More Chatboards | Print | Share | Report Post

Re: Older Keet
Posted by Kitty.J on 3/14/06

On 3/13/06, jill wrote:
> On 3/13/06, Popcorn wrote:
>> I have a female parakeet that is almost 5 years old.
> She's
>> in with my male keet who is about 3. My male seems to
> want
>> to breed. My female does not. Is it possible for her to
>> lay eggs or is she too old. I do not want eggs so I need
>> to know so that I can disuade them if I need to!
>> Thanks
>> Popcorn!
>
>
> it is possible for them to breed but unlike tiels, keets
> generally won't lay in single pairs and they usually wait
> till you put up a nest box. if you see them breed...when the
> eggs come you can shake them and they will not hatch. hope
> this is helpful. jill

From my experience thats not true. I have had a single pair of
parakeets breed perfectly, and so have a couple of my friends
who tried to breed them. Budgies are very frisky and will try
to breed a lot, even without a nest, i have seen my pair do
so, and had to provide a nest box for her while she laid, and
i put fake canary eggs in her box and exposed of the eggs,
this happened to me several time, but if i have left the eggs
with her no doubt they would be fertile. I already
successfully breed her twice over the summer and didn't want
to take the chance of her breeding and having more chicks. SO
be careful, budgies can be just like zebra finches, lol. But
since your female does not want to breed, you shouldn't have
to worry just watch them and make sure the female isn't
starting to chew up newspaper and letting her mate semi-mount
her (sticking a foot on her back and hopping off) If you do
not wish for them to breed either shake up her eggs ( i heard
once that someone did this and a single chick was hatched and
mutated, so i do not do this) or either get fake eggs and
replace them. Also since your female is 5yrs of age, it
wouldn't be wise to breed her too late, 6 at the latest, but
it is usually the males that could be bred untill 6yrs old.
But the older they get the more brittle the bones and the more
infertile they become. Good luck

Posts on this thread, including this one

• Older Keet, 3/13/06, by Popcorn.
• Re: Older Keet, 3/13/06, by jill.
• Re: Older Keet, 3/14/06, by Kitty.J.
• Re: Older Keet, 3/14/06, by Popcorn.
• Re: Older Keet, 3/14/06, by jill.
• Re: Older Keet, 3/14/06, by Popcorn.