February 13, 2021
My Other Cockatiel goes in the nest
My Other Cockatiel goes in the nest and Hits the chicks! I dont know what to do i have 2 cockatiels that are mating and the other cockatiel has no wife PLS HELP
Question:
Answer:
Hi Ben,
Please remove the extra male immediately! He will kill the chicks! When you breed birds, you can only have one pair in the cage for this very reason. To begin with, it is never a good idea to have an odd number of birds caged together. Two will almost always bond with each other, and the extra bird usually gets chased around and bullied. Breeding pairs get very territorial. You’re really quite lucky that the pair hasn’t already killed the extra male or that the two males have not fought over the female. This is usually what will happen in a situation like you have. Cockatiels can be very vicious when they have a nest and territory to protect. But if the pair fails to kill the extra bird, the single bird will often raid the nest and destroy the eggs or kill the chicks. This is how nature works – each bird wants their own chicks to survive, and they will chase away or kill any bird that gets too close to the nest. If a rival bird can get to the nest, it will destroy the eggs or kill any chicks in the nest. So you have a situation here that is very dangerous for the chicks and the adult birds. Your only option is to remove the extra bird now. This will not get better, this will end up with dead birds. I’m wording this strongly because you need to understand how serious this is, and how much danger the chicks or even the adult birds are in. Again it is very usual that the pair has tolerated having the extra male around to this point. But with the chicks in danger now, the parents are likely to kill the other bird, and they can do so before you have a chance to react.
Thank you for asking Lafeber,
Brenda
