GREY FISHER
Picked-on bird might be ill
 I am the proud owner of two one-year-old budgies. The problem is that one of them is becoming more and more aggressiveness toward the other one. We leave the cage open during the day so they can play on the gym on top. They get along okay on top of the cage, but when it's time to go inside, the blue one will not let the yellow one in. When the yellow one can make it in, he is kept on the bottom of the cage by the blue one. What are we to do?
-- Brenda, blswimmom@yahoo.ca
I have two parakeets of undetermined sex. Trixie is about a year older than Bob. I purchased Bob so Trixie would have a friend after another parakeet of mine died. They have been best friends for months. Last weekend I had to leave town for a few days and leave the birds alone. When I returned, Trixie was attacking Bob and just would not quit. Bob fought back a little, but I decided to separate them anyway. The next day I put them back together and they seemed fine, until I returned from work. I took Trixie out of the cage and sat her on the perch outside. She constantly picked through the cage at Bob (who pretended to try to sleep). I separated them again for the night, but I just don't understand what happened. I played with the birds every night and even had them out of the cage for long periods of time. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
-- Connie Smyers, Fort Wayne, Ind.
 AGGRESSION IN budgies is a fairly common problem. I think that the problem in both of these cases is territorial. Just because we buy two birds and put them in a cage together does not mean that they will want to live in peace and harmony. One thing that many people forget is that although small, budgies are still parrots. They need their own space, just as two macaws would.
It is possible that in each case here, the birds are both of the same gender and are competing for territory, which in this case is the cage. It is also possible that they are of opposite genders and they simply don't want to mate with each other, so again, one is driving the other out of what he perceives as his territory. They may simply be better off with their own cages to retreat to at night while they get a shared playtime during the day.
There is one other consideration that I need to mention, and that is health. It is not uncommon for sick birds to be picked on or even killed by healthy ones. Bob sitting still and "pretending" to sleep while Trixie picks on him from outside the cage is not normal behavior. He is most likely ill. I would advise a trip to your nearest board certified avian veterinarian to have him checked out.
Grey Fisher is a trainer at the Taronga Zoo in Sydney, Australia. Previously he was a trainer with Natural Encounters, Inc., a world-renowned organization that helps zoos all over the world train birds and many other types of animals using positive reinforcement.
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