Female budgie won’t let other budgie eat!

[nichole1515]

Hi everyone 😊

So it has been 4 weeks and I have put Stevie (the boy) and Alfie (girl) together in a bigger flight cage after spending 4 weeks next to each other in seperate cages etc. things have been going ok she has been trying to assert herself a little bit especially when it comes to food. She won’t let Stevie eat seed and chases him away if he goes to get food. Occasionally she will be eating and let him have a few seeds but then she gets nasty. I have 2 water bowls and 2 seed bowls and recently put in a third bowl of seed as I was worried he wasn't getting anything..they both seem to want to eat at the top of the cage and rarely go down to the lower seed and water bowls. Stevie is so placid so when she goes for him while he is trying to eat he just flys over to the other perch and then tries again to get food, she then does the same thing and he flies away again. At times she does let him eat and not get nasty, but I don’t want Stevie always having to fight to get food.I don’t know how to go about this now so any advice would be great…

Thanks 😊

[tweetiepiesmom]

When you put them together, did you put Stevie in Alfie's cage or put Alfie in Stevie's cage? If you put Stevie in Alfie's cage, she sees that as Stevie moving in on her territory. You should take everything out of the cage - perches, toys, food dishes, everything - and put them back in different places. Completely rearrange the cage. See if that improves the situation. Others will be along with additional suggestions.

[Loz]

I'm not sure whether you can reposition the shared cage, to another part of the room or a different room?
Even if only temporarily.
The cage furniture moves is a good shout.

[nichole1515]

loz tweetiepiesmom
I put Alfie in with Stevie in a bigger cage I got during quarantine for 4 weeks so it was all new to her. I didn’t think of moving the cage to a different area 😬 so therefore it wasn’t her original hood 😅 do I still need to re arrange everything?

[Loz]

I would recommend swapping around the cage furniture, it's worth a try.

[tweetiepiesmom]

Agree with loz - its worth a try.

[Marianne Marlow]

Sorry if someone has asked this, but how big is the cage you've put them in?

[nichole1515]

Don’t know the dimensions but it’s big enough that they can fly in it. This is it

[Hezz]

May 3, 2022 19:43:58 GMT nichole1515 said:

loz tweetiepiesmom
I put Alfie in with Stevie in a bigger cage I got during quarantine for 4 weeks so it was all new to her. I didn’t think of moving the cage to a different area 😬 so therefore it wasn’t her original hood 😅 do I still need to re arrange everything?

You did the right thing with this as I suggested in the beginning, so don’t worry about moving things around at this stage. That is not the problem; the problem is, as you noted, Alfie is wanting to be the boss, that’s ingrained hen’s right - the term “hen-pecked” didn’t come about from nothing. She most likely will be the dominant bird, but also will/should settle down once she has established herself as the Boss and they have settled in together.

Put all seed pots at the same level in the cage, not necessarily right next to a perch. Birds’ instincts are to be up high to keep watch for predators, only natural, and down low is where they are most vulnerable. She may still chase him away from seed pot to seed pot, but it most likely won’t last too long a she herself will get hungry, and she’ll want to settle down to feed as well.

[nichole1515]

Thanks Hezz yes I did everything you suggested 🙂 my other concern is that she does try to bite him when he is trying to feed and at other times she is bitting his feet when he is at the feed bowl or even just on a perch away from the feed bowls …I’m guessing she is trying to be the boss again with these issues but will they also resolve in time? Or are the incompatible?

[Hezz]

There are few budgies who cannot get along together, so I’m reluctant to put them into that category just yet. If they have not been together for very long, they may still be going through a settling in and getting to know each other. How long has it been? If she is being really vicious and you fear that she is going to harm him, by all means separate her. I would be inclined to remove her back into the smaller cage each time you see her being bratty, with nothing very much to keep her company, no toys, just food and water, and once she has settled down a bit, chance putting her back in the large cage. It means you will need to keep a close eye on her, and possibly have her on her own when you are not around to run interference between them.

I do think it is much more likely that she/they will reach a point where they can reside together without any silly nonsense.