Expert: Chrys Meatyard - 11/11/2007

Question
I have two birds- one female and one male. The blue one is a miracle because he was my first and came to me as the nicest most friendly bird I had ever known there was. Not knowing how to determine if a bird was sick or not, I bought another bird thinking the blue one would be lonely. She was sick when I bought her and died just shortly after with a liver disease. Tweety (the blue one) looked pretty depressed after that so I got another bird- a white female. It is hard to tell, looking at her cere, her gender, but I am almost positive she is a girl because she doesn't sing like Tweety and I sometimes see Tweety trying to impress her. They bonded before I had the time to tame her, and now I don't know what to do. I have tried many times, but every time she  flies frantically around the cage and makes me worry that she will hurt herself. If I corner her in the cage and grab her (which seems to me to be very mean), she bites really hard. Also, I was wondering why my birds aren't mating. They are both pretty old now (I have had them for about 3 years). The odd thing is, Tweety always feeds Pearl by regurgitating his food for her, and I know that to be a sign that they are about to mate. They have been doing that for the past year. I think I know a lot about parakeets now and would be ready if they were to mate. Lastly, when I got Tweety, he knew how to fly and ever since I have let him fly around my room. He has never gotten hurt or run into anything. Pearl on the other hand has gotten out of the cage three times (the last two on accident) and is a horrible flier. I have never had either of their wings clipped because I don't believe in it. She runs into walls and just doesn't know what to do with herself. Is this normal? I'm sorry this is so long!

Answer
Hi, Annabel,

Birds prefer other birds to humans.  This is why your second bird will be difficult to tame and your first bird, if tame, will likely loose much of its tameness.  Your bird flies frantically around the cage because you are cornering it inside its cage.  The only way is knows to defend itself is fight or flight.  Since it can't "flight" too far inside its cage, it bites.  I recommend you allow your bird to come outside its cage on it own before you try to interact with it.  If you corner a bird, it's going to bite just like any other animal.  If your birds are not a true pair, i.e., male and female, they won't mate.  Your white bird may be female or it may be male.  Since one bird is feeding the other beak-to-beak, this is a good sign you have a true pair.  They won't breed until/unless you put up a nesting box.  Some keets/budgies lay eggs on the cage bottom, but some won't lay without a nesting box.  Some birds are good fliers, some aren't.  Also, if Pearl is scared/frightened when outside her cage, she will fly aimlessly around/into anything.  You may not believe in clipping flight feathers, but this is neither cruel or painful.  It's for your bird's safety.  A bird with clipped wings, if done properly, will still fly, but just won't gain altitude when it does fly.  This helps to keep birds tame and helps to keep them under control and often helps to tame a bird down because they have to rely on their humans for mobility, etc.  It isn't normal per se for your bird to fly into walls, but I don't know from your post whether she has been frightened when this happens or not.  Flying into walls is a big danger as if the bird hits the wall hard enough, it can break its neck and die instantly.  This happens a lot when a bird outside its cage is frightened or scared by something.  They become disoriented and fly wherever.  This is a safety hazard for your bird.  There are lots of safety hazards in our homes for free flighted birds.  

It's really difficult to have tame birds and breeding birds at the same time.  I recommend you decide which you want...if you want tame pet birds, then don't allow them to breed.  In fact, purchasing a second bird when you want a tame companion bird is usually a mistake (birds prefer other birds to humans).  If you want them to breed, then you need to most likely give up your desires for tame pet birds.

Chrys