Ask Lafeber

Formerly bonded love birds fighting and resource guarding

I have a pet sitting customer with two love birds who are several years old. They’ve been together a long time without any issues. About a year ago one of the birds (green & yellow) was injured. It got stuck in a cage toy, and neede veterinary care. Over the last year we’ve noticed one of the birds (yellow & green) is losing more feathers than normal, like the other bird is pulling out its feathers, and it appears the two birds are fighting. One bird (green & blue) will chase the other bird (green & yellow) away from food and water, and attack if the green & yellow bird is inside any of their sleeping coconut-huts. Like the Blue & green bird is “resource guarding”. Blue and green also chases green & yellow around the cage, and they are beak fighting.
My customers do have a separate cage they can utilize, but were worried about the birds being stressed if separated. Should we park the cages side-by-side so they can still see one another but the green & yellow bird will be protected?

Hi,

The first thing to do is get rid of the coconuts. Birds don’t need anything to sleep in. It is viewed as a nest, and is a hormone trigger. In the wild, a nest is only used during breeding season, then it is abandoned and the birds usually move on to other territories. Pet birds should never be given those huts, tents, etc. because they do not need it, it isn’t a natural way for them to sleep, and it causes fighting over territory. It can also cause unwanted egg laying, or other hormone related issues, many of which can result in health issues. There is nothing good about those products and they sadly should not be sold for pet birds.

Also add one or two extra food & water stations. When you have more than one bird in a cage, there should always be as many food stations as birds, with one extra if possible. It doesn’t matter how bonded the birds might be – fights tend to happen over a food source, so just remove that problem by having extras.

By removing the nests and adding more food areas, this may solve the issues since they did previously get along. If not, then separating them, but having the cages next to each other as you suggested, would be the best alternative.

We have a great webinar on bad products that are sold for pet birds that you may want to check out. We also have a playlist for pet sitters.

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda