How Do Parakeets Mate? (Parakeets Breeding)

Last Updated on March 22, 2023 by Lily Aldrin

Mating is a natural act of living organisms to reproduce. Parakeets are also birds that reproduce by mating and laying eggs.

So if you are wondering How Do Parakeets Mate? When these little birds are ready to mate with their companion, they stay close to one another. At the point when parakeets are prepared to mate, they will begin to roost near each other. The female will lift her tail while getting close to the male parakeet to gain his attention. They both get close and act aggressive and loud.

During this process, the parakeets start mating, and after a few days, the female lays her eggs. She tends to sit on the eggs for about 20 days until they hatch and baby parakeets are born. The mating session usually takes time during the spring season of the year.

We can understand this whole phenomenon of the parakeet’s mating process in the given discussion below.

Parakeets Gender

Parakeets are covered with feathers, due to which it is not easy to recognize which one is male and which one is female. As the sexual organ of a male parakeet is covered in its feathers, so the owner can only detect whether it’s a male or female when the parakeet is grown up as an adult.

But to understand the gender of a parakeet, there are other ways and hints through which you can easily judge whether it’s a male or female parakeet. A person can judge from the visual clues in a parakeet, such as its colours on the feathers and the behaviour that parakeets keep while staying with their owner. But the simplest and easy way to know that whether it’s a male or female is by running a DNA test or blood sample of the parakeet from a lab to know the gender.

Parakeets Breeds

There are different breeds in parakeets, and one of the commonly known is the American Parakeet. There are other parakeets, such as Bourke’s parakeets or English parakeets, that all differ from one another in some ways. These breeds are differentiated on the basis of their colours and behaviour, and they usually don’t mate with a crossbreed or opposite breed, so you should know that there should be the same breed, male-female, for mating.

The American and English parakeets tend to chatter a lot, and they create a lot of noise throughout the day, due to which you can understand the breed of your parakeet. You should tend to keep the same breed of parakeets in the cage as most of them tend to make noise at night and thrash the cage during night fights when it’s dark.

If you can train your parakeets well, they would tend to be quiet and calm, and they would be easier to mate when you keep them in a cage at your home. Feeding them with healthy food and diet will bring out their positive behaviour.

The other breeds of parakeet include Conures that are really beautiful and have different sizes from 10 to 20 inches. These beautiful parakeets have multiple colours, which have mostly yellow in them along with orange and green, and these parakeets tend to be very playful and easy to mate. Their aggression level is low.

During the spring season, or mating season, the green cheeks conures become very loud, and they make loud sounds throughout the day that may disturb the owner. They are not supposed to be good pets at home due to this habit, but they do get loud on mating with their partners.

Parakeet’s Lifespan

Parakeets have a lifespan of about five to twelve years. Then there are few other breeds that can live up to 20 years, but there is a difference in species. Parakeets can start mating after the age of 1-2 years. They can start to reproduce as long as their life span goes.

Now knowing the basic things about a parakeet, we see how you can differentiate between a male and a female parakeet.

Understanding Male And Female Parakeets

Following are the points that can be observed to know whether a parakeet is a male or a female. Read these points carefully. Note that these points should only be observed when the bird is grown enough to reach its sexual maturity. After that, you can notice these things in your bird to differentiate whether it’s a male or female.

• Colour of Parakeet

You cannot know the gender of your parakeet easily until it is 8 months old. Between the age of 8 months to 12 months, you can notice the beak of your parakeet for a band of raised skin. That point changes gender-specific colour, and you can judge the gender from that. The male parakeets have blue or violet colour, whereas the females may have brown colours at that point.

You can also see that sometimes the females may have a light tint cere or a pale blue cere near its beak. Usually, the colour of females is lighter than that of males. Through this, you can analyze which one of your parakeets is a male and which one is female. The sex hormone that causes this difference is also the same hormone that creates a difference in the leg colour of these parakeets. Usually, the female parakeets have brown colours legs while the male has blue legs.

• Parakeet’s Behavior

We know that there is always a difference in all living beings when it comes to their male and female differences. It’s a natural thing to be different due to the opposite gender, and we can analyze the gender of a parakeet on the basis of its behaviour. Behaviour difference acts as a strong indicator for showing whether a parakeet is a male or female.

Female parakeets are those parakeets who tend to be bossy in nature and have very loud noise-making habits. You can know that parakeet is a male if he tends to sing a lot with his voice and stays active in the cage all the time with head bobbing. Males are more friendly with human beings as well, whereas the female parakeets are a little bit aggressive and they don’t sing.

• Baby Clues

You can analyse a baby parakeet, but its always a chance whether your prediction is true or not at that point. Usually, at such a young age, the owner can take a closer look at the ring around the nostril of a baby parakeet. Usually, the females have a white ring around their nostrils, having a light pink or purple tint on it.

You can’t know for sure, but most of the females can be checked on the basis of these rings around the nostrils. It is not easy to distinguish this if your bird is less than a month old.

• Habits

As we said that females are bossy in nature, and they tend to be more aggressive than the male parakeet, so if your parakeet has a biting habit and the bite is hard and not easy to let go of, it indicates that your bird is a female parakeet.

If the baby parakeet is just nibbling on your finger or hand and doesn’t hurt you or bite you hard, it means it’s a male, and it’s just practising his skills.

• Laying Egg

It is a common thought that any pair of parakeets tend to mate with each other if there are no other birds present in the cage or around them. If you see eggs in the cage and want to know which one is the male and which is the female, then you can notice the bird in the café that stays close to the egg is the female parakeet.

If you cant find eggs in your cage, then it means you have a pair of male parakeets in your cage who don’t tend to mate and reproduce eggs. There is often also a chance that females may not lay eggs either.

Parakeets Bonding

Bonding is very necessary before parakeets can mate. Usually, wild parakeets or those parakeets who are new to each other don’t mate even when they are kept in the same cage. Parakeets need time, and they will find another on their own to bond with. But in case you are the owner of parakeets, and you want to breed them and get specific colours breeding, then you have to select female and male manually by yourself.

When you get to choose the coloured parakeets by yourself, you can put them in the same cage so that they can get together well to bond with. Once they get close to each other and develop a bond, you will see the change in their behaviour as they will be behind each other all the time or sit close to one other. They will let you know their affection towards each other, and you will notice that the male starts to feed the female parakeet.

Breeding Age

Mating requires mature age where parakeets are ready for breeding, and that age in parakeets comes after 1 year. When parakeets get older than 1 year, they are ready to breed, and you can know a female parakeet by noticing her cere around the nostril.

The brown crusty-looking cere is the sign that she is a full-grown female parakeet that can be bred with a male parakeet. To take care of these parakeets during their breeding process or to give them a proper environment, you can have a look at the following tips for breeding and mating parakeets.

Breeding Setup

If you want to mate your parakeets, you can provide them with a proper setup for breeding better which will even bring them closer and breed better. You need to look at the following things for this.

Breeding Cage

A cage must have the following requirements for better breeding of parakeets.

• More than one roost ought to be inside the cage
• A dish for food and water
• The estimations size ought to be 24″ L x 12″ W x 16″ H
• It ought to incorporate a different doorway to connect the cage box from one side to another
• A clean floor and stripes

Nest Box

You should pick a nest explicitly made for Parakeets. Pick something that is rectangular with an opening toward the end and a round indent on the floor for the eggs to be laid. The nest may have different sizes out of multiple varieties.

The next box should be wide enough to hold the eggs or hatchlings so you can keep an eye or watch out for any hazards.

Lighting

You can provide a cage to your parakeets that get proper lighting as parakeets tend to stay active for 12 hours, and they spend 12 hours resting at night time. Give your birds a proper setup and try to provide them with such a space where the female parakeet can get proper sunlight and synthesise vitamin D to stay healthy and strong.

This will cause the female parakeet to lay strong eggshells, and it will also develop good strong bones in the baby parakeets as well.

Diet

While breeding your parakeets during mating season, it is very necessary to take care of the diet of your parakeet. You will have to provide them with all the healthy food variety for your little bird so that it can stay fit and active during the breeding process. Getting a proper healthy diet and nutritional food will more likely make the parakeets nest.

Good food sources are a major benefit to getting your pair to subside into a reproducing condition; another delicate justification food is for the baby parakeets they will before long come to take care of. Taking care of your parakeets, these food sources will guarantee that they will keep on eating it once their eggs hatch.

Their diet should have the following:

•   The diet of your parakeet must contain an abundance of water so that they can stay hydrated during the summer season.
•   Make sure to change the water with fresh water every day around 2 times so that your parakeets may not be drinking any bacterial water.
•   Feed the parakeets with different food such as apples, strawberries, or other fruits along with seeds, pellets, broccoli, carrots, peas, corn, cooked sweet potatoes, and bell peppers.
•   Seeds can be fed to parakeets during their breeding season as birds love eating seeds. Try to provide your bird with all the necessary food.
•   Try using high-quality pellets because they give nutrition to your parakeet with every bite they take.

Fertilization and Egg Production

When the parakeets get to bond with one another, it is the time when they start to mate with each other, or you can say, it’s the start of their breeding process. Once they have started breeding, you don’t have to train them for anything; otherwise, they will stop their breeding process. Just let them loose as long as they are breeding.

All you need to do is keep changing their water and provide them with fresh fruit during this process so that they stay healthy and fit. The male will tend to sing a lot and become jolly or more active in the cage during the breeding process, whereas the female will be more loud and aggressive, and she will show signs of affection to the male parakeet by raising her tail. She will tend to lean forward on the perch to call the male parakeet to mate.

The male will then get in the position to mate with the female parakeet and rub himself on her so breed. The male may breed with the female more than once a day, and the female will start to lay the eggs in the next days. This process is continued as long as they both are bonded with each other. The female parakeet will tend to give 4-5 eggs every time.

After that, the incubation process starts where the female has to lay the eggs and then sit on them as long as they hatch. Usually, it takes 18 days for the eggs to hatch. The female parakeet doesn’t sit on one egg as she has to sit on more than 2 eggs.

Checking for Fertility

Usually, the eggs that are laid by the female parakeet are not always fertile, and the owner has to keep checking on them. To see the fertility of an egg, you have to place a strong battery or flash at one side of the egg to see a shade of egg inside using a process called candling.

You can simply hold an egg in your hand and place a flashlight behind it to see if there is any yellow glow inside the egg with red lines, which shows that the egg is fertile. In case you only see the yellow glow and no red lines, it means that the egg is infertile.

You should know that, with time, the eggs become more opaque, and the shell becomes more solid, which will make it difficult or confusing for you to see the fertility of the egg, and you won’t even be able to notice the baby parakeet inside. You don’t have to check over the eggs often because if the female parakeet gets disturbed by her routine, she might stop sitting on the eggs, and they won’t hatch after that.

Ending the Breeding Process

When you think that it is enough of the mating process for your parakeets, you need to separate them by placing them in separate cages. This will stop their breeding process, and they won’t lay eggs anymore. If you put them back together, they will again start the breeding process. So you can follow these tips to stop breeding or minimize it.

•   Limiting Type of Food
•   Stop Chewing
•   Limit Petting
•   Limit the Amount of Daylight
•   Remove the Nesting Box

Conclusion

This was a detailed discussion on the mating and breeding process of parakeets that showed how parakeets mate and what is required before and after their mating process. The complete detailed guide is shared for an owner’s help for breeding its parakeets and taking care of their diet along with proper match as male and female.

The discussion included everything related to parakeets and their proper care. If we have missed out something, feel free to contact us or leave a comment in the box given below for your reviews.

FAQ

What are the signs of parakeets mating?

At the point when parakeets are prepared to mate, they will begin to roost near each other. The female may disgorge her food on the male, and she will lift her tail. There will be a great deal of closeness, and many noises will be made by them.

How do parakeets mate?

The male will diligently court his mate, tapping her mouth with his own to get her in the disposition. On the off chance that all charming endeavours have been effective, the female will at last lift her tail noticeable all around, raising her wings a little to tell the male he can mate.

How long subsequent to mating do parakeets lay eggs?

The female will lay an egg inside 30 hours in the wake of mating if the male prevails with regards to treating her. At that point, she will lay one egg at regular intervals, for the most part laying an aggregate of three to eight eggs.

Will two male parakeets attempt to mate?

They will be showing affection towards each other, but they don’t despise one another, make an extremely solid choice of companionship. They may prune each other’s plumes and even feed one another to show their friendship. They will do whatever it takes, but they won’t be breeding or attempting to mate with others, so you don’t have anything to stress over.