Ask Lafeber

Non wanted breeding behaviour.

Will try to be as brief as possible. Believed we had 2 male conjures sharing a cage. However, one started humping the other and one then started to lay eggs. 14 in 3 months and counting. Infertile eggs but we DON’T want babies and the male’s so aggressive when with the female and can’t be handled. So I don’t want any of this.

Really trying to keep them apart. Separate cages. Separated cages in different rooms. No longer put together for the night. Monitoring interaction & separating immediately if they try to start mating (feel bad them not seeing each other at all). However, when separated, they call and call and call when they hear one of us or the other & the whole situation is becoming unmanageable. Have a baby due in one week. How do I completely stop the behaviours? How do I unbond them more? How do I cope with the noise of the calling and will it get better? Thank you in advance.

Hi Lindsey,

Putting tame birds together is a common mistake. Even same sex birds will tend to bond with each other and not want to be handled anymore. You have a difficult situation that is going to get worse since you will be adding a newborn to the mix. These birds may never stop calling back and forth. It’s certainly not something that is going to be a quick fix. The female is already in a fragile health state because she has laid way too many eggs in too short of a time. At most, she should be allowed to have a couple of clutches in an entire year. In the wild, she would only have one clutch per year.

If both birds can still be handled and you still want one as a pet, it might be best to find a temporary or permanent home for one of the birds. If they remain in the same house, their bond is never going to be broken completely. They will continue to call to each other. Generally I would say they can stay in cages side by side, but if the female won’t stop laying eggs, this would not be good for her. To stop egg laying, you need to remove whatever her hormonal trigger is, and this is the other bird. You can try separate cages, side by side, but with absolutely no contact outside of the cage, no play dates, no contact at all. If she continues to lay eggs, then your options are limited. Either find a home for one of the birds and see if this stops her from laying eggs, or find someone who wants a pair of breeding conures and has the space and resources to set them up to breed successfully.

I understand your frustration and desire to change these behaviors, but nothing happens quickly when it comes to addressing unwanted behaviors with birds. And when there is a new baby, birds will usually become jealous and their noise level goes up along with new behavioral problems.

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda