Ask Lafeber

Will my cockatiels mate with eachother if they don’t preen ea

Hello, I’ll try to keep this as short as I can. 2 years after I had my male cockatiel, I bought him a female cockatiel who was only a couple months old because I figured my male cockatiel was lonely. However, they didnt bond romantically like I imagined but they were good friends and stay together, and would fight from time to time. Moving on, my male cockatiel is now 5 year old and my female one is 2 year old. It is confusing because whenever my female cockatiel is hormonal, she will try to mount on my hand, feet or objects around me instead of crouching like a female bird.

Good news is recently my cockatiels have been spending lots of discreet time together on top of the closet, where i keep alot of cardboards. They only leave that place when they’re hungry or thirsty. After 2 months, I decided to check the top of the closet to find tiny chewed pieces of cardboard all over the area and they chewed down this tiny box of cardboard into a nest. Now it all made sense why my male one was so aggressive and territorial towards anyone approaching that place and how grumpy he is. However, the female one is alot calmer.
Now what’s confusing is I’ve never seen my cockatiels preening feathers for eachother or regurgitate. So will they actually breed with eachother, or is my male cockatiel just hormonal and feeling territorial?

Since im unsure, I decided to locate their cage in this room on top of the closet, remove all the cardboards and put that nest inside of the cage then post my question here. I also forgot to mention my cockatiels do fight with eachother from time to time. Will they lay eggs?

Hi,

The female is only just now old enough for breeding. But it doesn’t sounds like your birds have a mate bond. One problem is when you decide to breed former pet birds, you can’t let them out or continue to handle them. A cockatiel only has one mate, and other adults in the flock would not have physical interactions with birds that have a mate. It is confusing to them to be handled. If you want them to breed, you will lose them as pets. If they bond as mates, they will no longer have interest in human interaction.

In order to find out if they will bond as a breeding pair, you need to leave them in the cage and give them plenty of privacy. You should only be around them to feed them. You need to take their make shift nest away, and buy them a wooden nest box that is made for cockatiels. It will be very large. Do not give them anything else they might use as a nest – no coconuts, boxes, bird tents or huts. When people let pet birds nest in something like that, it ends with broken eggs, or dead chicks. Cockatiel chicks are nearly as big as the parents when they leave the nest box. It has to be large enough for as many as 6 full grown cockatiels. Typically, you attach it to the outside of the cage, as high as possible. A breeding cage should be large enough for the pair to fly back and forth. You need to be feeding the parents a nutritionally balanced diet like pellets. A loose seed diet will not provide the nutrition they need. They should also eat dark leafy greens, chopped veggies and some fruit. If they do mate and show signs of nesting, you can feed them a daily egg food. This can be a dry, commercial egg food or cook an egg with the shell washed, crushed and cooked with the egg. If the hen lays eggs, you need to remove the nest box after each clutch, whether the eggs hatch or not, and rest the pair for 6 months. If they do raise chicks, you remove the nest box as soon as the chicks have left it. Once the chicks are weaned, you have to separate them from the parents or the parents will pick on them. And when they are older, the parents may try to mate with their offspring. You should never allow related birds to breed. As for fighting between the pair, as long as they are not drawing blood, occasional sparring is normal.

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda