Alessandro_D
Checking out the neighborhood
- Joined
- 3/6/19
- Messages
- 3
Hi all,
My name is Alessandro. I'm new to this forum! I recently (February 16, 2019) adopted a breeding/bonded pair of cockatiels. After losing our 25+ year old cockatiel Charlie, my girlfriend and I waited nearly two months before adopting new feathered friends, Donald and Daisy.
They have seemed fine for the past couple weeks. They preen each other, eat out of the same food dish together (Even though there are two) and Donald would sing to Daisy for hours at a time. Last week they began mating, so i attached a nest box to the side of the cage. They mated a couple times per day for the past week and a half. Since this mating has started and the birds have been spending some time preparing the nest box, Donald has been VERY aggressive toward us. He will charge at us when we enter the room and bite (draw blood) when we are refilling their food/water. After having read some cockatiel breeding books and forums, this seems like perfectly normal behavior during breeding. It wasn't until yesterday we noticed aggression toward the female. I heard Daisy screeching so when I entered their room I saw Donald chasing her around the cage and biting her feet, even making her bleed. We removed him from the cage and put him in a spare cage that we have. We tried to reintroduce them a few hours later but he did the exact same thing.
Donald spent the night in a separate cage from Daisy and we again tried to reintroduce them this morning. Immediately upon entering the cage he tries to chase her out of it. Once she flies out of the cage he goes into the nest box. When we took both cockatiels out of cages and let them walk around the house they act like nothing ever happened. I'm very confused/concerned about this behavior - especially since she should be laying her eggs soon. Can anyone offer any advice on how to calm Donald down so they can go back to how they were before?
FYI they have raised several clutches before, according to the place we adopted them from. They were free-range breeding birds in their previous home. When we were first introduced to them, they were in a large cage with three of their 6 week old babies, who were all adopted out.
Thanks in advance for any help! I appreciate it so much!
My name is Alessandro. I'm new to this forum! I recently (February 16, 2019) adopted a breeding/bonded pair of cockatiels. After losing our 25+ year old cockatiel Charlie, my girlfriend and I waited nearly two months before adopting new feathered friends, Donald and Daisy.
They have seemed fine for the past couple weeks. They preen each other, eat out of the same food dish together (Even though there are two) and Donald would sing to Daisy for hours at a time. Last week they began mating, so i attached a nest box to the side of the cage. They mated a couple times per day for the past week and a half. Since this mating has started and the birds have been spending some time preparing the nest box, Donald has been VERY aggressive toward us. He will charge at us when we enter the room and bite (draw blood) when we are refilling their food/water. After having read some cockatiel breeding books and forums, this seems like perfectly normal behavior during breeding. It wasn't until yesterday we noticed aggression toward the female. I heard Daisy screeching so when I entered their room I saw Donald chasing her around the cage and biting her feet, even making her bleed. We removed him from the cage and put him in a spare cage that we have. We tried to reintroduce them a few hours later but he did the exact same thing.
Donald spent the night in a separate cage from Daisy and we again tried to reintroduce them this morning. Immediately upon entering the cage he tries to chase her out of it. Once she flies out of the cage he goes into the nest box. When we took both cockatiels out of cages and let them walk around the house they act like nothing ever happened. I'm very confused/concerned about this behavior - especially since she should be laying her eggs soon. Can anyone offer any advice on how to calm Donald down so they can go back to how they were before?
FYI they have raised several clutches before, according to the place we adopted them from. They were free-range breeding birds in their previous home. When we were first introduced to them, they were in a large cage with three of their 6 week old babies, who were all adopted out.
Thanks in advance for any help! I appreciate it so much!