Society father bird is terrorizing babies and mother
Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2018 12:05 pm
Need help fast. They were perfect society parents through the hatching and early feeding and now that the babies are nearly 4 weeks old they have turned into buttheads. They started sitting on the eggs before they were all laid so there is 4 days difference in the babies ages. They quit feeding the youngest ones early and the youngest ones have been going around begging to be fed. The mother quit feeding anyone two weeks ago and seems to be in a foul mood, no pun intended. Well now the father, mother and 3 babies have all their tail feathers ripped out. A 4th baby has part of it's tail feathers gone and one baby has managed to retain all of them. I suspect the father is ripping out feathers to line the nest for another brood because he has been mating the mother several times a day. She is running away from him. Caught him chasing her around cage bottom and she is hiding behind the water cup. My favorite baby was begging for food and he acted like he was going to feed her then suddenly struck her hard in the chest.
I can't tell which babies are male and female yet or I would separate them into two cages. I read though they need to be 2 months old at least before you separate from parents for them to be properly socialized. Should I just put the butthead in a cage by himself? I have a new smaller cage I just need to get a table or something to put it on.
This is the troublemaker-
Here's the whole family after they started fledging and I put them all in a container so they wouldn't keep falling out of overcrowded nest.
I can't tell which babies are male and female yet or I would separate them into two cages. I read though they need to be 2 months old at least before you separate from parents for them to be properly socialized. Should I just put the butthead in a cage by himself? I have a new smaller cage I just need to get a table or something to put it on.
This is the troublemaker-
Here's the whole family after they started fledging and I put them all in a container so they wouldn't keep falling out of overcrowded nest.