Life In A Garden Aviary

Parrot Society secretary LES RANCE continues his three-part series on the pleasures of colony-breeding budgerigars with tips on feeding, nesting and closed-ringing youngsters.

BUDGERIGARS

MY COLONY of budgerigars is fed plenty of greenfood – chickweed is a favourite – along with germinated wheat and oats, which are greatly relished, together with my home-made eggfood each day. Their standard seed is 50/50 budgerigar mixture, which is 50 per cent canary seed and 50 per cent mixed millets.

I provide this in steep-sided bowls, to reduce waste, placing them on the feeding tray about 1.2m (4ft) above the aviary floor. The birds also have two smaller seed dishes placed on a tea tray on the floor of the aviary, because budgerigars love to forage for food on the flight floor. As many as 20 birds will be there at any one time. The tea tray is also ideal because it is light but strong, and any husks can easily be removed from the flight. It can even be washed in my birdroom kitchen.

Budgerigars should be provided with fresh water every day. In the summer, if it is warm, change their water both in the evening and morning. They have a habit of placing greenfood in the water and I do not want it to start fermenting.