Is this breeding?

[cockatiel92]

The male budgie will sing and dance to the female and feed her. Then the male puts a foot on her and she gets low and lifts her tail up. He gets on and mates. The thing is that her cere isn't crusty brown and his isnt dark blue. Hers is a light brown to white and his is a light blue with a little white around nostrals. Are they fertal or is it just for fun. Can we expect them to lay eggs like this. Or is this false breeding.

[hsmoscout]

I'm no expert, but is it possible that they're too young. I heard that their cere colors get darker/easier to see as they get older.

[Monica]

Sounds like breeding to me!!!! Hens dont need a crusty brown cere in order to mate and reproduce and males don't need a dark blue/purple cere, either. If you are encouraging it, chances are there will be eggs, and they *might* even be fertile.

Although birds can breed year-round while indoors, at least for my guys we are already out of the breeding season (no more infertile eggs being laid).

[Newticus]

I don't know how true this is but I have heard that budgies are usually competitive breeders, often only going to nest when they compete for nesting space and food with other breeding budgie couples. This does not mean that they won't mate, but often don't lay without others there. Now I don't know how true that is, but that was an explaination told to me a long time ago.
In my personal experience, we had an aviary with about 12 budgies, some with partners, some not, and we would see them mate, but since there was no nest box there were never any eggs laid.
If you want to try your hand at breeding your budgies get a nest box and see what happens.

Melanie