Q: I have had two budgies in a cage for almost two years and they used to get along so well. Lately, the one budgie has been ‘attacking’ the other one for no apparent reason. Why is this happening? Should I separate them?
A: There are a number of possible reasons for this behaviour. Firstly, we need to know whether the birds are male or female.
Males have blue skin around the nostrils (this skin is called the cere), and females have brown. Juvenile birds have a pinkish cere.
It is possible that one of your birds wants to breed, and is either attacking another individual of the same sex for territorial reasons, or perhaps it wants to mate with the other bird and is aggressive because the other bird does not allow this.
Budgies do best in a flock in a large cage or aviary. This allows them to select partners and also enables birds who are being bullied to move away from the situation.
Dr Dorianne Elliott, veterinarian
