Hi,
A 1 year old female should not be with a male. She is too young for breeding and if she lays eggs, she is at a higher risk of becoming egg bound and dying. Cockatiels should be at least 2 years old before you put them together. They are capable of breeding at a younger age, but they really aren’t ready. They still have some physical and emotional development to go through. Young males tend to be more interested in mating than caring for a mate and eggs. They are more likely to ignore the eggs, or break or eat them so the female will want to mate again. Your female is showing clear signs that she is not ready for breeding. The male is being aggressive because she isn’t mature enough, and this aggression can escalate to the point that he kills her. I would not put them back together until she is two. You can try having the cages side by side, but this may trigger her to lay eggs, which again is not good at her age. The problem is, she doesn’t know what is and isn’t good for her. And this older male isn’t good for her because he is ready to breed now. She wants to be with him, but doesn’t want to breed yet because she isn’t ready. If she continues to pace and call, you may need to try separate rooms, but if she can still hear him, she will still call for him.
I do understand you don’t want more birds, and this is easy because birds don’t give birth. So once they are back together, you can just not give them a nest box and discard eggs when she lays them. They are going to mate and she will lay eggs. You can’t let her lay eggs over and over again – even if they are breeders, you have to take steps to make them rest from breeding. I’ll give you some changes you can make, but worst case, if she does start laying eggs and won’t stop, you may need to take her to a vet for hormone treatments. I’m sorry I don’t have an easy solution, but when you have a situation with an age difference, where one bird is breeding age and the other isn’t, it’s not easy to manage.
One other possibility is when she is old enough, they still may not be compatible. For now you can assume his aggression is because she is immature, but once she is mature, if he continues to bully her into mating and continues to beat up on her, they must be separated. Some birds are simply not compatible. They choose a mate in the wild, so it’s not uncommon for them to reject the mate we choose for them.
You need to do all of these things to discourage egg laying. Keep in mind that to lay eggs, she needs longer daylight, warmer weather, abundant food, and a quiet, private environment. Your goal is to reverse these conditions.
Limit her light to 8-10 hours by covering the cage early each evening
Do not give her anything to use as a nest – no bird huts or tents, no box, bowl, etc. If she decides to sit in a food bowl, remove it and replace with smaller cups.
Do not give her anything to shred such as paper or cardboard.
Rearrange the toys in the cage frequently.
Move the cage to a different place in the room. Move the cage about once a week, or whenever she shows signs of nesting – settling on the cage floor for example. This disrupts her idea of having a stable place to lay eggs and raise chicks.
If you feed a lot of fresh foods, stop offering any for a couple of weeks, and then only offer them in small amounts about 2 or 3 times a week. You can resume normal feeding later when the birds aren’t being hormonal.
When she is let out of the cage, do not let her get in any dark cozy places and don’t give her free roam.
When you handle her, limit any petting to only her head and neck – do not pet her on the body. Only a bonded mate is allowed to groom the body. We can’t be a mate, so touching the body is off limits.
If there is no metal floor grate, then do not use any bedding or paper in the cage tray – leave it bare and clean it daily.
Thank you for asking Lafeber,
Brenda
