Separating a pair

Question
Chrys,
I have a cockatiel pair that have bred way to much, and I need to stop the breeding.

I am planning on separating them, but I do not want to do it permanently. Whats the best way to do this? In cages next to each other, or in separate rooms? How loud/how long will they call? And will their bondage be broken?


Thanks.

Answer
Hi, Andrew,

You may not have to separate them.  Have you first tried removing the nesting box?  A nesting box is a cue for them to breed.  Reducing their available light to 10-12 hours per day (or 8-10 hours per day if necessary) will help discourage breeding and egg laying.  In addition, a certified avian vet can give the female a hormone shot to stop egg laying for a period of time, sometimes 9 months at a time.  With my breeding pairs of tiels, all I have to do is remove the nesting box and take them out of their breeding cage, and they won't breed any longer.  When they aren't breeding, I keep them in a flight cage without any nesting boxes set up, and they never mate and lay eggs in the flight cage.

If you still feel separating them is necessary, there isn't really a good way to do this with pairs that are pair-bonded.  Different birds react differently to situations.  For example, you might be surprised to find your female may be glad to be away from her mate for a while.  Laying eggs, raising offspring, etc., is hardest on the female.  The male might not feel the same!  It just depends on the birds.  You may have to try different things.  Try separating them in cages next to each other.  If this doesn't work out well, then you can keep them in separate rooms.  Sometimes this doesn't work either because if they can still hear (or see) each other, it can result in stress to one or the other.  But then, much stress can occur if/when one or the other birds misses the other and starts to grieve or stress out too much from the separation....depends on how bonded they are to each other, their ages, etc.  I would have no idea how long/how loud they might call to each other....this just depends on the individual birds.  Birds mate for life unless death or permanent separation occurs (by choice of the human).  I've only had 1 pair of tiels in over 18 years of keeping them, and hundreds of pairs of tiels, that purposely broke their bond and selected other mates.  It is possible to re-pair birds, but it isn't easily done and one has to know what they are doing.  

I would recommend trying to keep them together, but follow some of the suggestions in my first paragraph above, if you haven't already.  Separating them should be the last resort, as they are bonded for life.

Chrys