Hey guys. Long time between posts. This is an ongoing problem that i'm trying to fix without success.

 

In a nutshell, i've had two males living together for more than a year and they were happy as can be. I introduced a female, and the larger of the two males now does nothing but keeps the other male away. Mostly violently.

 

I tried seperating them at intervals so to speak. I removed the violent male for a month where he could not hear or see the others. On reintroducing the male back in to the other male (with the female removed now) they were generally fine, and it got to the point where they were happy together again.

 

It's now been three months since the male was reintroduced and the female has been by herself. Last night I reintroduced them, and IMMEDIATELY the fights broke out. The alpha male once more made a beeline for the female, then to attack the smaller male.

 

Right now i've got them all together. The smaller male is always in a corner of the cage away from the other two. If he tries coming anywhere near them he is fought off by the alpha male.

 

The only thing I could think of is PERHAPS to buy a young female, train her up and introduce her to the population. I'm hoping that then they could be partnered up and all would be good with the world. Either that or the alpha male claims both females.

 

What do you guys think?

Males will drive another male or any other budgie off the perch when they have serious mating in mind. Thats what is going on there. You cannot guarantee you wont still have issues if an extra female is added to the equation. You are witnessing serious hormonal behaviour of a male desperate to beat off all others in his quest to "get the girl"

Thanks for the reply.

 

What would you suggest? Leave them be? It's heartbreaking to see one become the outsider.

You may need to consider a dormitory style arrangement. Housing for the boys and separate for the girl/girls ? Or if ages are right, allow the hormonal boy and girl to live together.

Unfortunately dorm style isn't really appropriate right now. I did plan on doing this when I bought my next house with a twin avairy setting.

 

With the ages, the smaller male is about two years, the alpha male a year and the female about 8 months. Speaking of which, when is she ready for breeding? Not that i'll be putting a nesting box anywhere near her until my house is bought and aviary set up.

Minimum 12 months is best for the females. I have had accidental matings and nestings of younger hens on occasion but they rarely finish the job or raising the chicks and it ends in disaster.

Kaz knows best and the one thing you can't guarantee is that a new one wouldn't get along but you can't say she won't either. In my mind if you had the space and if it didn't work out you had a plan I would get another female budgie of around the same age. I don't think I would go baby so maybe one that needs a good home from the paper, a rescue, criagslist (if you have that by you etc...)

 

Saying that I believe you need to do some seperation of either the 2 males or the pair (expect that you may get eggs though you may not some may lay without a box) Once they lay without a box this can be very troublesome and chronic as Pheobe has first hand experience with this issues. If it was me I would seperate the males together and leave the female alone until you have a chance to decide or the new one is out of quarantine.

Thanks for the replies.

 

Once again the female is alone, the males together again. On the upside, the female has an entire room to fly in as the cage door is open almost 24/7. At least this way she has a lot of room to move about it, it's always been that way.

 

I've began construction a massive bird-gym (think human-size) so she can do-away with the cage alltogether. Hopefully be finished in a week.

sounds like you have things under control

 

I do suggest that you have a cage at least for night time for safety also if your bird ever needs to be caged because they are sick, need to go to the vet or for transportation for any reason they are used to a cage and not stressed.

sounds like you have things under control

 

I do suggest that you have a cage at least for night time for safety also if your bird ever needs to be caged because they are sick, need to go to the vet or for transportation for any reason they are used to a cage and not stressed.

 

Oh yes, currently she lives in a medium sized cage, but most of the time she's out and about somewhere on the many purches i've placed in my study. Of all the months she's been in here she's never got into trouble. Though me bird-proofing any possible nuisance probably helped it. Currently she's on the chrome door handle, only reflection she can find!

 

Just need a few more days off work to get into this gym.

Thanks for the replies.

 

Once again the female is alone, the males together again. On the upside, the female has an entire room to fly in as the cage door is open almost 24/7. At least this way she has a lot of room to move about it, it's always been that way.

 

I've began construction a massive bird-gym (think human-size) so she can do-away with the cage alltogether. Hopefully be finished in a week.

 

make sure you take some pictures of the gym you are building for them . l would love to see your finished gym plus your budgies