Hello Brenda,
It is me again Shad, my male cockatiel makes out with his cockatiel chick who was born on 24.12.2020, i still dont know if that is a he or a she, but isnt that weird to have sex with his/dad!! ? Is incest normal among birds? And he/she is only 2 months old!
Thanks in Advance
Hi Shad,
It’s good to hear from you! This is why chicks should always be separated from the parents as soon as they are weaned. In the wild, the parents would drive the offspring away once weaned, and this is nature’s way of preventing inbreeding. In captivity, there are two likely scenarios if chicks are left with the parents once they are weaned. Either the parents start to attack the grown chicks, or they try to mate with them. You need to split the parent and chick up and not let them interact. They do not know they shouldn’t breed, and you don’t want to allow related birds to breed. If the chick is a female, she can become mature as young as 6 months old, but she should not be breeding at this age. Being around an older male can trigger her hormones and make her try to lay eggs at too young of an age, which can result in her becoming egg bound and dying. Also, the female mate for your male will start to view the young bird as a rival and will start attacking her. A territorial cockatiel can kill another cockatiel very quickly. So keep your youngsters separate for their own well being. You also have to separate any offspring by gender once they are 6 months or older, because they will try to breed with each other.
Thanks for the update,
Brenda
