Sexual maturity in Cockatiels-7 months??

[Tiki]

Yesterday I put a flight suit on Taina so she could spend time with her husband, Tiki and not be able to mate. Tiki was not impressed with the gear but at least they got some cuddling and preening time. What surprised me is that Tiki's seven month old son (by the dearly departed Ariki) Maui started challenging his father and trying to mount Taina. Isn't he a bit young for this? He isn't jumping on his half sisters who are 3.5 months old. Why doesn't he respect his father? Doesn't he remember Tiki is the one who fed him when he was young? They were flying and swooping on each other. I finally took Maui into the bedroom so he would leave them alone. At what age would the sisters be in danger of being mated by over sexed males? I would have to put them in with their mother.

[Monica]

I've seen this in my bourkes before... accept it was with their daughter (who had no brothers her sisters with her, and she was of age) and she was asking to be mounted. The father went with his mate most of the time, however, had mounted his daughter, so I removed her. She ended up laying eggs still, but from a branch, so each one broke when they hit the floor.

In captivity, birds usually tend to mature and mate later in life than they would out in the wild. Budgies in Australia, once the chicks hatch, sometimes, right after they wean and fledge, they start a family of their own. I've heard of a breeder who has this problem in her aviary and she has tried to stop young females from breeding so young, however, she has had no problems with them raising a family perfectly fine (which is a big surprise and is a normal NO-NO for anyone to do to let such a young bird breed, if you think about all the risks).

Males usually can breed 2 or so months younger than when the females should be bred at the youngest age... Female cockatiels at 24 months, males at 20 months old... It's not the males who are laying eggs so they typically can be younger, but not too much younger, and more preferably around the same age as the hen. Your young female hens could be in danger now, if they are with hormonal males, which that sounds like what possibly Maui may be going through even at such a young age...

However, if the females have no desire to mate, then the males would have to forceably mate with them (I've seen this done before, with the females being very angry). This usually doesn't happen so as long as the females show no sign of wanting to produce a family and the males aren't too hormonal, they may be fine.

[Tiki]

Maui has shown no interest at all in his little half-sisters, neither has Tiki. They are both only interested in Taina. So they at least know the differecne between a mature hen and a juvenile. Taina is 4 years old and definitely interested in breeding. She is doing the upside-down acrobat thing and pressing up against the cage wires. I expected the mature males to be interested but not my little 7 month old Maui! Tiki hasn't left the side of the cage that separates him from Taina except to eat! They have raised one clutch but I don't want them to breed again, they are really just pets. Is there anyway to make them not hormonal?