ilmatar
Sitting on the front steps
- Joined
- 2/14/21
- Messages
- 17
Hi,
I'm not sure if there has already been a post on this, if so, I'm sorry for the repeat. We got two new budgies from the pet store a little over a month ago (one male and one female). I'm new to owning budgies and only had a single cockatiel as a child, so I'm really very limited in my experience with birds. I would say the female is probably around 5 to 6 months old and that the male maybe just one year or a bit younger. (I'm guessing by the striping near their ceres. The photos don't show them all that well, but the female's stripes go down almost all the way to the cere and the males are more recessed, like a bit behind the center eye area).
They have a relatively large cage with four different sized perches and 6 - 7 toys we rotate out.
What I'm really interested in knowing is if they are playing or fighting. I get the feeling that the female gets angry with the male and chases him off. Sometimes it seems she even chases him around the cage. (I often put in two bowls of food and there is one dish for water) She isn't starving him or anything, but every day he will go to eat some seeds from one bowl and she'll go and chase him away, so he'll go eat the fresh veggies in another bowl (that's hanging in another section of the cage) and she'll immediately fly to him and chase him off from there. (This goes on back and forth until they seem to 'squawk it out'). He often dances and head bobs while singing next to her while she eats and sometimes he will try to gently peck at her and she reacts lightning fast (like a snake striking) and bites at his head, which makes him fly away with a loud squawk. They do preen each other's heads each day and even eat from the same bowls sometimes without quarrelling. He also seems to be regurgitating food to her quite often as well. I'm just worried she's aggressive and maybe that they're incompatible. As these are the only two birds we have and we only have the one cage, I really don't want to have to separate them if this is normal behavior.
(PS: I have read that mirrors are also somewhat controversial; some like to use them, some hate them, but don't seem to notice any change in her behavior if it's there or not.)
Thanks in advance for any advice.
I'm not sure if there has already been a post on this, if so, I'm sorry for the repeat. We got two new budgies from the pet store a little over a month ago (one male and one female). I'm new to owning budgies and only had a single cockatiel as a child, so I'm really very limited in my experience with birds. I would say the female is probably around 5 to 6 months old and that the male maybe just one year or a bit younger. (I'm guessing by the striping near their ceres. The photos don't show them all that well, but the female's stripes go down almost all the way to the cere and the males are more recessed, like a bit behind the center eye area).
They have a relatively large cage with four different sized perches and 6 - 7 toys we rotate out.
What I'm really interested in knowing is if they are playing or fighting. I get the feeling that the female gets angry with the male and chases him off. Sometimes it seems she even chases him around the cage. (I often put in two bowls of food and there is one dish for water) She isn't starving him or anything, but every day he will go to eat some seeds from one bowl and she'll go and chase him away, so he'll go eat the fresh veggies in another bowl (that's hanging in another section of the cage) and she'll immediately fly to him and chase him off from there. (This goes on back and forth until they seem to 'squawk it out'). He often dances and head bobs while singing next to her while she eats and sometimes he will try to gently peck at her and she reacts lightning fast (like a snake striking) and bites at his head, which makes him fly away with a loud squawk. They do preen each other's heads each day and even eat from the same bowls sometimes without quarrelling. He also seems to be regurgitating food to her quite often as well. I'm just worried she's aggressive and maybe that they're incompatible. As these are the only two birds we have and we only have the one cage, I really don't want to have to separate them if this is normal behavior.
(PS: I have read that mirrors are also somewhat controversial; some like to use them, some hate them, but don't seem to notice any change in her behavior if it's there or not.)
Thanks in advance for any advice.