Expert: Chrys Meatyard - 5/20/2008

Question
i have 4 cockatiel, they have all been given to me for one reason or another. i
believe 2 are females and 2 are males. the one female i have had the longest
and she has decided she wants to mate  the one boy has already started to
mate with her and the other male is trying to get in the middle of it so to
speak. i am afraid my female will get hurt. since she already had a wing break
and the vet i took her to didn't get it set properly i worry most about her. the
2 boys came from someone who was neglecting them and they were cage
bound for a few weeks. they now will come out but not to us the other female
we thought was a male also is going through some of the mating stuff but no
one is paying attention to her. do i need to pair them up and separate the
pairs or should i let them work things out for themselves

Answer
Hi, Faith,

For some reason, the person you sent your original request to could not answer.  I picked your question up in the question pool.

When you want to breed tiels, provided they are old enough and you have the right mix of males/females, it's best to separate the pairs into their own breeding cages.  This would be particularly important for the tiel with the bad wing.  If this bird is a male, with it's broken wing, he male not be able to balance himself properly during the mating process.  You need to ensure the sex of each of the birds, too.  They need to be at least 1 year old, but 24 months of age is better.  You can let the birds decide who they want to be paired up with or you can decide for them by putting a male and female together in their separate cages.  Parrots are bonded when you see the male feeding the female beak-to-beak.

Chrys