My budgie tried to kill my quail :( Advice graciously accepted.

[LaceyNylons]

tl;dr Budgie hen tried to kill female quail. How reduce budgie's aggression?

On Friday evening, Peep my female button quail was rushed to the vet after being attacked by my female budgie Tookie.

Took attacked Peep while myself and my partner were out, and had caused damage to both of her wings and the back of her neck. The vet gave Peep some antibiotics and fluids before sending her home with us with instruction to keep her dark, warm and hydrated, Peep made it through the night and made another trip to the vet in the morning. The vet did such a fantastic job with caring for Peep and educating us, and peep appeared to be feeling much better in record time! Peep is currently recovering away from the other birds and seems to be doing well.

Took is the first budgie that I have ever owned. It has only dawned on me after the fact that she may be hormonal due to wanting to nest. Took has:

- been ripping shreds of newspaper from the bottom of the cage
- been guarding the food bowl
- been making "angry dolphin sounds" occasionally towards Peep (but not her male partner)
- spent time 'Nesting' in my hair
- regurgitated for me and spent time preening me
- developed a dark brown cere with 'flaky' patches

To try and reduce Took's nesting behaviours, we have

- reduced her daylight exposure to 8 - 10 hours a day
- rearranged her cage
- removed her from the quail
- removed possible places to nest

I just have some questions about Took's behaviour.

- Is reducing her exposure to daylight cruel? If not, what is the best way to do this?
- Will reducing her exposure to daylight decrease her aggression?
- Will took ever settle enough to share a house with the quail again?
- Will any of the above mentioned strategies reduce took's aggression?

Took was such a sweet little bird when we took her home. She is about 7 months old now and has recently started to display aggression to Peep the female quail and my partner.

I love all my birds with all my heart, but my quail are vulnerable and I do not have the space to keep all of my birds separated and comfortable Reunification would be the best goal, but if that cannot happen, I need to find a way to give all of my birds the best lives possible.

Any advice would be very much appreciated!

Thanks so much in advance.

 

[spikennipper]

The only advice I can give is to keep the quail and budgies separate then you can be sure of this never happening again, some of the things you mentioned may help to reduce the aggression but it may or may not stop this happening again and I would not want to risk damage to my quail, you may have to look at rehousing some of the birds if you have no space to keep them separate, male budgies are usually less aggressive than the females.