Parakeets are social and friendly birds that enjoy spending time with each other. Parakeets live in cages, where they prefer to live in pairs. But sometimes, their behavior can change, and they end up fighting. Fighting with others is expected, as they can fight over food, space, and territory. But how can you stop them from fighting? This article will illustrate how to stop parakeets from fighting.
So, how do I stop my parakeets from fighting? The following nine ways will help you stop parakeets from fighting;
1. Set Up a Separate Cage
If you want to stop parakeets from fighting, place them in a separate cage, especially if you have the two parakeets fighting. This will help them calm down as the fighting parakeets cannot reach each other.
2. Ensure the Cage Is Spacious
This is because if the cage is small, it will encourage them to be abusive to each other, leading to fighting. Therefore, if the cage is small, enlarge it to make it more spacious.
3. Provide Separate Food and Water Dishes
If you give your parakeets each their own food and water dishes, you will reduce competition for food and water, thus reducing the tension of fighting over them.
4. Provide Enough Resources
Providing them with enough resources, like plenty of perches and toys, will stop them from fighting. Putting enough perches in the cage will make the parakeets rest at any particular part of the cage without interfering with each other.
Also, adding toys will keep them from getting bored. Therefore, enough perches and toys in the cage will attract parakeets and distract them, thus keeping them occupied and consequently reducing the chances of fighting
5. Change Their Surroundings
If your parakeets fight, you can rearrange their cage or give them new nesting materials, whereby they spend more time exploring their new cage, thus preventing another cage from fighting.
Additionally, introduce a new toy or object in the cage to draw their attention away from each other.
6. Give Them Time to Socialize
Allowing your parakeets to interact with each other outside the cage by playing and bonding together will help them build a good relationship and stop fighting against each other.
7. Give Equal Opportunity
Ensure you give your parakeets equal care, treatment, and attention, without jealousy. This will prevent them from competing for affection, thus stopping them from fighting.
8. Break Up the Fight
You can stop the fighting by simply separating the parakeets who are fighting to avoid injuries or killing each other.
9 Have a Neutral Play Area
Parakeets should have a neutral play area to play together. Allowing them to play in one another’s cage will result in fighting since one will claim the place belongs to itself.
Reintroduce them in a neutral area so that they play together.
Reasons Why Parakeets Fight
Why my parakeets fights all of a sudden? It is usual for parakeets to fight with each other over some items.
The following are seven reasons why parakeets fight:
1. Territory
Territory instincts can make parakeets fight against each other. This is because they are trying to defend their cage from intruders.
2. Insufficient Space
When parakeets stay in a small or overcrowded cage, they start to fight due to insufficient space to socialize.
Too little space in a cage can cause sudden fight between the parakeets since they are unwilling to share space.
3. Jealousy
Parakeets will feel jealousy toward others. For example, it arises when a new bird is introduced into a cage, and they will see the newcomer as a threat to their belongings.
This may result into fight between the old parakeet and the new one.
4. Fighting Over Resources
Parakeets will often fight since they are struggling for resources like food, water, perches, toys and territory they share. They will compete for them frequently, thus leading to a sudden fight.
Fighting over food and toys is common in parakeets. Therefore provide them with separate food and toys.
5. Hormones
Hormones can cause a calm parakeet to start fighting, especially during mating season. During this period, hormones increase, and the parakeets become more territorial and aggressive.
For example, if two males and one female live together in a cage, the two male parakeets will fight as they try to prove their strength to the female to win the right to breed.
Hormone change affects the emotions of parakeets, causing them to fight all of a sudden.
6. Stress
When a parakeet is stressed, its behavior can change, which can lead to a fight. This can result from illness, loud music, a change in diet, or feather plucking.
7. New Routines
When you introduce new routines to parakeets, for instance, when they are in a new environment and have not acclimated to the new home. This will cause them to fight frequently.
Do Budgies Fight to Death?
Yes, budgies can fight to death though it is rare. However, when they do, they leave others with severe injuries on their faces, wings, and legs if you don’t break the fight, which sometimes leads to the budgie’s death.
How Do I Know If My Budgies Are Fighting
It is difficult to find budgies fighting without signs; they will usually give some warning that they are feeling aggressive.
Here are eight signs that help you know that your budgies are fighting;
1. When a parakeet raises its wings for a fight.
2. Biting Feet: A parakeet pecking another foot shows fighting.
3. Chasing Others: If the parakeet regularly chases others around the cage.
4. Parakeets produce a hissing sound as a threat or to warn others away.
5. Guarding resources by not letting others eat or drink.
6. The screaming of the parakeet clearly shows it wants to fight.
7. Defending perches due to overcrowding leads to fighting.
8. Wrestling on the floor: If one bird wrestles the other on the floor, this indicates it is fighting, and this behavior can cause injury to one another.
Are My Parakeets Fighting or Mating?
When parakeets are in the cage, fighting or mating is normal. But it might be challenging to know if they are mating or fighting.
However, if the male and female parakeets show the following six behaviors towards each other, it clearly shows mating;
1. Singing to each other.
2. Preening and displaying the plumage.
3. Relaxing on the same perch.
4. Head bobbing and dancing.
5. Mutual grooming
6. Regurgitating food.
Parakeets will fight over food, perches, space, and territory.
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