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I have four parakeets and when they are warbling it can be very peaceful. However right now I am trying to work and relax and they are pecking each others' eyeballs out. It is driving me completely insane! My oldest bird is about 11 now and is very slow and weak. The other birds are literally pecking her until she falls onto the cage floor. Then I have to go save her, which lasts a few minutes ... it is just so stressful ...

I am considering putting one bird into solitary

I've put on my "sleepytime" music and am trying to soothe them. I thought pets were supposed to help us relax

I don't want to scare you but i know from my rescue organization that budgies--under certain conditions--will actually kill another bird, especially a sick/weak one. PLEASE, isolate that bird!! Then, a couple of things to look at:

1. are there enough food cups for each bird to have one?

2. do they have enough space to move around?

This little picked on bird needs your intervention.

pat

I agree with Pat, Lisa.

It is normal to chase the weak ones away from the flock in order to protect the rest of the flock from preditors. Since they can't chase her away - they could very easily kill her.

Every bird has their own cup of food. Plus they all have treat bars out. Plus there are three separate bathtubs out for them to play in. Plus a big playgym with bells and gnawy things. Plus a big window they hang out in.

They have a HUGE cage and all day long I am in my office so they have the entire office area they fly around in while I am here. They can definitely chase her "away" They are just psycho sometimes.

Then I put on the sleepy time music and they all fluff up and warble ...

So then Pinto and Santo, two of my blue birds, decided they were now rivals. Pinto sits on top of the cage like a vulture, staring down at the birds who happen to be inside. Then Santo launches herself inside the cage at the "ceiling" of the cage. Pinto pecks down at Santo's feet. Santo pecks up at Pinto's feet. One of them gives up and then wait a while and then do it again.

It was all fun and games until Pinto actually drew blood on Santo - then we of course had to get Santo calmed down and get her feet cleaned off. Everything's calmed down now, I think Santo has learned her lesson about ceiling-hanging-bat-behavior ...

UPDATE: OK I again say these birds are psycho, Santo went right back to clinging on the underside of the ceiling of the cage and gnawing at Pinto's toes, forcing her to retaliate. We have now covered the entire top of the cage with washcloths, so they can't get at each other any more Problem solved! Until they find a new way to chase each other

Ah life with four female parakeets ...

Hi Lisa,

Wow...good job at least getting it to stop! Ya, i sure get it about budgies. I love mine (5) but when i was fostering 4 more (9!!!!!) i was just nuts! They were great together but going in the room was crazy! Anyway, the four fosters moved on and i am back to 5 budgies and my other birds! Whew!

I just thought of something else. It may have something to do with hormones. My avian vet (and other's that my rescue group work with) have taught me a lot about hormonal birds. Budgies (and cockatiels) can be hormonal year round. Fern (my vet: BellaOnline ALERT: Raw URLs are not allowed in these forums for security reasons. Please use UBB code. If you don't know how to do UBB code just post here for help - we will help out!

Well, we've had all of these birds as a family group for I think 10-11 years now, so it would seem odd that hormones were just kicking in now. They do pair up into two "mating couples" The elderly green (Nazo) and Pinto never lay eggs and just sort of cuddle. The younger two (Santo and Ivory) do in fact create an egg every once in a while. But again this has been happening for years so nothing is new or changed about it all. In fact they usually start the egg laying stuff when we occasionally put in a big chewy log for them on their playgym because it feels to them like they're hollowing out a tree for a nest. We only give them the log occasionally because of that nest-building excitement, but they really LOVE chewing on it so we don't want to never give them one.

Their light / dark cycle has been pretty stable for all the years - we have a light on a timer in here which goes on and off. In fact, if anything it is "more stable" now. Up until recently I was a night owl so I would work all night long. Meaning they'd never really get total darkness in here. Now that I've looped myself around to a more normal type of schedule, they do actually get some good dark sleep from say midnight to 7am. So they should be more relaxed than they've ever been in the past

I think it's more been an incrementally growing situation. Pinto used to just sit on top of the cage occasionally, staring down vulture like at the other birds inside. Ivory would get a bit annoyed and peck up at her and Pinto would fly away. But Pinto is really loving the vulture power position and is doing it more and more and I think Santo just snapped and had enough of it. So she began flying up to do a fully fledged attack - but Pinto is better with the toe-gnawing and was able to get a hold of a foot or two.

And you think Santo would have learned her lesson having a bloody foot. But noooooooooooo the next chance she got, she went flying right back up at Pinto for payback ...

I don't think they ever learn lessons the way we think they should Lisa. Covering the top of the cage was a good move to stop the "between the bars" attacks. I might consider a plexiglass cover instead of the washcloths though, to prevent darker spots inside the cage.

That sounds like a great idea, Mavis, I think we will move on to that as a more permanent solution

LOL I never tire of budgie antics! I have just over 40 - including chicks and love watching their dominant behaviour.

Please be sure to follow all the advise because I lost a parakeet through this same means and didn't take Baby Blue out in time. The other parakeet was very sneaky and would ONLY attack when covered or when I wasn't looking. They are smart.