Fighting Budgies

[CanuckBudgie]

We've had 2 females budgies for about 8 years. Over the past couple of months, they have started to fight aggressively and it's getting worse. A month or so ago we returned home to find that one of them had been pecked or clawed until it bled quite badly from a scratch under its wing. It recovered ok and things seemed to return to normal.

Now both birds are back chasing and pecking each other, but Buffy is getting the worse of it due to her size. Historically, Buffy was the dominant one in spite of being physically smaller than Rose.

I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to do as the same budgie (BuffY) is now losing its feathers and seems to be under some stress from its cage mate.

The cage itself is about 40" long x 20" wide x 30' high and they always had lots of room to move around. They continue to eat well and at times get along very well together. They have never really liked toys and often they fought over them, so we tend to added things like cuttlefish or crackers

Should we be trying to re-introduce toys or some other diversion? Finally, I have considered adding a divider to the cage to keep them apart. My divider would have several small openings so that they could preen to a limited extent but not attack each other. The alternative would be to remove the divider for part of the day, but re-install overnight and when we've away.

Any help of advice you could provide would be appreciated.

Thanks.

[Millimi]

I think it would be a good idea to completely change the cage around. Move the toys and perches around.
Also, sometimes bonded birds get agressive when the other is sick. In the wild, a flock of budgies does not want to be slowed down by a sick one. You might want to get both birds checked by your avian vet...
What also could be the problem that one bird is more in shape than the other. This happened to me quite recently actually. Not as bad as you are describing, but my Pony was very nasty to my Soda, but now that Soda has become more active again, Pony stopped being so mean. I hope you find the answer to your problem, good luck!

[AmandaB]

If the aggression is so bad that one of them is losing feathers and seems under stress, my suggestion would be to seperate them. I know it's a hard thing to do since they've been together so long, but they are both getting on in years and that could be a factor. If you are reluctant to seperate them right away, try what Nat said, keep them seperate at night and when you are away and see how that works. A good checkup would help also.

[basketbagley]

Maturing females will often fight. I think during the breeding season even more. Monica is a good one to talk more about that, cause most of what I know I learned from her!!!

I would put toys back in, and separate them for right now. Maybe after awhile you can try and put them back together or just when out. but when you aren't there, I wouldnt leave them together. no need to risk injury!

nice cage by the way! is either one molting by chance?

[danforth3]

You may have to separate them for their own safety. But try moving the nest--err I mean cage, to another location. I ran into that with my budgies and once I moved the cage, it stopped. We now move the cage around a bit (few inches, here and few inches there) every few months to avoid nest syndrome. So far no erruptions or fights have occurred since we started moving it a little. Also everytime we clean the cage (weekly), we move everything around.

[Monica]

With some birds, aggression can be stopped by simply changing the cage around and moving it to a knew location. Sometimes, it's adding more items into the cage, or removing them out (such as if they are fighting over one item, introduce another just like it, or simply remove it).

However, it does sound as if this has gotten too far so you may need to completely seperate them from eachother. There is the option though of also removing them completely from their current cage into different cages, leaving them in those other cages for a couple weeks, (after both are healthy and healed) and later reintroducing them back into the original cage after it has been totally revamped.

[CanuckBudgie]

I've moved the cage to a new location, bought some new toys and re-arranged the perches etc..... So far it seems to be working. No major fights. Thanks for the advice.

[Monica]

Great to hear! Hopefully they will quit fighting and things shall remain good!