Should You Hand Feed Baby Parakeets (Budgies)

Many parakeet owners want to hand feed baby parakeets, believing this will make them more tame. You can tame baby parakeets without hand feeding them and unless you have experience or training specifically for taking care of baby parakeets, you shouldn't try to hand feed them. Knowing how much to feed a baby parakeet and how often is very important and changes day by day as the babies grow. A well meaning owner can accidentally kill the baby parakeets simply by over feeding them or not feeding them often enough. Baby parakeets are best raised by their parakeet parents. Parakeets know by instinct how much to feed their babies and how often. They also make the food the exact temperature and consistency it needs to be by eating it and then regurgitating it for the babies. An owner cannot perfectly duplicate how the parakeet parents take care of the babies. The most important thing an owner can do is provide everything the parakeet parents need to raise the babies themselves.

A Proper Cage and Nesting Box

Make sure your parakeets have a big enough cage. You don't want it to get too crowded in there after the babies come. Next, your parakeets will need a nesting box. You can purchase nesting boxes in most pet stores or you can easily make one yourself. I use a small cardboard box approximately 9"L x 6"H x 6"W that closes completely. Don't use something smaller or there won't be enough room in it for mom and the babies once the babies start to grow. If there isn't enough room, the female won't want to stay in the box and the babies may not get taken care of. Choose a front for the box and cut a hole toward the top with a diameter of approximately 1 1/2". Cut a flap in the top of the box so you can open it to check on the babies. Put small holes in the back of the box at the corners to put twisty ties through. Use the twisty ties to securely attach the nesting box to the inside of the cage. Parakeets like to nest up high, so put the nesting box toward the top of the cage and not on the floor. Now your parakeets have a place to lay their eggs. You can put some nesting material like shredded paper in the box if you want, but parakeets don't need nesting material and they may just throw it out. Once the nesting box is ready, leave it alone so the female can claim it to lay her eggs in. Don't clean the nesting box or touch any of the eggs or the female may become upset and abandon the eggs.

Plenty of Food and Water

Make sure your parakeets have plenty of food and fresh water every day. Once the babies hatch, your parakeets will go through a lot more food in order to feed them. You should then make sure they have plenty of food and fresh water twice a day. There should be a cuttle bone in the cage at all times. The female needs it while laying eggs and to replenish her calcium after laying eggs. The babies need the calcium from the cuttle bone while growing. I also add vitamin drops to the food while my parakeets are raising babies and continue to add it until the babies are a few months old. This helps ensure they are getting everything they need in order to be healthy and strong.

A Clean Cage

It is always important that your parakeets have a clean cage. If your parakeet's cage has a removable bottom, you should take this off and thoroughly clean it with hot, soapy water at least once a week. Change the paper in the bottom of the cage and wipe the cage out in between the weekly cleaning. Once you start handling the babies you can safely take them out of the nesting box so you can clean it. Make sure you put them somewhere safe. I had my daughter watch the babies in a box while I cleaned out the nesting box.

Handling the Babies

Once the babies are a few weeks old, or have most of their feathers, you can safely start handling them. They won't be able to perch at first, so you will just gently hold them in your hands or on your lap. They will probably be frightened at first, but the more you handle them, the sooner they will get used to it. Start out with short times of five to ten minutes in the beginning so the babies and the female don't get too stressed out. You can make it a little longer each time you handle them. Babies that are handled often should quickly and easily become hand tamed. Within a couple of weeks of starting to handle our baby parakeets, we had two that would give us kisses and all of them would sit on our hands.

Old Enough to Leave Mom and Dad

Baby parakeets will leave the nesting box on their own at four to five weeks of age. They are then known as fledglings. The fledglings will still go back into the box and be mostly fed by the parents at first. When the last baby parakeet comes out of the box and stays out for a night, then you know it's time to take the nesting box away. If the fledglings still go into the box at night, you can still take the box away a couple of days after the last baby comes out. The fledglings will explore their cage and begin to eat and drink on their own more and more. Some of them may still try to demand that mom and dad feed them. Sometimes older fledglings will even feed the younger ones. Fledglings are ready to be on their own as soon as they are eating and drinking on their own most of the time. This usually occurs at around six to seven weeks of age. If the parents start to show aggression toward the fledglings, you need to get the fledglings in a separate cage as soon as possible. If the parents aren't having problems with the fledglings being in the cage, I like to let them stay until they are about twelve weeks old.

Great Parents and Healthy Babies

My parakeets were great parents with their very first clutch. They knew exactly what to do and raised four healthy babies. I truly believe letting my parakeets raise the babies themselves was best for the babies. You do not need to hand feed baby parakeets in order to have hand tamed parakeets. If you take the time to handle the babies on a regular basis, you can have parakeets that are just as tame as the ones that are hand fed.

Further Reading

How to Take Care of Breeding Parakeets (Budgies)

Should You Clip Your Pet Parakeet's or Lovebird's Wings?