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Budgie Breeding Boxes – Wood Chip Nest Lining

While I combed the Internet looking for answers to my breeding questions, I came across a hobbyist who was kind enough to share videos of two breeding seasons.  You can see his Youtube channel here.  Bobalong1999 gave me my first look at budgie breeding specifics.  Just watching the videos taught me so much more than I expected!

The first thing I noticed about his aviary nest boxes – they all had wood shaving lining the bottoms.  Nest box lining is important for a few reasons:

1)      It keeps the nest box clean from bird droppings.  The bird droppings dry to the nest lining and leave the box floor clean during the season.

2)      Nest lining gives cushion to budgie chicks that are learning to walk.  A nice, soft layer of wood chips helps cushion little falls.

3)      It helps prevent splayed-legs.  Splayed legs occurs when the chicks legs grow improperly from the body.   Having a layer of

In order to make the wood chips safe for any eggs that are laid in the nest, I needed to hydrate them.  Wood Chip bedding is often kiln-dried.  This makes it perfect for absorbing water and other waste from pets, but this absorptive quality makes it lethal to eggs!  Budgie eggs are very porous and thrive in humid environments.  If an egg were laid on the wood chips straight from the bag, they would dry up.  No chicks would be hatching in that environment.  The easiest fix is to get some moisture back into the chips.  This is what I did:

**I am going to update this post later with photos after I get my camera back from its vacation in San Fransisco…or I may make a video demonstration. **

1)      First, I found a small waterproof container to hold my nesting chips.  I used a deep ramekin from my kitchen.

2)      Into the ramekin, I placed a small handful of wood chips.

3)      Using a small water bottle, spray the wood chips with water.  I didn’t have a water bottle, so I ran some water over my (clean!) hand and used that to fluff up the wood chips.  This allowed me to separate the clumps of wood and get water on all of them.  I repeated this step two or three times.  You want to loosen up the dry, clumpy wood chips.

Let the wood chips set out at least overnight before using them in the nesting box.  You don’t want wet wood chips; you want light and fluffy wood chips.  Yes, this whole thing sounds weird now that I’ve typed it up, so hopefully the photos will make up for my lack of eloquence.

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Breeding Budgies – Week 6

Week of 05/23/2011

It’s been 5 weeks since I set up my breeding cage, and not a lot has happened.  My breeding cage set up is Laurel and Hardy’s cage with a few minor changes.  You can read about that here.

Since that first week, I have made several changes to the setup, based on my birds’ reactions as well as information I gathered since then.  *I have photos of the new set up, but my husband accidentally left our camera in my friend’s car.  In San Fransisco.  😦  *

The first change made was to get rid of that blue crinkly paper.  Neither of my birds would walk on the bottom of their cage while that stuff was down there.   They didn’t want anything to do with it, and their hesitation definitely made eating and drinking quite a show.  Since my goal is NOT to stress them out, I modified the cage lining to pine bedding.  Several websites noted that these wood shavings (chips, not dust!) were created for birds, but I found the brand I am using in the hamster area of the pet store.  I made sure that the wood shavings were safe for birds, and the bag specifically noted bird breeding suitability.  My husband wasn’t too happy with all of my purchases, but I was able to convince him that it wasn’t so bad.

Sometimes I think that Laurel and Hardy are the messiest birds ever!  I don’t know how they get food and stuff in their water, but it is a constant thorn in my side.  They are adorable though, so cleaning up after the two of them is worth it.  In order to keep soaked wood chips to a minimum, I removed the wire lining from the bottom of the cage.  I laid down newsprint on the plastic bottom and covered the newsprint with the wood chip bedding.   The newsprint helps me keep the plastic cage bottom cleaner as well as assisting in the easy removal of the wood chip bedding.

The wood chip bedding also makes a great lining for the breeder box, so I no longer needed the cotton nest stuffing or lining string.  I know that budgies nest in the hollow of trees when they are in the wild, but I didn’t realize that they don’t build nests.   To make the wood chips safe for a nest environment, I had to do a few things which I’ll share in another post.

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