Have you noticed that your baby budgies haven’t left their nest yet?
Are you worried that they might be staying too long in the nest?
In this article, I will explain all you need to know about baby budgies leaving their nest.
How Old Are Budgies When They Leave The Nest? When a budgie is 30 to 40 days old they are ready to leave the nest. Baby budgies start getting weaned between three and four weeks old, after this time they are ready to leave the nest.
When Can Baby Budgies be Separated From Parents?
A baby budgerigar should be ready to leave its parents by seven or eight weeks after it has been hatched. However, the baby budgerigar can’t be entirely independent at this age, as they may not even fly properly at that age.
When baby budgies are born, they spend the first two months of their lives growing their feathers. It is during this time they start learning to open their eyes and begin feeding by themselves. So before that, they depend on their parents or owners to feed them.
If you plan on separating your baby budgies from their parents on time, you need to put in a lot of work. Ensure you start putting food on the ground for them around five weeks old, and let them try to eat it all by themselves.
If you continue with this practice, by six to seven weeks old, your baby budgies should be entirely self-sufficient.
Once your baby budgie can start eating all by itself, then you know that your budgies are ready to be separated from their parents.
However, before you separate your baby budgies from their parents, confirm from their breeder if they have started eating fully by themselves.
What Do You Feed a 6 Week Old Budgie?
A six-week-old budgie is already getting ready to be weaned off, so you can feed it mashed food. At this age, you can start introducing them to hard grains and other food substances.
However, ensure whatever you are feeding your birdie should be easily digested. Some food substance your birdie can eat includes:
- Egg with shell.
- Cooked brown rice.
- Crushed budgie pellets
- Milled budgie pellets mixed with crushed seeds.
- Mixed chopped and grated fruit and vegetables
However, before you start introducing a variety of food to your young birds, make sure the bird has settled in nicely. Also, ensure you maintain a regular feeding schedule for your young budgies.
Once your baby budgies are four weeks old, you can reduce their feeding pattern and start feeding them every five hours. This feeding schedule should be maintained until your budgies are entirely weaned.
What Age Can Baby Budgies Eat Seed?
By six to seven weeks old, your baby budgies should be ready to leave their parents, which implies that by this age, they can feed on their own and even eat hard food substances like seeds.
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However, you should train your budgies to start eating on their own early enough for them to be able to eat seeds at an early age. Ensure you start giving them their food in a bowl or on the ground by five weeks old. Ensure the budgies use its natural instinct to forage.
In a week or two, your budgies will probably be self-sufficient. When you start feeding your budgies in a bowl or on the ground, ensure that you begin with pelleted diets.
This is the ideal diet for them at that age. Your baby budgies should have a diet of approximately 75-80% pellets.
The proportion of the bird’s diet is significant. When you feed your birds other food substances, ensure it follows the proportion below.
- One egg, with shell.
- One tablespoon of cooked brown rice.
- One tablespoon millet.
- One tablespoon crushed budgie pellets or milled mixed seeds.
- Two tablespoons mixed chopped and grated fruit and veg.
How do I Know if My Baby Budgie is Full?
To know that your baby budgie is full, check its crop. You can check this by gently feeling the bird’s crop with your thumb or index finger. Once your baby budgie has a full crop, you know it has eaten to its satisfaction.
Baby budgies grow very fast, and so does their food intake. Depending on the size of your budgies, by two weeks old, they can eat as much 2-4ml at each feed. If you want your budgies to grow healthy, you must match their diet with their fast growth.
However, before feeding your budgies, ensure you examine their crop. Observe your budgies and be sure they are eating sufficiently. Ensure that their crop is not empty at any point; however, try not to overfeed them.
What Age Can Budgies Be Sold?
Once your budgies are up to seven to eight weeks old, they are ready to leave their parents, implying they can be sold at this age. In fact, once the birds are entirely weaned, then they are ready to be sold.
However, if you are selling or buying budgies at that age, they should still be cared for because they are not entirely independent till about nine months old.
If you can’t pay much attention to your budgies, then you would have to wait till they are independent before buying them or simply hiring a breeder to take care of them.
Budgies that are ready to be sold attract different price tags. It sometimes depends on their breed, size, and the seller. Some budgies can be sold for between $5 to $8000. Popular budgie breeds like the finch go for about $15 to $20.
What To Do If Baby Budgie Fell Out Of Nest
Typically, when you find your baby budgie has fallen out of its nest, the natural thing to do is to get a new nest immediately and put the baby budgie back.
However, depending on the baby budgie’s age, you may not be able to do much. This is because typically, you should only handle and hold baby buddies from around two weeks of age onward.
But if you can handle them gently, and their parent birds are familiar with you, then you can handle and hold them even immediately after hatching.
Therefore, if you find your baby budgies on the floor, gently return them to their next.
Even if the baby budgie doesn’t belong to you, if you have older budgies with young ones, you can leave these baby budgies in their care. There is nothing to worry about because parent budgies don’t recognize their young by smell.
