Female Pregnant?

User Question
how can i tell if my female parakeet is pregnant?

Lisa's Answer
I can't say this enough times - if you are not well versed in parakeet breeding, please do not keep male and female parakeets together. You need to buy the books on breeding, get your keets health-checked by a vet, and have a long talk with a vet and hopefully other breeders before you begin considering breeding. Breeding any animal is a serious task that requires 24 hour a day attention, and usually requires vitamins, medicine and other equipment in case of emergency.

You should know the signs of pregnancy, the signs of a *troubled* pregnancy, so you can take the appropriate steps immediately to save the life of your mother keet.

That all being said, there is really NO way to know that a parakeet is carrying an egg. You can make guesses because their lower region looks "round" but numerous other situations can cause that. The time between a parakeet starts making an egg and the egg pops out is VERY short - maybe 2 days at the most. When a healthy parakeet is laing a clutch of eggs she lays an egg every 2 days, so she is creating every egg from scratch within those two days. This period of time that the egg is being made is called gestation.

Parakeets who are making eggs can get "egg bound" - meaning the egg gets stuck inside her. This is a serious condition and the keet can die. This is a key reason why parakeets who are in a mating situation (i.e. males and females together) need to be checked out by a vet to make sure they're healthy enough for sex. You also need to make sure YOU are ready for this - that you have a book on parakeet breeding, one that lists all of the potential problems and provides solutions.

Most important of all though is the vet visit and the talk with the vet. You need to make sure the keets are healthy, and that you have all the knowledge necessary to be a responsible pet owner for your keets and their babies.

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