Nippy and squawky

[Joelle]

Lately my two linnies have been nippier with each other than usual. They make an irritated sound when preening sometimes and if one is in the other's way on a perch. They also do mating positions but no eggs. I worry a bit because it seems like aggressive behaviour but they are a bonded pair so I haven't separated them. They have started to do this at night in thier sleep cage too...

 

[Macgyver]

Are they molting, or have some sore pin feathers? Is it time for terrible twos?

 

[sunnysmom]

@Lady Jane ?

 

[wyrinth]

My guys have arguments. I almost never separate them, except for this year when my male, Stitch, went crazy and was screeching and dive bombing the female....but that was due to mating and wanting to start another clutch. If they are just irritated with each other, but don't harass the other one, then I would leave them. As for the mating....linnies seem to be a very "loving" species and I see my two mate even off season.

 

[Joelle]

My guys have arguments. I almost never separate them, except for this year when my male, Stitch, went crazy and was screeching and dive bombing the female....but that was due to mating and wanting to start another clutch. If they are just irritated with each other, but don't harass the other one, then I would leave them. As for the mating....linnies seem to be a very "loving" species and I see my two mate even off season.

Good to know! They make an awful screechy noise once a day when working on pin feathers, so maybe they are just really vocal about the discomfort!
Once, but only once they got into a tif and it looked like one bit the other's foot but it was hard to tell and that was half a year ago.

 

[Macgyver]

My family is a single-bird home, so when one of us would hit a sore pin feather, we would occasionally get an extreme reaction, like head-wagging super-crabbing.