Hello! Sorry for bothering, but I was hopping you could help me with something. I have a female budgie, and recently she killed her second mate. Ever since she met them she's been very violent and hostile with both of them. They didn't even need to be interacting with her in any way just by being near her made her attack them. Both times there was no egg laid or to be laid. I was hopping you would know why she does this? Thank you and sorry again for bothering
Hi! Not bothering at all! There are a few things that can be going on here, but it’s likely related to the fact that budgie hens are notoriously territorial. In the wild, the budgie hen has sole responsibility for defending her nest from potential invaders--which can include other budgies looking to take over rather than having to find their own nests--so the hens can be EXTREMELY aggressive. Hens will kill other hens in fights over territory, and will even kill each other’s chicks or destroy each other’s eggs in an attempt to get the nest that is seen as the “best”.
First off, how many budgies are in the cage, and how big is the cage? If the cage is too small, your hen may see it as “her” cage (rather than a communal space), and thus may be seeing the other budgies as intruders who need to be driven off. Here’s a link explaining what size cage is necessary to house multiple budgies together comfortably.
Also, did you have the hen in the cage first and then try to introduce new budgies to the same cage? This will often result in a territorial battle because the hen is not used to sharing her space. A couple things you can do to avoid this are: 1) introduce the budgies to one another gradually OUTSIDE the cage (I usually keep the new budgie in a travel cage temporarily while doing this), while supervising them in case they fight, and 2) once the budgies are familiar with each other and are getting along, completely rearrange all the items in the cage before putting the budgies together in the cage. This will make the hen less likely to recognize the space as “hers”, so she will be more willing to share it.
One other thing to consider is: is there anything in the cage that the hen might be seeing as a “nest”? Budgies don’t typically nest unless they are planning to start a family, but any small, enclosed space (e. g., a box, a hooded food dish, a “happy hut”, etc.) can be seen as a potential nest and can make a hen hormonal, which in turn can make her aggressive, because she is then motivated to protect her nest. If you have anything like this in the cage, remove it--not only can it make the hen aggressive, it can also encourage her to lay eggs, which can have serious effects on her health.
The last thing is that some birds just can’t be housed with other birds, unfortunately. When getting a new bird, it’s important to consider what you’ll do in the event that your existing bird doesn’t like the new bird: will you be okay with keeping them in separate cages for their entire lives? Do you have the space for multiple cages and the time to clean them? I’ve been very fortunate in that my budgies all get along (although Violet does NOT like Horatio, she’s never attacked him), but this was always something I had to consider when bringing home a new baby budgie. I always gradually introduced the new budgie to the old budgies over time, first by having the cages next to each other, then letting them socialize outside of the cage while I watched them, then putting the new budgie in the existing budgies’ cage for an hour or so a day while I was able to make sure the old budgies weren’t attacking the new budgie, and then finally rearranging the existing budgies’ cage, leaving the new budgie in the cage with the other budgies for an entire day, and making sure things went okay.
I hope this helps! I’m sorry you’re having such a hard time with your hen--they can be a challenge! Let me know how it works out or if you have any other questions!
