Ask Lafeber

Budgie Problem

I purchased my male budgie in January and while healthy, he seemed lonely so I got him a female friend in June. At first, they preened each other constantly, but lately, she chases him from the food and toys and pecks at him. He still seems smitten by her and is constantly doing happy chirps, even though I fear he isn’t eating enough. I have food sources throughout their very large cage. I tried separating them, and both showed agitation and climbing their respective cage walls to get to one another, so I placed them back together. What do I do?

Hi,

It is too stressful for him to be chased around, if this goes on for most of the day. Harmless spats are normal, but not constant chasing or any fighting that results in feathers being pulled out or blood being drawn. She may be older than he is and wants to breed, but he isn’t ready. If she is chasing him most of the time, they need to be separated for now. You can put them together when you can supervise them. Some females are aggressive and even get vicious with their mates when they have eggs or chicks. As aggressive as she sounds now, if it continues I would not ever give them a nest box to try to breed them. She may be the type that will kill her mate. All you can do now is separate them when she is being aggressive and see if she settles down towards him over time. They may simply not be compatible as mates. Not all pairs get along, because they would choose a mate in the wild and in captivity, they do not always accept the mate we choose for them.

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda