Ask Lafeber

Single mom

Hello. I have a pair of cockatiels. One is a WF male and one is a grey female. So, the male and female I have tried to breed together, they have been caged together for almost 2 years and I gave them a nest box. They’ve mated for 2 weeks straight, then the female started getting overly aggressive. She would keep the male away from the nest box at all costs. I eventually had to separate them it got too bad. But she ended up laying 4 eggs and all were fertile. Is it possible for her to raise the chicks? Im currently incubating the eggs and gave her dummy ones instead so it increases the hatch success. Would I be able to give her the eggs when it gets closer to hatch time so she could hatch and raise them?

Hi,

She is unlikely to be interested in having the eggs back, and would most likely ignore or even kill a chick. Cockatiel chicks are almost impossible to feed from day 1 and keep alive. So you do have your work cut out for you. Both the male and female cockatiel take part in incubating the eggs, and then caring for the chicks. I definitely would not breed these birds again, as they don’t have a strong mate bond. Sometimes the male or female will get aggressive and you have to remove one bird. But when that happens, the best thing to do is rotate the parents, letting each bird take their turn sitting on the eggs either daytime or at night. Never try to make one parent care for eggs and chicks alone – it is too much work for one bird.

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda