Expert: Chrys Meatyard - 12/8/2007

Question
I have 3 budgies.  The first was adopted unknown age.  He was taught to finger perch, but was mostly quiet and took a long time to check out new toys.  We felt he was lonely so introduced a young budgie (8 weeks) and they hit it off immediately.  The older one regurgitated for the second and they preen eachother.  They were together for 4 weeks until I got a 3rd. My 3rd is wonderful quality budgie hand-tamed, great character, very curious, but he is being alienated by the other two.  You can tell he wants to be friends.  He tries a lot of head bobbing. The 2nd and 3rd are only 6 weeks apart in age. They all are in a large flight cage and the first 2 were only in the cage for a week before 3rd introduced so I'm less concerned about territory issues.  They move in on him when eating and drinking and he flies away.  There are times that they all eat at the same time. I have separate feeders, but if he is drinking or eating first, they chase him away. The 3rd will defend himself, but no one preens him, or fondly touches beaks, and obvious they are ignoring him.  

It has been a week and wondering what I can do if anything and at what point do you say 'they don't get along' ...what behavior do I look for to know when it is time to separate them?  When on the same perch they space themselves away from the 3rd and at night if he is on the perch they hang onto the bars all night and if they are on the perch , the 3rd is nearby on a ring, but NOT on the same perch.  They do not pick his feathers.

Answer
Hi, Gwen,

The first 2 birds are bonding.  The 3d bird is the "third wheel."  What's the saying "Two's company, three's a crowd."  This is what is going on with your 3 birds.  It may be too late for the 3d bird if you wait to separate them.  Budgies can be ruthless towards another bird if the other bird is a "third wheel," particularly female budgies toward other female budgies, and especially so if/when mating/breeding occurs.  You'd be best to separate the 3d bird out now then to wait for something more drastic to occur.  You could try adding another bird to your flock so the 3d bird would have a companion (either in the same flight cage of a separate cage).  However, you need to ensure a new bird is the opposite sex of the 3d bird or put 2 males together.  Regardless, if you have males and females paired up, you can most likely expect mating to occur.  If you aren't prepared for this to happen, you need to keep males together and females together, separately from each other.

Chrys