One thing you need to understand as a pet owner is that all eggs will not turn into babies. But it is possible to increase the ratio by providing your budgies optimum environment and with some experience.
The major cause due to which budgies break their eggs is the lack of calcium, vitamins, or minerals. Some other common causes include diseased eggs, lack of enough space, starting of a new clutch, fear, infertility, inadequate food, inexperienced breeder, etc.
why do budgies break and throw eggs out of the nest?
Budgerigar hens throw eggs out of the nest because of several reasons. Mostly it is because they do not want to waste any more time on those eggs. Inspection of these eggs in most cases proves them infertile or defective.
Blew are some common reasons why budgies break and throw eggs out of the nest.
1. Self Chicks With Parents
One of the major reasons why breeding productivity decreases and eggs break is self chicks in the nest. chicks disturb their mother while incubating. Their pop blocks the pores of the eggs which increases infertility. Chicks like to play with eggs and end up breaking them.
Separate checks from parents before they start the next clutch to avoid loss of eggs.
2. Lack of Calcium And Other Minerals
Sometimes budgies start breaking and eating their eggs which is something to worry about. The most common reason is the lack of calcium or other minerals due to which they break and eat their eggs. Inadequate food is also a reason for eating their eggs. Budgies break and eat their eggs to fulfill their nutritional requirements to survive.
Once your budgies developed the habit of eggs eating, they will continue to lay and eat eggs without any hatching of babies. To avoid such instances take some brisk appropriate steps if you see any eggs eating activity in your aviary.
3. Inexperience Female
Females younger than 1 year are inexperienced and don’t know how to tackle eggs. In their first clutch, new parents don’t know what to do with the eggs.
Females leave eggs for long periods without incubating and end up destroying them. Be patient with your birds, you will notice the improvement in their parenting with age.
4. Infertile Eggs
If eggs get rotten because of any reason, they will never hatch. To incubate these infertile eggs is just a waste of time. Experienced females will break and throw these eggs to start a new clutch.
Some budgies retain and incubate these infertile eggs which is a waste of time.
Check for fertile eggs using a torch and remove rotten eggs to save space and time.
5. Privacy Disturbance
Budgies need full-on privacy during breeding. They need a separate section safe from predators, children, and other birds. If someone breaks into their privacy, hen budgerigar will likely break the eggs.
6. Food Deficiency
Budgies need enough food supply to allofeed their chicks and mate. Shortage of food lead budgies to starve and babies to die. When a hen budgerigar realizes a shortage of food, she may destroy the eggs.
7. Accident
Sometimes budgies destroy eggs unintentionally. Soft-shelled eggs break while handling.
Eggs bump out of the nest (if not built properly) while the hen adjusts eggs and flies in or out of the nest.
8. Uncomfortable Nest
A properly built nest comes first when we talk about productive breeding. Eggs may fall off from the edge and may break because of the rough and hard nest bed.
9. Fear of Other Beards And Animals
Budgies give their best to protect their eggs from predators and other birds. Still, if a bird tries to dominate their nest they will likely destroy eggs.
Eggs also invite predators that’s why destroying eggs is a good idea to save their own life. For example, rats eat budgie’s chicks and eggs and also attack parents at times.
New aggressive birds added to the aviary, disturb parents and try to dominate the nest which causes egg damage.
10. Human Exposure
Too much noise and human exposure are uncherished by budgies. Budgies also reject eggs with human scent. It’s recommended not to touch the eggs with bear hands. Use gloves while handling eggs.
11. Start of a New Clutch
When budgies decide to start a new clutch while the previous is ongoing, they often break and throw old eggs out of the nest. It will be problematic for a budgerigar hen to incubate too many eggs. Parents also fail to care for and feed younger chicks especially when the age gap is large.
How to stop budgies from breaking eggs?
If a budgie develops the habit of breaking and eating eggs, it’s hard to make him/her stop. These various steps will help you prevent budgie’s eggs from breaking.
Safe Environment
Provide your pets with a safe and secure environment to assure the safety of eggs. Human exposure should be minimum around the cage.
Predators like cats, dogs, and rats should not have access to the budgie’s space. Budgies break their eggs when they are in stress or fear.
A 4-5 inches deep well-covered nesting box with only one entrance help in providing them the required privacy.
Calcium-Rich Food
Healthy birds give good quality productive breed compared to weak birds. Food with all essential nutrients fulfills the bird’s nutritional requirements and the chances of the egg being eaten by the parents reduce.
Calcium is an essential part of the bird’s shell. Enough supply of calcium in the budgie’s diet help in producing eggs with hard shells. Accidental breakage of these thick-shelled eggs reduces.
Separate Cage
Privacy is key to breeding the birds. colony breeding is less productive and leads to egg damage and breakage due to fights and nest invading by other birds.
What to do if the BUDGERIGAR hen rejects eggs?
Sometimes budgerigar hens reject eggs and show no interest in incubating them. It may be because of inexperienced hens, human scent on eggs, etc. Two ways to save such rejected eggs are as follow
Use foster parents
Transfer these eggs to a foster pair box. You can choose a box with less number of eggs. Remember not to put too much eggs under one hen. Hen will fail to incubate eggs properly which lead to dead in shell embryo.
Use Incubator
Different incubators are available in the market. You can buy and use one of them to incubate the rejected eggs. Make sure you can hand-feed newly hatched eggs if using an incubator. Budgie’s chicks take about 40 days to feed by themselves. You have to hand-feed them during this period.
