I have a female cockatiel who is bonded with a male but she mates with another male then when she lays eggs she attacks the male she mated with and I have to remove him from the cage and she only allows the other male she’s bonded with why is she like that??
Hi,
It’s never a good idea to have an odd number of birds in a cage, and you should only have two birds in a cage for breeding. She is confused by having an extra male in the cage. You need to remove one male and leave the male she is bonded with in the cage with her. Do these eggs ever hatch? How often are you allowing her to lay eggs? Cockatiels should only be allowed to have two clutches per year with a 6 month rest between each clutch. In the wild, they only breed once a year, and then breeding season ends and they leave the breeding grounds. In captivity, a cockatiel will continue to lay eggs until it kills her if you do not make changes to stop her. If they have a nest box, remove it after each clutch, whether the eggs hatch or not. If she keeps trying to nest, you need to make changes to discourage nesting. And even when they aren’t breeding, you shouldn’t put the extra male back in the cage. The aggression can get worse and you can end up with a dead bird if you keep these three together.
Keep in mind that to lay eggs, they need longer daylight, warmer weather, abundant food, and a quiet, private environment. The goal is to reverse these conditions. In the wild, they get signals from nature to end breeding season, but in captivity, if ideal conditions continue to be provided, a hen will literally lay eggs until it kills her. In the wild they only breed once a year, and typically only raise one clutch per year.
Limit their light to 8-10 hours by covering the cage early each evening
Do not give her anything to use as a nest – no bird huts or tents, no box, bowl, etc. If she decides to sit in a food bowl, remove it and replace with smaller cups.
Do not give her anything to shred such as paper or cardboard.
Rearrange the toys in the cage frequently.
Move the cage to a different place in the room. Move the cage about once a week, or whenever she shows signs of nesting – settling on the cage floor for example. This disrupts her idea of having a stable place to lay eggs and raise chicks.
If you feed a lot of fresh foods, stop offering any for a couple of weeks, and then only offer them in small amounts about 2 or 3 times a week. You can resume normal feeding later when the birds aren’t being hormonal.
If she is let out of the cage, do not let her get in any dark cozy places and don’t give her free roam.
When you handle her, limit any petting to only the head and neck – do not pet a bird on the body. Only a bonded mate is allowed to groom the body. We can’t be a mate, so touching the body is off limits.
If there is no metal floor grate, then do not use any bedding or paper in the cage tray – leave it bare and clean it daily.
If she won’t stop laying eggs, you will have to take her to an Avian Vet to discuss hormone shots or an implant. The implant has been working well on female cockatiels.
Thank you for asking Lafeber,
Brenda
