# Why do my birds do this to me



## ChillyCorgi (Mar 26, 2019)

Alright, I have five lovely feather children. They’re all relatively young, but I do have a sexually mature female and a sexually mature male. (And another male and two other females) They get Lafebers Parakert pellets for most of their diet but also have some seeds and millet for treats. I offer them veggies but they barely touch them. They started on pellets full time about a month ago and haven’t had any issues. All seem healthy. But recently I’ve noticed some odd behavior. They had three large containers for their pellets, but they never touched two of them so I removed them and they went down to one. They never fought and did fine with just one that I kept full. Then the last couple of days I’ve noticed that they’ve almost completely emptied it. I thought they were just eating extra because several are currently molting but I noticed that the mature female was hopping into the full dish, eating 1-2 pellets, and then using her feet to kick the rest of them out and onto the floor. (Basically she does what dogs do after they’ve gone to the bathroom, just kicks them out.) She can empty a full dish in about 10 minutes. I tried leaving the empty dish in there and moving the pellets to a full one but she cleared that one out too. When she can’t kick them out with her feet she picks them out and throws them. I’ve also noticed that she’s been rather touchy with the mature male, who was previously her closest friend. Is this a hormonal thing? Boredom? They have lots of toys and I let them out to fly around whenever I can. I have also noticed another female (not quite mature yet but close to it) sitting in the empty dishes. I don’t know how to stop this because the other birds aren’t getting a lot of food and she’s wasting some pretty expensive pellets. When she tosses them on the floor they usually end up getting pooped on and I don’t feel comfortable just putting them back in. I do have a nesting box in there in case it’s some sort of nesting thing. What advice would you give? Thank you! (Apologies for bad writing, I’m very tired and on my phone)


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## Cody (Sep 5, 2013)

Remove the nesting box immediately, I am assuming that there are no eggs in it. Sounds like a hormonal thing with your females, they are treating the food dish as if it were a nesting site. Do you have all your birds in the same cage and if so how large is the cage? How many hours of darkness do your birds get on a daily basis?


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## PoukieBear (Sep 27, 2013)

Cody is right, she's getting broody and is trying to find a nesting spot.

Remove the actual nest box ASAP.

If you can, go purchase smaller food dishes that she can't actually get into. WalMart and most pet stores have little plastic ones that you can hang from anywhere in the cage.

https://www.entirelypets.com/living-world-seed-cup-with-perch-small.html


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## ChillyCorgi (Mar 26, 2019)

Thank you!!! Yes, all of my birds are in the same cage. I don’t remember the exact dimensions but it’s big. (I can fit inside it) I have cups that size now and she’s managed to empty them anyway.; She’ll pick them up with her beak if she can’t fit inside. She’s quite committed. I’ll remove the nest box tonight. Thank you!


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## FaeryBee (May 9, 2011)

*Hi! :welcome: to Talk Budgies

When you have mixed genders in the same cage, it is particularly important that you do everything necessary to discourage breeding.

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Rearranging their cage frequently, and limiting the light they get to 8 hours a day will help tremendously. Please be sure you never put a nest box or anything that could be used as a nesting site in their cage.

When they come into condition, limit the amount of protein in their diet at that time. 

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## StarlingWings (Mar 15, 2013)

Hi there and :welcome: to the forums! 

You've been given great advice and it's good to hear that you're removing the nest box right away :thumbsup: 

You should also rearrange the cage totally to hopefully throw off her hormones  

Meanwhile, you've come to a great place to learn even more about the best of budgie care practices! Be sure to read through all the links provided above to ensure you're up to date on the best of budgie care! If you have any questions after doing so, please be sure to ask as we'd love to help. 

Hope to see you around! :wave:


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