Jack... The Evil One

[Baby5566]

Hey all!

Just wanted to ask a question here. I have 2 Parakeets who are now in my signature. Jack and Zach. Jack and Zach came from a home where they were not taken out of their cage for 3 years! They were covered and left alone basically until I took them out of there. Both were highly unsocialized but seemed to be pretty happy with eachother, that is until I brought them home. Zach immediately learned to step up and step down, he whistles and he's just a content bird, but Jack... Jack didnt learn to step up for 2 weeks and still is weird about it. He bites and he has also been biting poor Zach!

Jack will sneak over to Zach while he's asleep and knock him off the perch, so poor Zach ends up sleeping in the food dish or on the ground. Jack will wait until Zach is eating to go eat and will toss seeds at him and not allow him to eat. A couple of days ago, I caught Jack building some sort of nest with strips of paper towel that was at the bottom of his cage. I know both are boys, they've been sexed as well as have the blue on their noses. So does Jack need a girlfriend? Sorry this was so long!

[Monica]

Can you get close up shots of there ceres??? Females can have blue on their ceres as well, or you could have just two ornery males.

You can try two food and water dishes, placed at different areas in the cage, more perches at various levels, etc. If adding more to the cage doesn't help solve the problem you could look into getting a second cage to put one of the budgies in, and then put the cages right next to eachother so they are together but can't pick on eachother. Or, if you'd rather still have them share the same cage, you need to get a much larger cage, one that is at least 2' sq, if not larger. Just remember that longer is better!

Birds do adjust differently to being in new homes.

[Baby5566]

Thanks Monica!

The cage is huge, it has 4 perches at various levels, as well as 5 ladders. There are 2 food bowls and 2 water bowls and even 2 baths. Jack has been blood tested and so has Zach, they are indeed male. We tested them because of the nest Jack was building as him being a female was the 1st thought that crossed our minds.

I noticed that Zach is the larger of the 2 but Jack puffs himself up so much to look like the larger of the 2. Do you think if I added a female or another male in there it would take away from all the hate between the two or will it just "feul the fire"?

Oh also, Jack has been doing what looks like a bobbing of his head lol, I have no idea how to describe it... It's like the Go Go dance or something. He does it and hisses.

[Monica]

What are the dimensions of the cage?

Budgies are normally extremely easy to visually sex, so I don't see why you got them DNA tested, but am still curious to see a good image of the both of them.

Adding a female could indeed get the two going at eachother more, trying to compete for her attention. Of course, they could easily irritate her as well since females tend to be very high strung and don't enjoy being stuck with strutty males, unless they have chosen one as their mate, but even at that they can get pissed off at the males easily.

Males bob their heads, normally to regurgitate food. Can't explain the hissing though.

[Baby5566]

We only got them sexed because of the nesting thing and because the vet recommended it; he wasn't a bird vet. But as we thought, 2 boys so the DNA thing did nothing for us.

The cage is about 3 feet tall and 2 feet wide. It's a big cage.

Here are pictures.

[Monica]

Both good lookin boys, and indeed the DNA testing was kind of worthless.... Males don't normally build nests so it sounds like you've got one unique male.

You might try adding in some rope perches, even a boing... it sounds like the cage CAN hold more perches, so I suggest you adding in a few more... otherwise, if the two are just not getting along, get another cage.

[Baby5566]

Thanks, yeah I thought the DNA thing was going to be but the vet really wanted us to because our boy was nesting. So I guess I have a unique bird :D.

Thanks for all of your help, I will get them some more perches like the rope perch and see how they like it. Hopefully we wont have to split them.

[catschair]

Hope my budgies can't read this thread. I have quite a crew of rescued budgies (and a couple of home grown babies) -- more boys than girls, but they all get along pretty well. Chatter away every now and again, but I have not seen them being this territorial. Maybe put them in separate cages for a while and when they are a bit more socialized with you, try putting them back together. What a mystery!

[homebird]

My Budgie seems to enjoy swinging & I think this common to all Budgies. You might add something like that so he can burn off extra energy. When Laker is being hormonal one of the things we found most beneficial was more exercise as he doesn't really play much. We do it every day a few times a day - at first he was not able to fly at all, then he could only fly to us & pant - now he can do 5 - 6 circuits of our 14x17 room. But boy does he fly well - hovering & dive-bombing included! Sometimes I encourage this flying until he's tired - not in a cruel way but to get him a little worn out for bed-time, is more the point.

Here's a video I love to bits http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MElQLJo4sSA - it shows a lot of Budgies in a big cage.

I don't know about adding a lone female - see Belinda's threads [Blinkie's Party Crashed], as she has some very cute Romeos that court all sorts of females - but you never know who will pair up or why.

Not all birds get along - maybe they need a divider for happiness.

PS ` they're nice looking birds & will only get nicer the longer you have them.
Jac

[Baby5566]

Thanks so much for all of your replies. They refuse to play, maybe they think that swinging is for "babies". We just got word from a local shelter that there's a Parakeet that was rescued along with his friend, a Lovebird, from their home. We're probably picking him up on Tuesday along with his friend, So I dont know if he's a boy or a girl, we will see!