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Question:

August 27, 2024

My female cockatiel and male cockatiel fought this morning


In this morning I woke up to the sound of them moving their wings like they usually so I decided to not look at them but when I noticed it took longer I looked and saw them fighting and trying to fly in front of the water spot.
They started fighting a month after I bought them from someone who sells them who kept them in a room not that small but also not that big.
They lived in a small cage because I couldn’t afford a bigger one.
The male started to take feathers from the female and the female was sitting on his back sometimes and one time she even moved her tail fromm left to right while she was sitting on his back.
Now, after I bought them a bigger cage last week the fights stopped happening that often as they did before but they still fight sometimes.
I keep them in my room where I also have canaries (male and female) in their own cage and parakeets (male and female) also in their own cage. The canaries and parakeets sing sometimes or even kiss and the cockatiels can hear them.
Now, after the cockatiels had their fight I noticed that they lost 13 feathers. They’re now sitting calm on opposite sides not next to each other.


Answer:

Hi,

It sounds like you may have two males, or you may have them mixed up. The behavior of the one that jumped on the back of the other sounds like male breeding behavior. The fact that they keep fighting points to frustration from hormonal birds. These birds do not sound compatible and need to be separated before one ends up killing the other. Some harmless fighting is normal, but not the type fighting these are doing, that results in so many feathers being ripped out. When they were in a room, they had enough space to get away from each other, but being confined in a small cage isn’t working with them even when moved to the larger cage. I would separate the birds. Not all birds get along and when there is a lot of fighting, it tends to only get worse until one ends up dead. If you want to send pics to me at [email protected] I can see if I can tell what sex they are.

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda

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