Ask Lafeber

Cockatiel not accepting her partner.

My white female cockatiel is 10 months old. I have bought her a partner. He is grey. He shows affection to her. But she is not responding. She is very close to me. What should I do?

Hi Arizona,

I hate to tell you, but the first thing you need to do is separate them and keep them separated until she is at least 2 years old. She is way too young to be with a male, and this is why she doesn’t want to accept him. It is actually a risk to her health to be with a male at this age. While cockatiels in captivity have been known to be sexually mature as early as 6 months of age, they are not finished growing and developing both physically and mentally. Experienced cockatiel breeders who breed quality birds will tell you not to pair your cockatiels up and let them breed until between 2-3 years of age. They are capable of breeding at an earlier age, but they are too young. I can’t stress that enough. Young hens are at a very high risk of becoming egg bound and dying because they just do not have the muscles developed enough for the strain of laying eggs. Young males and females are much more interested in mating than settling down and caring for eggs, so they end up developing bad breeding habits like not sitting on eggs, breaking or eating eggs, or killing the chicks when they hatch. Once these habits form, they are ruined for ever being good breeders. They know if they get rid of the eggs, they can mate again.

It sounds like your female is tame. If she is a pet bird and you want her to remain a tame pet, then you should never put her in the same cage with another cockatiel, not even another female. Birds bond with humans when they lack another bird to bond with. Once you put tame birds in a cage together, they will almost always form a bond and no longer want to be handled, even same sex pairs. So again, if you want to keep her as a pet, keep the male in his own cage. And keep them as separate as possible until she is 2 years old. Even the presence of a male can end up triggering her hormones and cause her to lay eggs. Chronic egg laying is a big problem with cockatiels in captivity, and they will literally lay eggs until it kills them if you don’t take actions to stop them. I get emails on almost a daily basis from cockatiel owners who can’t get their bird to stop laying eggs. I’m sure you wish you knew this before getting the male, but again, you are her companion so it’s OK to have other birds, but not in the same cage.

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda