs.
 

JLcribber

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CharlieBirb

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Are you all saying in general or just her because of size?
 

saroj12

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Why do you want to breed? If you want more budgies adopt them from a rescue! Give a needy bird a home.
 

saroj12

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Besides she is tiny. Don't risk her life.
 

CharlieBirb

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The reason I want to breed is not to get more birds. Honestly, I want to help prevent birds from being purchased from Mass breeders. I want to promote a good bloodline and proper care. The pet store I work at (not naming names, but not a mass chain like PetSmart or Petco) normally gets animals from big breeders, and I want to help change that. I've had birds all my life, ranging from tiels to Toos, so I have experience and care, and I am willing to spend what I need to if something goes wrong or any of my birds fall ill. I want to do everything correctly which is why I posted this question.
 

Mizzely

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What is your vet's opinion?
 

JLcribber

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The reason I want to breed is not to get more birds. Honestly, I want to help prevent birds from being purchased from Mass breeders.

How is you breeding a few birds going to affect mass breeding in any way?

The pet store I work at (not naming names, but not a mass chain like PetSmart or Petco) normally gets animals from big breeders, and I want to help change that

Well I hate to break it to you but you working for them and helping them prosper is exactly opposite of what you're saying. The way to stop breeding is to stop breeding. Stop "buying" birds and making profitable to do so.

If you really want to help, steer anyone looking for a bird towards a rescue/shelter where there are already an abundance of birds just waiting for a home.
 

cosmolove

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I personally do not think you should breed but that is a decision you will need to make and I highly recommend researching. I frequently have people trying to GIVE me budgies (cages/supplies and all) they're severely over bred because people can get them anywhere (even Mejiers and Walmart use to sell them!) and the first thing people think of with birds for some reason is breeding them. Now off the soap box and I would like to give some information based on working with a lovebird breeder when I was younger :)

First thing to consider is WHERE did you get your budgies, if you're going to breed you're going to want quality breeding stock. This is not going to be a bird from a pet store or any other mass breeder. You're going to be looking at a well known, reputable breeder ONLY. They all look very young with the exception of the blue male. She could be small due to being very young but in my opinion she does look very small. Another thing to keep in mind is that breeding often means your tame pets will not longer be so nice and want to be held. Often when birds are bred they get very hormonal and can get territorial even. They won't want anything to do with you when there are eggs and babies around. Even after the babies are gone they STILL may never want to be tame and interact with you as they once had before. Based on a post you made about a year ago about your male he seems like a super tame and sweet bird. The next thing to consider is handfeeding. Most people buying babies want handfed babies. Handfeeding is a LOT of work, especially for smaller birds. Depending on when you pull from the nest you'll be feeding every 2-4 hours at first probably. Are you home that often and do you have any experience handfeeding birds before? It is very easy to injure or even kill a bird by not knowing how to properly handfeed. You can always let parents raise, which I personally prefer, but it usually makes them harder to sell and like I mentioned before the large majority of those buying from a breeder want handfed. Now lets get to the next fun part. Vetting. Most responsible breeders will have their birds checked out by an avian vet prior to them leaving for their new homes. I'm not sure about your vet but my avian vet charges $90 for the office visit alone. That's a big expense, especially if you have a vet that charges you individual office visits per bird. Now lets talk price you're going to charge. Price for a budgie in a pet store is like $10-20 around me. So considering everything I went over the likelihood of even breaking even is close to nothing.

The reason I want to breed is not to get more birds. Honestly, I want to help prevent birds from being purchased from Mass breeders. I want to promote a good bloodline and proper care. The pet store I work at (not naming names, but not a mass chain like PetSmart or Petco) normally gets animals from big breeders, and I want to help change that. I've had birds all my life, ranging from tiels to Toos, so I have experience and care, and I am willing to spend what I need to if something goes wrong or any of my birds fall ill. I want to do everything correctly which is why I posted this question.

This message is the last thing I want to address. I personally breed dogs. Now I am not here to argue over the right and wrong about breeding dogs. The reason I bring this up is I often see the argument in other breeders that they're breeding not to get more birds but to prevent people from purchasing from bad breeders/pet stores. You will be adding to the population problem no matter how you look at it. So that is one thing I do recommend you consider before breeding. There is no way around it, you will be adding to the budgie population that is already huge. Secondly, you breeding will not stop pet stores from buying from mass breeders. I use to work for a pet store, I know they have big contracts with breeders that often breed multiple types of animals (multiple birds, maybe reptiles, fish, etc). Then they get these animals for very cheap. Most pet stores are charging at least three times what they paid if not even more! The reason they can do that is because the breeder is mass breeding and selling at $2-3 each isn't a big deal for them because they don't handfeed, vet, or anything like that. You physically will not be able to breed a single pair and get your price point that low to make a petstore buy from you rather than their contracted breeder.

I do commend you for wanting to promote proper care tho! I believe often budgies people think of as disposable and that they don't care all that much about them. You could really strive to promote good care in your area!

 

karen256

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We need more good budgie breeders badly! So many people even on these boards have been forced to get their budgies from pet stores because of a lack of smaller breeders.
We need more breeders who breed for health and longevity. Since budgies are inexpensive birds, the good breeders are few and far between and usually in high demand.

33g doesn't sound unusually small for a budgie. I had a male who was 33g. If your males are 35g, that's doesn't seem like enough size difference to be problem - however I would ask your vet before breeding them. Most females will lay eggs at some point, whether fertile or not.
If you ever try breeding budgies that have a significant size difference, like English and American, then you want the female to be the larger one.
 
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