I bought two budgies a month ago from a pet store, and they have mostly bonded with each other, as a male and female, but the male one shows more interest towards interacting with me and my family. How do I show him that I am no harm, while the female one is always influencing him to back away from my hand?
Hi Ava,
It will help you to have a better understanding of their natural behavior. They do live in flocks in the wild, but once a male & female bond with each other, they have little physical contact with the other flock members. There will be vocal interaction, but as far as any contact, other adult budgies are now seen as rivals and not allowed to groom another bird’s mate. In captivity, we serve as a companion for a pet bird. Once you put two in the same cage, their instinct is to bond with each other, and they lose interest in human interaction. Even if they are the same sex, a bird will almost always choose another bird over a human when they share the same cage. So as long as these two birds are bonded, you are not likely to make much progress with either bird. The female is most definitely influencing the male. She doesn’t want him to stray from her. They are probably young right now, but as they get older and become sexually mature, she will get aggressive with him if he interacts with you in front of her. Female budgies can be very territorial of their space and their mate. It would be sad for her for you to separate them, but if they stay together, you are going to have a wild pair of budgies that eventually will start wanting to nest. And of course that means a lot of work and expense for you if you allow them to breed when they are old enough. There can be exceptions, but again, it is unlikely he will be a tame pet as long as he has a mate in the same cage. You can put them in cages side by side, and work with him alone. She might come around somewhat if you can tame him. If these are really young birds, they technically shouldn’t be together yet – budgies shouldn’t be paired up and allowed to breed until they are about 2 years old. So this gives you a lot to think about. If they are young, they are not bonded as mates, so the pet store might take the female back to find her another home.
Thank you for asking Lafeber,
Brenda
