Ask Lafeber

Female budgie attacking male budgie

Hiya,
I recently rescued two budgies from a neglectful homem and they have currently been with me for two days. However, the femal budgie keeps making irrated sounds and shoos the male away – especially when he’s eating. She will specifically fly over just to try and shoo him away. Do I need to separate them? They both are eating enough I’m just worried about him.
She is also in breeding season as her cere is extremely crusty, but I haven’t seen him make any advances.
Thank you!!

Hi,

Female budgies can be bullies, and can be very aggressive. It may be that he is younger than her and not interested in breeding, so she is frustrated with him. It is probably best to separate them. Her aggression can escalate to attacks and she is even capable of killing him. As for her chasing him off of the food, when you have 2 or more birds in the same cage, you should provide as many food and water stations as birds. However, in this case, at least for now, these birds do not sound very compatible.

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda