Ask Lafeber

Two budgie mothers fighting

My mother of 5 budgies went into the nest of a mother of 3 budgie. They fought with each other and I separated them before they would kill each other. When can I put them back together again?

Hi Talitha,

Never. You cannot have more than one pair of birds in a cage for breeding. That same budgie is going to kill the three chicks if you don’t intervene. I don’t know how old they are, but you may have to hand feed them. Female budgies are one of the most aggressive species when it comes to nesting. The hens will fight to the death, or they will raid each other’s nests and destroy any eggs or chicks. Most likely the female was trying to kill the chicks and the other female was protecting them. All you can do now is more the parents and the three chicks, but most likely they will abandon the chicks and you will need to take over. If you do not get these chicks moved, the other female will kill them. Her chicks may be getting ready to leave their box. But regardless, she is not going to tolerate the other nest at this point and you will end up with a blood bath if you do not remove them.

As for the pair with the 5 chicks, you need to remove the nest box as soon as the chicks have left it. Then as soon as they are eating on their own, you need to separate them from the parents. Otherwise the parents will bully them and as crazy as it sounds, their mother might kill them if they don’t leave the cage. Her instinct is to make her weaned chicks go off on their own and she will not tolerate them I her territory for very long once they are weaned. You then need to rest your pairs for 6 months before giving them back the nest boxes. And again, never give your birds a nest box unless you only have one male & female pair in the cage. This is a very common mistake because breeders who breed for profit have all of their pairs in large aviaries that you can walk into. What they don’t tell you is that some birds kill each other, or kill chicks and a lot of inbreeding occurs. But with so many pairs, they don’t care about a few losses. The responsible and safest way is to have one pair per cage so your adults are not stressed and all birds are safe.

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda