[ViolaCatalia]

Hello everyone,
I got a pair of budgies from a local breeder around 7 months ago. Over time I noticed that they started hating each other. They used to preen each other in the first 3 months but after some time all they do is fight. Both scream at each other, bite each other, and both are very territorial. When one is eating, the other one will immediately attack the one eating and when one is sitting on a perch then the other one will try to stay on the same perch and push the one sitting on the perch away. I did everything I could, bought them a bigger cage (though they spend the whole day outside anyway), bought them more toys and tried setting up food bowls and perches equally on the same height, and even separated them for some weeks but nothing works and they still don't get along.

Now I'm starting to think that maybe both are actually females and I heard two females tend to always fight with each other as they are both very territorial. I made my own research to determine the gender but I am not sure about the gender of my supposedly male budgie (at least according to the breeder). People say that male budgie should have dark blue cere as adult or pink/purple cere as young bird. My male budgie is around 9 months old and has white and light blue(also kind of purple-ish) cere with bright nostrils. I heard that such color usually indicate young female.
Here are some pictures in different angles:

Do you think my budgie is female and that's why it doesn't get along with my other budgie?

Would appreciate any help. Thanks!

 

[Cody]

The blue bird is definitely a female, can you post a frontal picture of the green bird? There is never any guarantee that 2 birds will get along no matter what the gender. At their current age they are becoming mature and that is a time when things can get rough if the birds are not getting along, just like young kids each wants their own way, do they fight when they are outside the cage?

 

[ViolaCatalia]

The blue bird is definitely a female, can you post a frontal picture of the green bird? There is never any guarantee that 2 birds will get along no matter what the gender. At their current age they are becoming mature and that is a time when things can get rough if the birds are not getting along, just like young kids each wants their own way, do they fight when they are outside the cage?

Thanks for the fast reply! Here is my green budgie from the front. It has super pink cere which I think means it's female during the breeding season I guess?

And yes, unfortunately they always fight even when they are both outside. They usually stay on their playground and they would show the same behaviour, e.g. when one is playing the swing the other one will get annoyed and attack.
At this point, is it better if I permanently separate them? Or is there a chance that they can live together happily?

 

[Cody]

I would try housing them separately, that way each will have access to their own food, water etc. without being pushed away or attacked by the other. You may even have to resort to letting them have separate out of the cage time, if the attacks escalate they could cause serious injury to one another.

 

[ViolaCatalia]

I would try housing them separately, that way each will have access to their own food, water etc. without being pushed away or attacked by the other. You may even have to resort to letting them have separate out of the cage time, if the attacks escalate they could cause serious injury to one another.

You're right, I will try to keep them separated. Thanks for your help!