Budgie not incubating eggs

[Cholesterol man]

Hi, I have a pair of budgies. They laid two clutches but a single chick has not hatched. At the first clutch the female laid 8 eggs. she incubated them for 18 days but nothing has hatched. So we tried to candle the eggs but unfortunately only one egg is seemed to have life out of 8 eggs. But after a week the egg has not hatched and start producing odor so we throwed it. One year later she laid a clutch of three eggs. Two weeks later the pair threw all their eggs out of their nest, I don't know which budgie threw the eggs. After that I started observing their behavior and here's what I found, the female budgie is not tamed so she thinks that the nest pot is the safest place to hide as she will hide in her pot everytime I come to their room. She don't incubate the egg properly because she comes out of the nest very often to play with the male budgie, to mate and sometimes to even sleep. What is is wrong with my budgie?
sorry if there is a mistake or if the post is too long.

 

[muddy75]

@Zoohtasim may be able to offer some advice……
My only opinion is that not all budgies make good mothers. If possible, you should watch her more closely when she lays eggs and candle early on. They typically won’t start sitting on the eggs immediately and sometimes they will remove non-viable eggs on their own. A budgie cannot effectively incubate more than 6 eggs and ideal is 2-3 for new, inexperienced mothers. It may be up to you to determine which 3 eggs stay in by candling.

 

[nchls school]

Hi, I have a pair of budgies. They laid two clutches but a single chick has not hatched. At the first clutch the female laid 8 eggs. she incubated them for 18 days but nothing has hatched. So we tried to candle the eggs but unfortunately only one egg is seemed to have life out of 8 eggs. But after a week the egg has not hatched and start producing odor so we throwed it. One year later she laid a clutch of three eggs. Two weeks later the pair threw all their eggs out of their nest, I don't know which budgie threw the eggs. After that I started observing their behavior and here's what I found, the female budgie is not tamed so she thinks that the nest pot is the safest place to hide as she will hide in her pot everytime I come to their room. She don't incubate the egg properly because she comes out of the nest very often to play with the male budgie, to mate and sometimes to even sleep. What is is wrong with my budgie?
sorry if there is a mistake or if the post is too long.

I used to raise budgies, both standard and English, and it was very rare for the females not to care for their eggs. Can you post a picture of their nest box? Budgies are not too picky about the box. I used a variety of shapes and materials, even cardboard. The only possibiities are that the female does not feel secure or she is simply a dud and if you wish to raise budgies consider replacing her. Do you know their ages? And is there a possibility they are just worn out? Budgies will start nesting very early; under six months if allowed to.

If you do not wish to replace the hen, provide the biggest cage you can. Provide two or more nest boxes of different sizes and shapes. Provide more soft foods such as greens and a small amount of boiled egg. Be sure they have a calcium block of some type.

Good luck.

 

[ButtonHoarder]

Maybe she doesn't want to be a mother. Not all people do. Maybe stop trying to get her to hatch eggs and just have her as a pet?

 

[Zoohtasim]

Hi, I have a pair of budgies. They laid two clutches but a single chick has not hatched. At the first clutch the female laid 8 eggs. she incubated them for 18 days but nothing has hatched. So we tried to candle the eggs but unfortunately only one egg is seemed to have life out of 8 eggs. But after a week the egg has not hatched and start producing odor so we throwed it. One year later she laid a clutch of three eggs. Two weeks later the pair threw all their eggs out of their nest, I don't know which budgie threw the eggs. After that I started observing their behavior and here's what I found, the female budgie is not tamed so she thinks that the nest pot is the safest place to hide as she will hide in her pot everytime I come to their room. She don't incubate the egg properly because she comes out of the nest very often to play with the male budgie, to mate and sometimes to even sleep. What is is wrong with my budgie?
sorry if there is a mistake or if the post is too long.

I agree with Muddy and nchls.

Not all budgies are meant to be mums. Several causes can be attributed to this factor. Genetics is most prevalent. If the breeder you got her from was an irresponsible one, maybe her mum wasn't a good mum herself. He probably raised them through handfeeding of some sort (the babies) or hatched them through an incubator (seeing the mum isn't sitting on her eggs properly) It is a golden rule of breeding the GOOD PARENTS PRODUCE GOOD BABIES WHO WILL BE GOOD PARENTS IN THE FUTURE and it applies to every animal, not just budgies. Perhaps, the mum's irresponsible behaviour has been passed on to her daughter.

Another factor could be a budgie disorder I've read very little about. All I know about this is that, sometimes when very young budgies are allowed to breed, the recklessness in them is continued even to adulthood. So they can never be good mums. I've seen some budgies like that in the past and read 1 or 2 articles about it. It's not very known I think, so telling us the age when they laid that first clutch of eggs can be helpful.

Now, let's stop generalizing the idea of her being a bad mum and completely focus on her incubation problems. Is the room where you keep her very busy? Maybe if you are disturbing her too much, she might get irritated and stop sitting on her eggs thinking it's not gonna end well as so many predators (you) are lurking around (supporting this is the fact that she isn't tamed) Another reason could be that she has a hormonal imbalance. All the broodiness a budgie gets is attributed to a hormone she gets when she lays. Every budgie has a different level of that hormone (this judges if she's gonna sit tightly with her first egg or after 2-3 eggs) and if your budgie has a terribly low amount of that hormone (caused by genetics), she could be more careless with her eggs and less attentive (supporting this is the fact that she gets out to play and sleep) I also say, keep an eye out for the male. Is he disturbing her too much? Is that causing her to get irritated and abandon her nest? Or is the nest box too small or too big?

All in all, I think you should really drop your hopes for that budgie to be a mum to not get disappointed

 

[Cholesterol man]

I used to raise budgies, both standard and English, and it was very rare for the females not to care for their eggs. Can you post a picture of their nest box? Budgies are not too picky about the box. I used a variety of shapes and materials, even cardboard. The only possibiities are that the female does not feel secure or she is simply a dud and if you wish to raise budgies consider replacing her. Do you know their ages? And is there a possibility they are just worn out? Budgies will start nesting very early; under six months if allowed to.

If you do not wish to replace the hen, provide the biggest cage you can. Provide two or more nest boxes of different sizes and shapes. Provide more soft foods such as greens and a small amount of boiled egg. Be sure they have a calcium block of some type.

Good luck.

Here's the photo of the nest pot.
I can't put big sized pot than this because the entrance is small and there's only three - two for food and water and another for general purpose so I can't go for wooden nest box.
Sorry for blurry picture because she is incubating the eggs so I don't want to disturb and zoomed the photo.

 

[Cholesterol man]

I agree with Muddy and nchls.

Not all budgies are meant to be mums. Several causes can be attributed to this factor. Genetics is most prevalent. If the breeder you got her from was an irresponsible one, maybe her mum wasn't a good mum herself. He probably raised them through handfeeding of some sort (the babies) or hatched them through an incubator (seeing the mum isn't sitting on her eggs properly) It is a golden rule of breeding the GOOD PARENTS PRODUCE GOOD BABIES WHO WILL BE GOOD PARENTS IN THE FUTURE and it applies to every animal, not just budgies. Perhaps, the mum's irresponsible behaviour has been passed on to her daughter.

Another factor could be a budgie disorder I've read very little about. All I know about this is that, sometimes when very young budgies are allowed to breed, the recklessness in them is continued even to adulthood. So they can never be good mums. I've seen some budgies like that in the past and read 1 or 2 articles about it. It's not very known I think, so telling us the age when they laid that first clutch of eggs can be helpful.

Now, let's stop generalizing the idea of her being a bad mum and completely focus on her incubation problems. Is the room where you keep her very busy? Maybe if you are disturbing her too much, she might get irritated and stop sitting on her eggs thinking it's not gonna end well as so many predators (you) are lurking around (supporting this is the fact that she isn't tamed) Another reason could be that she has a hormonal imbalance. All the broodiness a budgie gets is attributed to a hormone she gets when she lays. Every budgie has a different level of that hormone (this judges if she's gonna sit tightly with her first egg or after 2-3 eggs) and if your budgie has a terribly low amount of that hormone (caused by genetics), she could be more careless with her eggs and less attentive (supporting this is the fact that she gets out to play and sleep) I also say, keep an eye out for the male. Is he disturbing her too much? Is that causing her to get irritated and abandon her nest? Or is the nest box too small or too big?

All in all, I think you should really drop your hopes for that budgie to be a mum to not get disappointed

Yes the room is busy, but my whole house is busy!. So I kept them in the least busy room.

The male will sometimes tries to get the female out of the nest by softly preening. but not too much disturbance to abandon her nest.
I don't know about their age as the breeder is doing colony breeding.

 

[Zoohtasim]

Here's the photo of the nest pot.
I can't put big sized pot than this because the entrance is small and there's only three - two for food and water and another for general purpose so I can't go for wooden nest box.
Sorry for blurry picture because she is incubating the eggs so I don't want to disturb and zoomed the photo.

Is that a lutino bird? What do you think Muddy? Inos aren't great for breeding. That could be the reason why

 

[nchls school]

Here's the photo of the nest pot.
I can't put big sized pot than this because the entrance is small and there's only three - two for food and water and another for general purpose so I can't go for wooden nest box.
Sorry for blurry picture because she is incubating the eggs so I don't want to disturb and zoomed the photo.

The first think I would recommend is using a standard budgie nest box with a concave bottom. Budgies often lay 5 to 7 eggs in a clutch. Incubation normally starts with the first egg so budgie chicks have a two day difference in age. If I remember rightly eggs are laid every other day, so there is a huge difference in age from first to hatch and the last to hatch. Your nest pot is not big enough for budgies. There are plans on the net on how to build a budgie box.

 

[muddy75]

Is that a lutino bird? What do you think Muddy? Inos aren't great for breeding. That could be the reason why

I’ve not had a lutino but current momma is albino …..she’s been awesome mom