Budgie Parakeet Breeder in Colorado

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Family Raised, Hand Fed, Socialized Budgie Parakeets!

We are a small hobby budgerigar (budgie parakeet) breeder located in Fort Collins, Colorado. We raise three types of budgies: the small, agile American; the large, mellow English; and the moderate American x English cross (my personal favorite). Our small aviary is run by our family of three and the birds are raised in our home. Our budgies are our beloved family pets and treated with the utmost respect and love. Our family is attached to each and every budgie as most of them have been with us since birth and have been handled from day one. We know and appreciate the personalities of all of our feathered friends. Our birds’ lives are filled with play, exercise, flight, nutritious food and companionship.

PLEASE NOTE: Our specialized breeding program is on hold until further notice. When we moved to a new home, we retired our breeding pairs. I will need to replace them – and I’m extremely picky about pair selection. In the meantime, my family and I are taking a break from the round-the-clock care that raising baby budgies require. To keep an eye out for future updates to our flock status:
* Bookmark this webpage and check back periodically
* Like my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Puppies-Are-Prozac-Chicks-Are-Chocolate-274291365916519/
* Or send me an email so I can contact you once we’re raising baby budgies again.
Thanks for your patience.

Even though our budgie parakeets are first and foremost our fun pets, we never breed them without a serious mind. Our selective breeding program focuses on health and temperament. Their beautiful color varieties and mutations are icing on the cake!

We select birds with curious, confident and playful personalities to use in our breeding program because temperament and disposition has a genetic component. Then we either pull the chicks from the nest box when they are three weeks of age and lovingly hand-feed them around the clock, or, if both of the parent birds are tame and enjoy human interaction, we co-raise the chicks with them. Each chick gets fed, held and cuddled a minimum of 112 times before they go home with you! It’s one heck of a time commitment but the results are totally worth it.

Take a look at the babies we’ve placed with new families — see for yourself how stinkin’ cute they are and how we raise ’em!

Why we hand-feed the chicks

Hand-feeding budgie parakeet babies is a HUGE time commitment. By the time they’ve weaned, we’ve fed, cuddled and smooched them at least 112 times!

While a small percentage of commercial production “bird mill” parakeets (the kind found at most pet stores) can be tamed given plenty of time and patience, you are much more likely to enjoy your budgie if:

she is selectively bred with personality and temperament in mind, and …
she is positively imprinted to humans at a very early age.

Our primary goal as hobby breeders is to create the most lovable, well-rounded feathered friends. Therefore, we combine both nature AND nurture into our selective breeding program!

And we do much more than hand-feed them…

When our babies are fledging (weaning, flying), we start training them to hop onto our hand, even fly to it when called. Their reward? Organic hulled millet, head rubs, and smooches! The babies are raised in our busy home office and homeschooling room where they receive hours a day of care, play and companionship. Our flight cages are huge and on rollers, allowing them to be rolled into adjacent rooms for a quick change of scenery.

Exposing young animals to novel, positive experiences helps them learn how to handle stress better and grow to become more confident as adults. The more time the chicks spend in the company of humans, the more likely they are to include YOU as one of their flock!

While the babies are learning to eat a variety of wholesome foods on their own, we continue to handle and socialize them several times every day. They eat dinner with our family, ride on our shoulder while we push the vacuum, and cuddle with us while we work on the computer or watch movies. We encourage them to come to our hand and step up on our finger. They are introduced to a variety of novel toys, places, people and situations and encouraged to explore. They are allowed the space and opportunity to learn to fly and safely navigate our home. Our baby flight enclosures and play gyms are located in our busy home office and homeschooling room where they receive many hours each day of companionship and care.

No seed junkies! We wean our babies onto a wide variety of nutritious foods.

We are committed to their health

We feed our budgies a wide variety of natural, organic and nutritious foods including organic sprouted seeds, legumes and grains; organic vegetables and fruit; mashed hard-boiled eggs; organic whole grain bread; organic baby food (made for humans); millet sprays; a wide variety of herbs and spices; and finally (and very sparingly) a seed mix. A fresh cuttlebone and a mineral block is always within their reach. This early exposure to foods (other than the seed-only diet typically fed to pet-store birds) creates birds who readily accept a varied diet that will increase health and longevity. Please read our Budgie Parakeet feeding recommendations and sprouting directions for details.

We “abundance wean” our babies which means that rather than arbitrarily pick a convenient date and rush it, we allow them to tell us when they’re done with our supplemental formula feedings and ready to eat 100% on their own. Typically our babies are ready to go to their new homes when they are 6-8 weeks of age.

How long does the laying, hatching, hand-feeding and weaning process take?

Tiny, pink babies hatch from tiny eggs. We let momma bird feed them in the nest for the first 3 weeks, then we take over with around-the-clock handfeeding so they grow up tame, tame, tame!

Once a breeding pair is placed together in a separate flight cage with an attached nest box, they typically spend 2-3 weeks bonding, then mating, before the first egg is laid. The hen (momma parakeet) lays one egg every other day until she has 2-8 eggs in her clutch (4-6 is typical). She incubates the eggs (lays on them to keep them warm) for 18-21 days until they hatch.

We let the hen feed her tiny hatchlings for the first 3 weeks so they get a good dose of the immunities found in the hen’s crop milk. Then we remove the babies from the nest box, place them in a temperature controlled brooder, and give them round-the-clock hand-feedings, care and affection for another 3 to 5 weeks. Therefore, assuming all goes well, we have tame babies weaned and ready for new homes 12-15 weeks after the breeding pair is put together (9-10 weeks after eggs are laid).

One, Two, Or More?

Budgie parakeets are highly social animals and crave companionship.

A solo budgie is a depressed budgie. So unless you can spend hours every day keeping one bird company then I HIGHLY RECOMMEND MORE THAN ONE. Some people worry that if they keep more than one budgie, the birds won’t bond with them. But consider this: wild budgies are social flock animals who live in large communities — they have lots of friends! As long as you spend ample time with them, they will consider you a part of their flock family and bond with you as well. Two or more budgies can come out of their cage and play with you, then keep each other company when they have to go back ‘home’ to their cage. And watching budgies interact with one another is VERY entertaining — it’s one of the highlights of budgie keeping! Without exception (that I can recall), everyone who has adopted one budgie has soon come to the conclusion that two would have been better.

Prices:

American Parakeet (left) compared to an English Budgie (right). Same species, just different types. And yes, the two types can live together in the same cage — these two are best buddies in our aviary.

Baby AMERICAN PARAKEET (hand fed/raised, socialized, selectively bred for temperament):
Green or Gray (normal or opaline) = $95
Blue (normal or opaline) = $110
Spangle, Yellowfaced Blue or Gray, Pied, Greywing, Cinnamon-wing, Albino, Lutino = $125
Rare (Violet, Clearwing, Rainbow Clearwing, Rainbow Spangle, Texas Clearbody) = $130 and up

Baby ENGLISH BUDGIE x AMERICAN PARAKEET CROSS (hand fed/raised, socialized, selectively bred for temperament):
Green or Gray (normal or opaline) = $125
Blue (normal or opaline) = $145
Spangle, Yellowfaced Blue or Gray, Pied, Greywing, Cinnamon-wing, Albino, Lutino = $165
Rare (Violet, Clearwing, Rainbow Clearwing, Rainbow Spangle, Texas Clearbody) = $170 and up

Baby ENGLISH BUDGIE (hand fed/raised, socialized, selectively bred for temperament):
Green or Gray (normal or opaline) = $160
Blue (normal or opaline) = $180
Spangle, Yellowfaced Blue or Gray, Pied, Greywing, Cinnamon-wing, Albino, Lutino = $200
Rare (Violet, Clearwing, Rainbow Clearwing, Rainbow Spangle, Texas Clearbody) = $205 and up

Available Budgie Parakeets for Sale:

Our sweet baby budgies are selectively bred for temperament and handled daily. You aren’t likely to find birds like ours at a pet store (where they obtain their birds from large commercial production “bird mills”). This puts our babies in high demand — they are typically reserved well before they are born. Please visit our Adoption Waiting List for timely updates. (If you can’t wait for a baby, please consider the adult birds currently available.)

Our Adoption Procedure (Baby Budgies):

Respond to our pre-adoption questionnaire.
Upon approval of your questionnaire responses, I will add your name to the waiting list.
Once your name is up on our waiting list and we have 3 to 4 week old chicks, I will notify you to request a non-refundable deposit ($15 per budgie baby) that will apply towards your final purchase. I will also post photos and descriptions for your online viewing of each chick’s type, color, mutations, and gender. Chick selections will be honored in the order of the date each person was initially added to our waiting list. (If we don’t have what you want in that specific round, you can “skip” and make your selection from the next round of chicks instead.)
While waiting for your “Budgie Stork” to arrive, please read our care instruction page. Also take a look at the cages, foods and supplies we offer just for our adopters!
Most budgie parakeets are weaned and ready to move to new homes when they are 6-8 weeks of age. Sorry, no shipping. Pick up is in Fort Collins, Colorado.

More Budgie Parakeet Pages:

Nutrition and Food Recommendations: Birds fed seed-only diets have a much shorter life span. We provide lists of healthy foods and show you how to grow your own sprouts.

Colors, Varieties, Mutations, Genetics: Budgie Parakeets come in a rainbow of colors. This page has beautiful photos with variety and mutation descriptions.

How To Care For Your Budgie Parakeet: What is the best cage and how should I set it up? How do I keep my budgie healthy and safe? What are the best toys and playtime activities? How do I trim their wing feathers?

FAQ (frequently asked questions): What is a budgie parakeet’s personality like? What are the differences between American parakeets and English budgies? How do you tell a male from a female? Should you keep one, two or more? How long do they live? Where did the species originate?

Training, Tricks, Talking: A step-by-step guide for finger-training, trust-building, and bonding. Watch informative and entertaining video demonstrations. Find out how many words they can learn to say.

Play gyms, Stands and Perches: How to make your own (or order a custom one from us).

Homemade Aviaries and Flight Cages: How to converted used furniture into large flight cages and beautiful indoor aviaries.

Parakeet Food and Supplies Market: We offer organic, homemade bird food plus other essential bird supplies.

Budgie Parakeet Breeder in Colorado: Our family raises, hand-feeds, trains and adores budgie parakeets! Learn more about our selective breeding program and view our gorgeous, tame birds.

Inside Our Aviary: See where our birds live — flight enclosures, breeding room, play gyms.

Our Flock of Budgie Parakeets: Take a peek at our gorgeous feathered friends. Lots of photos with color mutations listed!

Adorable Pictures of Our Hand-fed Babies: Come ooh and aahh over all the cuteness and watch them grow up!

Pre-Adoption Questionnaire: If you are interested in adopting one (or more) of our parakeets, please respond to these questions.

Budgie Baby Waiting List: I know how hard it is to wait when you’re excited but I promise you, the wait is worth it!

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