Satan lives inside my budgie.

[Shannon.]

Help!
almost eight years ago i got 2 budgies. exactly a year ago yesterday one of them died. my remaining budgie seemed to be doing fine alone until the past couple months he seemed really lonely. he deffenitly didn't love attention but he didn't mind it. i would let him out to fly pretty often. he wasn't much of a biter more so just a nipper. last week i decided he needed a friend. so i went to the local pet store and bought a young budgie( old enough to be a pet but young enough i can't tell the sex) anyways my old budige loves the new budgie. i am keeping them in seperate cages for the time being but i let them play together for a few hours everyday. the second day of having a new budgie my old budgie started going crazy he bites ( me ) so hard now its unreal. he bites you to the point where he breaks skin & you bleed. he has had his beak so clamped onto me that i basically have to shake my hand really really fast in order for him to let go. i just don't understand whats wrong with him. even now i put my hand remotely close to the cage he hangs onto the sides and tries to get his beek through the bars to bite me. even when im feeding him he acts this way. i just really don't know what to do. if this keeps up im going to have to find somewhere else for him to live. i can;t let him corrupt my new budgie. shes addorable & seems to think im great.
somebody please help me.
either reply here or email me at shannneil@hotmail.com & write something about birds in the subject.

[Rue]

Well, first off, you would have done better to have quarantined the new budgie for a month before introducing them. However, if you've introduced them and they get along, you don't need to keep them apart - since the new budgie would already have passed on any diseases to the older budgie.

My guess is the older budgie is biting you because it wants out and to get to the new budgie! I wouldn't hold it against him.

I do find it odd that after 1 week you're ready to rehome the budgie you've had for years in favour of the new one. Does the older budgie have issues you haven't mentioned?

[Shannon.]

he is deffenitly not biting because he wants to get out. he bites me even when they are sitting together. & after i made my first post he bit the new bird. i was trying to put them back in the seperate cages & i started with the old one so he would 'be the one getting the attention' and he kept biting me so i gave up on him and got the new bird in my hand to put in her cage and he grabbed the new bird by the head and wouldnt let go. now im worried she might have some bruising i can't see.

it might sound terrible but im deffenitly willing to choose the new one over the old one. the old one has always been mean. just not mean like this. i can;t handle it. im not even exzagerating a little. my mother didn't believe me when i told her about what he was doing. so i got her to try and get him to hop on her finger and he attatcked her & now her hand is all cut to hell.

is there anything i can put on my fingers that he wont like the taste of & then next time he'll think twice about biting.

[felisdomesticus]

your first bird should be your priority. You took on the responsibility of owning him, now it's time to follow through on that.

It's not fair for you to get rid of him because YOU changed his living conditions and now YOU don't like the result.

[sweetie&meli]

what were to happen if the second budgie became just as mean?

[Shannon.]

Originally Posted by sweetie&meli

what were to happen if the second budgie became just as mean?

true enough he is my responsibility. but i just can't believe his behavior. & i got him when i was 10 & im almost 18 so he's been around for half my life & now i just feel like hes not even the same bird. he absoultely hates me. and now hes beinging really agressive towards the new bird & hes bitten everyone in my family.

im not sure what would happen if the new bird became just as mean. then i would feel like complete bird owning failure.

i've been thinking about putting them in different rooms and seeing if the older one will calm down any, but is that a bad idea now that they've already been introduced?

[Monica]

The failure comes when you give up, or fail to properly care for your bird(s) to the best of your knowledge. I've had a rough start in birds myself, many could have been from bad genetics, though I may never know as I've never done a necropsy on any of the birds that had passed on. Since you say that you are nearly 18, then you are only a couple months older than myself.

Try separating them first in different rooms, though do know that they may call out for eachother. Try working with them separately, both away from their cages, and never together. You may be able to calm down your older budgie, if that is what you wish to do. I myself have a 10 year old male, though I've only had him for about 5 years, and he too is an older grumpy bird, though he doesn't normally act aggressively towards others, even if he doesn't accept them (a younger female put him in his place when he got upset that she got in his little 'bubble').

For now, all I can suggest is to work with them separately and have them in different rooms. If after several weeks/months and there is no change in his behavior, and you worked with him every day that you could, then think about 'what if' he'd be happier somewhere else, or can you provide for him for the rest of his life. Some older budgies simply may not take to new birds (like my own), and just might want to be alone.

Even though my Cosmo has made himself a 'hermit' that lives with another male budgie that acts like a 'teen', I know that I can still provide for him and make him comfortable in this home. If I were to rehome him, he may become lonely, or he may never take to any other birds and may not be happy in another home because of the way he is now.