Starting a mating process. Help and opinions?

GlitchTown · Nov 2, 2017

So, if anyone remembers, we recently got a pied, light blue budgie we named Skye. Well, we decided to get him a mate, as he seemed to want a companion, and we just had no time to work with him.

Enter Cinnamon, a yellow and green Cinnamon mutation, what we suspect to be a female, parakeet. Having gotten her recently, we introduced them today. No signs of real aggression off the bat, in fact they simply seemed curious more than anything. Skye seemed to be very excited, shaking his tail and seeming to offer preening on her head. She responds with no direct aggression, just simply the air towards him; a warning. Here's where it's a mystery to me:

Skye does this odd behavior of setting his foot on top of her back and occasionally even her head. She, of course, nips at him and he backs off. She, then proceeds to follow him for some reason. The cycle repeats.

So is she playing hard to get? What's that odd behavior of putting his foot on top of her mean? Thanks to anyone who can Help!

The (hopefully) pair to be

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ParrotLover2001 · Nov 2, 2017

They appear young, so I doubt that it's hormonal. It could be aggression.

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GlitchTown · Nov 2, 2017

ParrotLover2001 said:
They appear young, so I doubt that it's hormonal. It could be aggression.

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The odd thing is that they sit next to each other without a problem. It's only been a couple of hours or so, anyways

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ParrotLover2001 · Nov 2, 2017

GlitchTown said:
ParrotLover2001 said:

They appear young, so I doubt that it's hormonal. It could be aggression.

Sent from my Galaxy s8

Click to expand...

The odd thing is that they sit next to each other without a problem. It's only been a couple of hours or so, anyways

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I know that dogs do similar things to show dominance, maybe that's what they're doing. I have never seen a budgie doing this, of any bird for that matter.

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GlitchTown · Nov 2, 2017

ParrotLover2001 said:
GlitchTown said:

ParrotLover2001 said:

They appear young, so I doubt that it's hormonal. It could be aggression.

Sent from my Galaxy s8

Click to expand...

The odd thing is that they sit next to each other without a problem. It's only been a couple of hours or so, anyways

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Click to expand...

I know that dogs do similar things to show dominance, maybe that's what they're doing. I have never seen a budgie doing this, of any bird for that matter.

Sent from my Galaxy s8

Huh, odd... Can you tell if the genders we suspected them to be are correct? (Yellow and green to be a female and blue and white to be a male)

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ParrotLover2001 · Nov 2, 2017

Both seem to be Male to me.

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GlitchTown · Nov 2, 2017

ParrotLover2001 said:
Both seem to be Male to me.

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What would a young female's cere look opposed to a males? I thought young female's had a light blue/purple and young males a peachish color.

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ParrotLover2001 · Nov 2, 2017

GlitchTown said:
ParrotLover2001 said:

Both seem to be Male to me.

Sent from my Galaxy s8

Click to expand...

What would a young female's cere look opposed to a males? I thought young female's had a light blue/purple and young males a peachish color.

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Young males have a purple cere, based off my past experience, I don't remember when my females were Young, but I've had two young males recently, and their Ceres were purple.

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LordTriggs · Nov 3, 2017

wait so did you just put the new budgie in with the old one? I would remove the new one immediately and place in their own cage right now.

30 day quarantine needs to observed to make sure the new one isn't ill. It's lucky they aren't fighting right now, do you plan on letting them breed? If not I wouldn't let them be in the same cage together

Kentuckienne · Nov 3, 2017

Yes, they should not even be in the same room for at LEAST 30 days. Either one of them could have an illness that isn’t immediately obvious. Also, please don’t put males and females together before you learn what to do in case there are eggs and offspring, otherwise it’s very likely that there will be dead chicks. You don’t want to be the cause of dead baby birds.

GailC · Nov 3, 2017

Baby males have a pink or pale lavender cere, like your sky. As adults the cere turns bright blue but some mutations will keep the pinkish cere, recessive pieds are one of these.

Baby females are more of a pale bluish/chalky white, often with white rings around the nostril. Can you got better pics of cinnamon? Preferably in natural light? I can't quite tell gender though I am leaning more towards female.

The foot on back doesn't sound like mating. Could be a dominance thing or it could be excitement from a budgie who is really happy to have a friend.

Keep a eye on them, make sure they don't start to bicker. I had a male that did the same to a female, he turned into a real pest to her, just relentless in his affections. Got to the point she attacked him just to get away.

GlitchTown · Nov 3, 2017

Thanks, all! To clarify, I have had cinnamon for a good 3 weeks, and yesterday was my first introduction. So, I'm sure that cinnamon is clear of illness as far as I could observe. On the third week, I put her into the room together in separate cages and they seemed okay with each other, Skye actually was on the side of the cage near her cage all the time. One week they were like that. Also, once I get home from school I'll get a good picture of cinnamon to clarify her cere, but looking closely last night I noticed a great amount of pale white around her nostrils, so that's relieving.

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LordTriggs · Nov 3, 2017

ah that's good to see

all depends if you want and are prepared for babies I guess, and of course if they start fighting. As for the foot thing I have seen lots of videos of budgies doing that. To me budgie courtship which is what I believe it is, not so much trying to mate but to become a bonded pair involves lots of stuff like that

reeb · Nov 4, 2017

I think you should give them more time - I also agree with others to separate them for quarantine reasons, or at least take the new baby to the vet before introducing him/her.

Looking at the ceres, there is a chance that they are both male, even those with plenty of experience sexing budgies make mistakes. I've had many babies who I 100% thought were female that turned out male (or vice versa).

From my own experience, birds (particularly budgies) sometimes demonstrate this behaviour when someone new arrives. Pearl, my one budgie, did something similar to Berry, my cockatiel, when I introduced them (they are in separate cages but they like to spend time together out of the cage). She kept landing on her back or tapping her foot on the back of her tail. Now they are fine and they even groom each other.

Hence, I don't think it is necessarily a sign of aggression, but rather just trying to figure out who's who. In the wild, budgies don't have a pecking order, but there are more dominant personalities, and this is most obvious in captivity. They are just trying to figure out who is dominant and who they want to be friends with! So, don't fret, just give it time!

Keep an eye out for other aggressive behaviour though - this article gives an extensive list of aggressive budgerigar behaviour.

I hope this helps!

Debraallen · Jan 13, 2018

LordTriggs said:
wait so did you just put the new budgie in with the old one? I would remove the new one immediately and place in their own cage right now.

30 day quarantine needs to observed to make sure the new one isn't ill. It's lucky they aren't fighting right now, do you plan on letting them breed? If not I wouldn't let them be in the same cage together[/QUOTE

Hope you don't mind my opinion but I agree, both budgies appear to be males. I'm almost 90% sure. Sorry...

GlitchTown · Jan 14, 2018

Debraallen said:
LordTriggs said:

wait so did you just put the new budgie in with the old one? I would remove the new one immediately and place in their own cage right now.

30 day quarantine needs to observed to make sure the new one isn't ill. It's lucky they aren't fighting right now, do you plan on letting them breed? If not I wouldn't let them be in the same cage together[/QUOTE

Hope you don't mind my opinion but I agree, both budgies appear to be males. I'm almost 90% sure. Sorry...

Click to expand...

Yup, since this post I've been able to confirm that as well. So I got a female that I knew for sure!

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Starting a mating process. Help and opinions?

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