Expert: Chrys Meatyard - 11/10/2006

Question
Your question was

OK, here is the situation.

We have a young female budgie, Avery, who we've had for around 7 months.  When
we got her, her cere was white so we know she was quite young.
Initially she was a very sweet bird who never bit us, but recently she would be
very aggressive when we would put out hands in her cage - she would bit us and
lunge at us viciously!

We have another bird, a male cockatiel, Baxter who we’ve had for 2 months.
Their cages are in separate rooms and they only see each other when they are
both out of their cages.  Avery was initially very mean to Baxter (she was
always trying to bite him) so he pretty much wants nothing to do with her.  Now
she tries to follow him around and copy him.  

Anyway, in the past few days Avery has done a complete 180 turn.  She is poofing
up her feathers and trying to look really cute (that is the best way I can
describe how she is acting).  She no longer bites us when we come near her cage,
infact when we open the door she rushes outside.  She is making cute little
cheeps and she wants to be held in our hands, wants us to massage her head and
she just seems like she is acting like she is in love!  Is this budgie mating
behavior?  Should we just let her do this?  The reason I’m concerned is that the
other budgie we owned before her started laying eggs and died because she
wouldn’t stop.

What would you do in this situation!?


Answer
Hi, Chelsey.  Thanks for posting!

Sounds like mating behavior to me!  Is she trying to mate with your fingers/hands?  Your young female budgie has raging hormones it sounds like, most likely as a result of being around Baxter.  She rushes to get out of her cage so she can be around him.  Whether you allow her to do this is up to you...it isn't going to hurt the bird at all.  In fact, she's probably very happy as a result!  She may start regurgitating to you, which is a sign of affection, so don't be too hard on her for doing it!  Some people don't like being puked on by a parrot!  She might even lay infertile eggs.  Just let her do her thing.  Don't put up a nesting box though or she'll definitely lay eggs!  Since they would be infertile, there's no point.

Other info you need - if one of your birds starts laying eggs and keeps laying and laying and laying, don't let this happen.  There are things you can try to stop the laying and, as a last resort, a bird vet can give the bird an injection to stop the egg laying.  Also, your bird's cere is white because she's female, not because she was young.  Female budgies/keets have white/brown/tan/beige ceres, and males have deep blue ceres.  

Come back with any additional questions.  Enjoy your keet...they are nice little parrots.

Chrys