Returning to my Budgerigars, all four pairs went to nest fairly soon and the one pair that selected the typical Budgerigar nest box laid five eggs four of which were fertile and produced three cobalt cocks and a mauve hen before laying seven eggs in their second round but unfortunately only one egg was fertile, when this hatched it was well looked after by its parents. As the second round was fairly easy for the parents and they were looking very fit I decided to let them have a third round. Again the hen laid seven eggs and this time five of them were fertile but there was quite a size range amongst the babies, however, the mother was now quite experienced and managed to raise all five babies.


20 BIRD SCENE


Budgerigars feed their babies by


regurgitation and it is not uncommon to have babies with a build up of dried regurgitated seed around their beaks, face and upper mandible, the food that builds up in this latter area does give me concern as it can stop the lower mandible growing below the upper mandible causing a condition known as ‘undershot beak’. I use a sharpened match stick to clean out the underside of the upper mandible and solve this potential problem. As Budgerigars are very tolerant to nest box inspection I look at my youngsters at least every other day to ensure that the young are developing correctly, that the nest box is not becoming too fouled with droppings and


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