For successful budgies breeding, you need to check on couple of conditions.
Are you sure you have a male and female couple?
Although it is trivial, and everybody knows we need a male and a female in order to breed.
But a lot of people are mistaken by their budgie's gender, either because they were told so by the pet store or by the breeder.
And they discover later on that they actually have two males or two females.
You can have a look yourself to see if your budgies are truly one of each gender.
follow this link if you aren't sure about your budgies genders
If you still aren't 100% sure, you can also join our Facebook Group , and ask our lovely community about your budgies, by describing or sharing photos of your birds.
Wooden box / nest box
Having a budgie nest , which is a wooden box commonly used for the female to lay her eggs in.
Otherwise, budgies usually don't lay eggs without a designated place for the eggs.
There are a lot of dimensions from big to small , as well as different hole sizes, you need to have a small hole size that fits budgies.
And the reasoning behind that is that in the wild, they usually look for small holes in the trees, so other big parrots like cockatiels won't try to fight them for the same spot as it is too small for them to fit in, so they prefer to eliminate competition in the place where they know they will raise their children in.
Recommended box dimensions are:
Width: 12 cm - 5 in
Depth/ length: 13 cm - 5 in
Height: 16 cm - 6 in
And the hole diameter is supposed to be approximately about 4 cm - 1.5 in
While you can go bigger dimensions, try to keep it to the minimal. so it perfectly fits budgies.
Inside the box, I recommend you to have a little bit of a concave floor for the hen to lay her eggs in it, so they won't roll away from her,
and make it hard for her to keep her eggs warm underneath her.
And finally you need to hang it at the upper side of the cage, because budgies as any other birds, the higher it is the safer they feel.
Separating the paired budgies from the others
After you carefully watch which two of your budgies have formed a bond and become a couple, I highly recommend you to separate them from the others,
to avoid any unnecessary fights, and keep them calm with no other budgies to interrupt their beautiful romance.
Budgies are monogamous birds, which means they mate as couples.
However unlike other birds, you don't need to separate the male from the female after laying eggs, in fact, 70% of male budgies,
help in raising the chicks after they become two weeks old.
Budgie age
Age is important as in any other animal on this planet.
Budgies can start breeding and become fully matured at around the age of seven months.
However we always recommend breeding between the age one to three years old, to reduce the risk of parents not being able to take care of the chicks.
so if you have a young pair , they might need some time to start mating.
While it is hard to tell what is the age of your budgie, unless of course you bought it from a breeder, in which case he can tell you exactly what day your budgie was born in.
But there are some features you can look at to know how old your budgie is.
Keep them in the same place
Make sure you keep the breeding pair in the same place, don't keep changing the cage's place, budgies need some time to adapt to a new environment.
So if we keep switching their place from time to time, no wonder they can't feel safe to mate and start laying eggs.
We have already talked about how the wooden box should be up side the cage, try to have the cage itself in a high altitude as well ,
for the same reasons, the higher it is, the safer they feel.
Temperature
Make sure they are in a comfortable temperature for breeding, you can't expect them to mate and have chicks if it's too cold for them.
How on earth is the mother supposed to keep her chicks warm if she's not warm in the first place?
And it goes without saying very high temperatures will feel very uncomfortable for the budgies and they might overheat.
I recommend a temperature between 21 - 28 Celsius, 70 - 85 Fahrenheit.
Sufficient food and water
Food availability is very important, if you go out a lot and leave them for hours without any supervision, make sure they can get food and water whenever they need.
This is basic stuff that you need to do even if you are not trying to breed your budgies as well , but if you are trying to breed, and the food sometimes
is out of their reach , they probably won't feel safe to have chicks because they feel they might not be able to feed them.
Seed mix is one of the best options for the parents to feed their young, because it is warm food and easily digestible for the chicks.
Unlike vegetables, it is colder and harder to digest.
In the wild , they breed when there is plenty of food!
Of course it is good if you have vitamins and some varied nutritious diet , this should actually be permanent fixture in your budgie's life.
Cuttlebone / Mineral Block
A cuttlebone or mineral block is very good for females that are laying eggs, as it provides them with a lot of calcium.
Calcium is one of the most important nutrients to keep the female healthy, as producing eggs require a lot of calcium.
So she doesn't end up with calcium deficiency.
As a matter of fact I keep it for all my budgies, as it is very healthy for them.
And it helps their beaks as well stay in a good shape, keeping their beaks from growing too long.
You can buy mineral block or cuttlebone on amazon.
Do not disturb
Now let's see after doing all these steps,maybe your budgie started laying eggs but they are infertile and they don't hatch.
Try to stay away, stop watching the eggs and opening the box very often.
Because if you keep checking it, it will disturb the warmth of the nest.
You want to keep it warm, for the eggs,
I know you are excited and you can't wait to see a little budgie one day, but at the same time you might be making the situation worse without knowing it.
Specially if this is her first time laying eggs, you NEED to give her some privacy.
Or maybe she's new to this, so don't open it to keep it warm, and to keep it a comfortable and safe zone for her.
Infertility
If nothing worked, then it's time for serious measurements.
It might be one of your budgies is infertile for some reason, as humans or any other living thing on this planet, some are born impotent.
I've heard a lot of stories about budgies having fertility issues, and in my personal experience , I have had a budgie for couple of years,
and she never hatched one egg.
She laid eggs more than once, and non of her clutches were successful.
Anyway, in a case like that you might need to try and find where does the problem lie, is it your female budgie or is it your male budgie that have fertility issues?
Have any one of them had a successful offspring before?
Maybe you know for a fact a third budgie that is fertile, and you can try to breed them and see which one of the two that have a problem?
Or maybe they both are fertile, but have some difficulties together ?
What I advice you to do at this stage, is to ask a breeder, friend that have experience with budgies, or your vet .
Or join our facebook group Budgie Club, and we as a community and budgie friends will try to help each other and find a solution together to any problem we face.