Ask Lafeber

male budgie attacking a female budgie

hi we bought two budgies at a fair. we have two feeders. one day i saw the male budgie hitting the female one on the head because he wanted to get on the feeder that she was using. another time i saw that the girl budgie wanted to use the feeder where the male budgie was in, and the male just hit the female the same way as the other time and it made a really big noise. and multiple time around the day the male always screams at the female to be where she is. the female has started to loose feathers and im scared that she might be stressed because of him. im wondering if i should give back the male to the woman who selled them, pls advice me on this

Hi,

Some harmless sparring is normal, but it does sound like the female is being bullied. Possibly the cage needs to be larger. But often birds simply do not get along. Since they choose their mate in the wild, they do not always like the mate we choose. It’s like an arranged marriage. Since they do have separate feeders and still fight over food, it may be best to separate the birds.

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda