I've got two female budgies. During the day they get along fairly well. They preen each other, feed each other, cuddle each other so I'm confused what happens to them at bed time..or one of them at least..
As part of their bedtime routine, I close the blinds in their room, cover the cage to 3/4ths and then switch off the light. I keep the light in the passage on and their door open for about 10 min to give them some time to gradually get used to the darkness and to sort of mimic natural light fading.
Anyway, in these ten minutes every night our older budgie, Pippa, gets very territorial. There are two perches, exactly the same, at exactly the same height at opposite ends of the cage. She guards one of those perches as if her life depended on it. Unfortunately, our younger budgie, McFly, especially at night seems to want to be close to Pippa. Maybe she feels insecure or lonely at night. Anyway, pippa just won't let her on her perch. Poor McFly hangs from the cage bars next to that perch and Pippa keeps pecking at her and making threatening gestures.
I've tried leaving the blinds open and the cage only half covered in the hope that McFly will stay on the other perch, which is at the uncovered side of the cage but she won't. I'm a bit worried though about them getting enough sleep since the days are still quite long and it becomes light outside quite early.
I'm not convinced it's a darkness issue though necessarily since today Pippa started chasingcfly away from her perch and McFly was clinging next to her to the cage bars even before their bed time.
I've tried tempting McFly to stay on the other perch with millet and that seems to work but I don't want totofeed her so much millet every day. Also I'm not sure she doesn't just go back to Pippa once the lights are off.
I think this problem starts fairly recently though I'm not sure. Actually thinking of it they haven't been that affectionate during the day in the last few days either though I'm not sure about that since I work full time. I'm worried about McFly being subjected to too much areas every night or not being able to sleep.
any advice?
Sorry about the long post. I just can't seem to express myself briefer. :-)
I don't have great advice but you can tell where your birds are sleeping when you look in their cage in the morning. Usually, there's a little poop pile which should help you to see if you're birds are settled.
If McFly has a poop pile somewhere else in the cage, you can be certain she's settled there all night, despite wanting to be closer to Pippa, so you won't have to worry about her. I'm sure even if Pippa does chase her from the perch, she gets enough sleep though.
Oh my goodness that is in fact aggressive and not bickering in my mind.
They could seriously hurt one another or cause a serious injury.
How long have they been behaving like this? Perhaps a bigger cage might help, hens are very notorious for being territorial, when they come into condition it often can escalate as well. Place a few swings or other types of perches up high, if they are going to continue to fight like this I would actually separate them for night time for their own safety.
If McFly and Pippa are doing this regularly, I would separate them for sleeping.
I have two male budgies that play together all day and get along great.
However, at night Sparky goes back to his own flight cage and Sunny stays in his.
Otherwise, Sparky won't let Sunny perch anywhere even though it's Sunny's cage.
I can't abide one of my birds being bullied by the other in this manner so at bedtime I open Sparky's cage door, open Sunny's cage door and Sparky flies happily from Sunny's cage back into his own for sleeping.
First thing in the morning, they get back together and tell one another all about their budgie-dreams.
Yes I have the same sleeping arrangements, Budget has his own cage and happily goes back for the night. Blue and Fifo would never allow Budget to sleep in their cage.
Every night there is drama in budgie land
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