Ask Lafeber

cockatiel

i have 3 birds, two female sisters and one male that’s is not related. recently one of the sisters mates with the male. i moved the other female to a different cage due to him pulling out her feathers. my question concerns the female and her mate. they had eggs but none of them hatched. they were not able to hatch. i recently showered the two sisters together since i do not know how to quite handle the male without him biting. i left him in the cage and showered the others. once i tried to put the mate( female) back with the male, he starts biting her and picking at her feet. i then let her outside of the cage to see if his behavior would change, but he chased her around the cage from the inside while she was on the outside, biting her feet. she then got hurt and flew away. i put her back with her sister, due to me worrying it would escalate further. the sister seemed to be doing fine, as in eating, playing and enjoying her time without the other female. although the female with a mate seems to keep chirping( probably to the male) and in response the male does not reply or even acknowledge her. does my female bird have an attachment and become depressed even though she has her sister right next to her, or will she get over it?? and will the male go back to letting her in the cage or will he refuse and abuse her.

Hi,

It doesn’t sound like they formed a pair bond, or they would constantly call back and forth. When you put the female back in the cage, if she was soaking wet, she may have looked too different to him. Or he may have been happy enough without her and didn’t want her back. As for chasing her when she was on the cage, this is common behavior. Most birds will go after a bird on their cage, even if it’s their mate or cagemate. I wouldn’t be in a hurry to put them back together since he isn’t calling to her or showing interest. He is likely to attack her again. She should be fine with her sister.

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda