budgie help....before OH throws them through the window!!

[spish]

i have 5 budgies...1 male and 4 females all from 2010

they've lived together in the same aviary for over a year and always got along just fine. they share the aviary with 4 cockatiels. there is 4 nesting boxes in there (budgie size) and 2 cockatiel size.

for thepast few weeks2 females have been popping in and out of the nesting boxes, neversitting in there long, just going in, get comfy, then pop back out.

now the past few days theres been absolute chaos in the aviary, the male budgie is constantly 'screaming' for want of a better word (that screechy screamy shouty noise) we can hear it from the living room and bedroom its so loud. hes following the 2 girls in and out of the boxes and screeching at any other birds that get too close. theres no nest been made, theres no eggs...just a lot of noise and commotion......

is this budgie mating behaviour or has something upset them and the should no llonger live with the cockatiels or something? i really have noidea...but my fella is getting really peeved with the noise. its startsas soon as it gets light (around 4.30/5am) and carrys on until dusk



help??

 

[bagendhens]

sounds like hes trying to romanticize the girls and being very vocal about it if anyone else gets remotly close.

personaly id never house budgies and teils because budgies during breeding season can be worse than pirranah and many a teil has been bullied to death by budgies.
if yours are in an aviary it might be less of a problem...but id expect the screaching at anyone who comes neer his girls to continue...

you might get some quieter time (if you want the girls bred) if you seperate him out with one of the females into their own cage...he might not feel the need to be quite so vocal about his territory is hes in his own space.

 

[jojo@rolling acres farm]

It is mating behavior. If you don't want them to reproduce why do you have nesting boxes up? The very presence of a nesting box activates the hens reproductive system. If you don't want them to exhibit mating behavior - remove the boxes immediately and shorten the lenth of daylight hours the birds currently have in order to break this breeding cycle.

Joni

Edited for clarification

 

[spish]

jojo@rolling acres farm :

It is mating behavior. If you don't want them to reproduce why do you have nesting boxes up? The very presence of a nesting box activates the hens reproductive system. If you don't want them to exhibit mating behavior - remove the boxes immediately and shorten the lenth of daylight hours the birds currently have in order to break this breeding cycle.

Joni

Edited for clarification

i want them to breed, hence the nesting boxes....where did i say in my post that i didnt want them breeding?
i didnt know if this was 'normal' mating behavoiur or fighting with the cockatiels......hence why i asked! i wanted to know what this behaviour was, if it was normal or would i need to remove the cockatiels.
if we know its normal then we will have to put up with the noise if its all part of the ritual...but if it was because of something else it was better that i found out sooner rather than later.

bagendhens - many thanks for the suggestion..i have now seperated the male and his 'favourite' girl into their own cage with a block for them and its already a lot more peaceful out here...many thanks once again

 

[spish]

we have an egg!!!! but she laid it on the floor, not in the box.....?

 

[jojo@rolling acres farm]

I guess the tone of your post made me feel like you and your friend were unhappy and upset with the mating/ nesting behavior and the noise level.

Have you read anything or done any research on raising budgies? Your male will need to feed each of the girls - they in turn will feed the babies. Ideally, each hen should have her own male to support her. I can see him with two hens - MAYBE - but not four.

Sometimes hens will make a mistake and lay an egg from a perch as opposed to inside the box. They lay every other day - she may settle in and lay the next one in the box. As the previous post states - maybe you should separate the male and laying female and just breed The one pair. Or get three additional males. It would be sad if they brood the eggs, hatch them and then have the feeding situation be such a burden to the male that things wouldn't go well for the birds. At the very least your male is going to be exhausted.

Do you have pine shavings in the box? If you don't - you need to.

What is your diet? Are the girls getting enough calcium? Do you feed veggies and soft food?

Edited to add: When the babies are close to weaning the male takes over a lot of feeding duty and the hens may start a second clutch of eggs. He's going to be overwhelmed. Please consider setting him up with only one hen.

 

[spish]

hi, yes we were unhappy with the noise, it sounded 'urgent' as if there was a threat or problem, thats why we asked on here incase it was the cockatiels

we original had 8 budgies in the aviary...supposedly 4 males 4 females...but it turned out to be 1 male on 7 females. we set up a swap of three females for 3 males..but when the guy arrived he'd 'forgotten' the males so just paid cash. we've been unable to locate any other males.

in the nesting box we have shavings...

diet consists of that premix budgie food plus we give almonds, dandelions, fruits (chunks of apple and banana but they dont really seem to like that) and veg ( broccali carrot, cucumber, cabbage) plus lately we've been feeding eggfood

i used to help my grandfather with his birds when i was younger, he raised budgies, cockatiels and finches in aviaries, but i didnt remember all that noise!!

they have cuttlefish hanging in their aviary, milletspray and mineral blocks (not sure whats in the blocks but they are supposedly for small parakeets)



if you read my previous posts you wil see that i have already put him alone with just one girl in a seperate cage

..thats when she laid the egg on the floor...

i chose to put him in alone with our oldest girl...i wasnt sure if the others would be to young seeing as they have only just got the brown colour on their cere.

 

[jojo@rolling acres farm]

It takes a while for hens to get into breeding condition. It sounds like all of yours are now in condition. Parakeets are ground feeders. Sometimes if you place their soft/wet food like veggies on the floor on a clean flat surface they'll take to the food easier. You should also try to feed them fresh sweet corn trimmed off the cob or you can use frozen corn that has been thawed out under warm tap water. They usually eat this really well when they have babies hatching. The reason I adked about their food is if you feed pellets and a calcium block or cuttle bone - they can get too much calcium and it can be hard on their kidneys. It sounds like you have everything covered. Dandelions are a great souce of green food. Mine never ate apples all that well and hardly ever ate bananas. They did eat romaine lettuce well and all types of whole grain breads - which when soaked in water makes an excellent feeder food for very young babies. That and the fresh or thawed corn is best. The babies grow well on it and it gives good energy to both the parents who have to keep up their strength and the babies.

Baby budgies are very, very cute. There can be such a variety of colors in one nest - always interesting. What color are the parent birds?

 

[spish]

i shall get some photos up tomorrow...the couple seperated are green and dark blue..the other females are light blue, yellow and light green.
many thanks for the info, i shall give corn a try

we have some growing in the field so have plenty to hand!

 

[Mama duck 8]

Definatly mating behavior