When I arrived home from the conference to meet El Esposo and head off for the Cousins by the Dozens (described here and here), the parakeets were squawking more than usual. The large cage with four birds is in the back yard, close to the driveway so I could hear them immediately when I got out of the car. I wondered if they were out of food or water (they weren't--EE took care of them beautifully in my absence) and went to look. What I found was shocking!
One of the birds had another one pinned on the floor of the cage. The one on top had her wings spread out looking hawklike. Both were bloodied. One of the other birds was bloody, too. When I opened the door to the protective hutch that contains the cage, the attacker let go. The victim was still able to fly, and flew up to the highest perch. The other two were going crazy flying around. After checking food and water and seeing that they were full, I was really puzzled. But I thought the fight was over. I went about the yard, inspecting all that had happened since I had been away and watering a few things.
When I went back to check the parakeets, the blue bird that had been attacked was hiding in the furry bird "sleeping bag" that is hung from the top of the cage. The splotchy yellow one that had been the attacker was on the outside of the tube screeching at the one inside. Ok, clearly there is still some animosity and the hurt bird isn't going to be safe. I thought about taking the victim out, but was afraid the additional stress would be too much. Then I thought about how three of the four have bloody beaks or heads and evidence of fighting. So I opted to take out Birdzilla and leave the other three to recuperate in peace.
For awhile I couldn't see her since she was in the nest box. Aha! Maybe the nest box is causing the problem. When the nest box was removed we discovered an egg. Birdzilla is really Momzilla? Yes! After she was removed from the big cage, she laid another egg in the makeshift cage she was in. Unfortunately, the violence can't continue. So I took the eggs away and Birdzilla is having a "timeout" in dog crate with a perch. Once the others have recovered and she is no longer laying I hope to be able to put her back with the others. Two of the three are now seeming fully recovered after two days of mostly sleeping. The third is still on the highest perch with head under wing, getting some restorative sleep.
Laying parakeets would have seemed like such an exciting thing! Unfortunately, I think I need to know a little more about them and have a bigger aviary with more nest boxes in order to do that. I know chickens get irritable when they are broody, but I don't know anything about broody parakeets.
3 comments:
Parakeet Moody Syndrome
Hmm. I don't know anything about this but my guess is that the mom need more space. The breeder where we bought our cockatiel has the moms separated. Are the eggs fertile? Put the mom and eggs in a separate cage with a nesting box and see what hatches. :-)
Here's something I learned the other day when I picked up our bird after boarding at the breeder. Currently she has has 23 babies under the age of two months and lots of them were lying on the bottom of the cage. She said that young birds do not initially know how to perch and have to be taught by the parents. Until they learn this they lay flat on their side or back to sleep! They looked pretty funny and "unbirdlike".
The chicks slept like that, too! At first they would stand and wobble as they got tired. Then suddenly they would crumple to the ground and wake themselves! Finally one of the "crumplings" would take and they would stay asleep. They would be stretched out looking a lot like one of those rubber chickens!
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