Parakeet Handling

Question
Thanks....I think I forgot to include that she threw her eggs away, so she doesn't have eggs anymore to be protecting. It has been about a week since she took her eggs out of her box (in which I threw them away) and then, how long will both of them be aggressive for? Is it until the end of summer that breeding season is over? One last question..... since she just got rid of 2 clutches of eggs (she threw them out of her box, because either they died or who knows what), will it be likely for her to lay anymore soon?
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Followup To

Question -
I've been on vacation for the past month, and my parakeets haven't been out of their cage for that amount of time. My female parakeet laid eggs, as you know if you remember my past questions (and thank you so much for your responses). I was wondering, since my female has been in her nesting box for the past month incubating and laying eggs, is it normal for her to be extremely aggressive when I'm trying to hold her? It isn't just her though- my male, who hasn't been out of the cage for a month as well, is quite mean now. Both of them, when I reach my hand in the cage, jump down to my hand and bite me, or they both bite each other and end up rolling on the bottom of the cage fighting. Even when I take them out (separately) they bite my hands really really hard and won't stop until about 15 minutes, when they seem to cool down a little bit. This happened yesterday, and now my hands are covered in scabs and bite marks. Is this normal behavior after not being held for a while? They have never been this mean from the whole 4 years I've had them.

Also, when I bring one of them into a different room then their cage is in to hold them, they fly away from my hand and keep doing it every time I reach to get them. I just keep getting them over and over, and I know not to grab them or anything, but it doesn't seem to work. So I don't know what to do about that.

One more thing, when I bring them separately into another room, all they do is chirp for each other (mostly the male just chirps for the female) and all he cares about is being with her and back in his cage. They never want to come out of their cage and when they do, they fly back to it.

So do you know what I should do about the biting, flying away, and chirping? Would it be a good idea to take them away from each other (as in put them in separate cages where they can't hear or see each other), or would that just be cruel? I'm only wondering this because usually when I take them out separately they stay on my finger and are nice to me, but not anymore. I just can't take how much they bite me. If I take them out of their cage most of the day to get them used to it, would that help? I've been trying to take them out more often. Well thank you for reading this.

Answer -
Hi again, Kelly.

Your keets are behaving normally for a pair of parrots who are breeding.  There is nothing wrong with them at all!  When it's breeding season and they start behaving like this, you should just resign yourself to leaving them alone until it's all over with because nothing you do is going to help the situation.  It's all perfectly natural!  They are protecting their offspring in the manner in which Mother Nature intended them to do.

Definitely do not separate them unless you don't want them laying eggs and/or being paired with each other.  Their behavior has nothing to do with them not being out of the cage for the past month.  As a matter of fact, their behavior should be that they don't want to leave their eggs.

Chrys

Answer
Hi, Kelly.

Breeding season for keets can last year round if conditions are right.  Just because they threw these eggs out, doesn't mean they are done laying!  They aren't going to stop laying eggs and, thus, the behavior will continue, until they decide breeding season is over.  You can help control their breeding by not providing any type of nesting area (nestbox or anything that they can turn into a nesting area), nesting material (newspaper, paper towels, etc., in the bottom of the cage), limiting their light to 10 hours per day (cover them/make their area dark after 10 hours of light per day), and keeping their room temperature stable and at a low temperature so they think the season is winter instead of breeding season (instead of the room being 80 degrees F, keep it at 60-70 degrees).  In other words, to help control breeding, you have to make them believe it's winter time instead of spring/summer time.  You shouldn't allow your female keet to lay more than about 3 clutches per year, fertile or not, in order for her to maintain her health.  This means you might have to separate the pair into individual cages (although you can set them side-by-side) so she won't lay any more for a while.  Breeding is hardest on the female than the male, since she not only lays the eggs and incubates them, but also cares for the offspring once they arrive.  Continual laying, etc., can result in a shorter lifespan for the female.

Chrys