two new cockatiel

Question
QUESTION: hi,Thanks for your reply again,I bought these parrots to keep them as a pet,And as you said that keeping 2 parrots usually are bonded with each other so should i Separate them from each  other and if i do how far a part should i keep them?AND one more question my male cockatiel is a little agressive on female cockatiel,every time the female try to eat somting he comes in the middle and start poking her and moves her away and he eats most of the food!!!what should i do?i was thinking that i should give one away to my cousin so it will be easier to tame one and then later in the future i will take it back from him,Do you think this will work.i will be waiting for you reply,thanks ones again
ANSWER: Hi again, Usman.

Some male birds when caged with a female bird, will want to eat first before he allows the female to eat.  This is just part of the hierarchy birds develop when caged with other birds.  This might be a good reason to separate them if the male is preventing the female from eating, etc.  

You can separate them and keep them in cages next to each other or you can separate them and keep them in different rooms.  If they are bonded to each other, keeping them in cages next to each other might not work very well, as they might constantly want to be together.  You'll need to determine the amount of separation required since you know more about your birds than I do.  The female tiel might be glad to be separated from the male!  If they scream and squawk for each other when separated, you might need to move them to separate rooms.  

The problem with giving one away to your cousin and then trying to take it back later is that the bird will most likely bond with your cousin.  Then it could be devastating for the bird to move back with you.  This will depend on the individual personality of the bird.

Chrys



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QUESTION: Hi,chrys,hope you doing fine,my cockatiel layed an egg today what should i do?what i should be becarefull of and what should i feed her in this situation?what brand of food should feed her with,and if you can refer me any websites too,please provide me with as much information as you can,i really appreciate your time and i respect your suggestions,Thank you very very much
ANSWER: Hi, Usman.  Thanks for posting!

Do you have any idea if your tiels mated with each other (are they in the same cage now or did you separate them)?  This will give me an idea if the egg could possibly be fertile or not.  She will most likely be laying more eggs.  Is there a nesting box present (or where did she lay the egg)?  Do you intend to handfeed any babies so they will be tame?

You can't change her diet right now...you'll need to keep her on the same diet she has been on.  A diet change could result in too much additional stress, which would not be good for your bird.  Diet changes need to be gradual and not during breeding season when a bird is laying eggs.  In addition, birds won't readily eat what they don't recognize as food, so not a good time to change her diet.  Hopefully, she's already on a good diet.  

Your responses to my questions above will help me guide you further with this situation.

Chrys

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QUESTION: Hey,Thanks for your reply again,i don't know how do tiels mate!!!could you please tell me that too?But both of the cockatiels are taking turns on sitting on egg!!!And YES they both are still in the same cage i never separated them!!!And after how long does she lays more eggs?And about how many eggs she will lay?YES there is a nest box conected behind the cage!!!And she layed the eggs in the nest box!!!!i would want to hand feed them so they can get used to me but i dont have enough time to do so!!!!they wont get used to me if i dont do this?Because i am at work five days a week 12 hours a day i am home for only two days or after work!!!!what is the other best time to tame them then feeding age?And one last question my cockatiel were moving the egg from one corner to another will this harm the egg?And at one point the egg disappeared in the material by them moving it so my roommate found the eggs by digging in the nest material and then placed a newspaper on top of that material will it still hatch?and then my male cockatiel made a round hole and placed it in between and that what they are useing it now is that ok do?or i should remove the newspaper?And what kind of material should i use?Thanks once again
ANSWER: Hi again, Usman.

They mate by the male standing on top of the female and "wrapping" his tail around hers so his vent and hers meet.  Both are supposed to be taking turns incubating the eggs...the female will sit 12 hours at night; the male 12 hours during the daytime.  She should lay 1 egg every other day until she has a clutch of about 4-6 eggs.  

If you want your baby tiels to be tame enough to handle, you'll need to handfeed them.  See my website for more information on this:

www.angelfire.com/falcon/birdinfo/index.html

You can leave them with the parents to be raised, but the babies won't be tame.  The parents know what they are doing with their eggs as long as they are old enough.  You should remove any nesting material from the nesting box for the very reason you describe...they do not need any nesting material, just a plain nesting box.  

I don't know if any of the eggs will hatch.  There are many things that can affect hatchability, if eggs are fertile to begin with.  

Chrys

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QUESTION: Hi,chrys,my cockatile layed another egg today!!!!i wanted to know how should i take out the nest material without harming the eggs?and i dont know if they have mated,but both of them are taking turns in incubating the eggs does that means they mated?thank you

ANSWER: Usman.

This is a duplicate question.

Chrys

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QUESTION: hi,chrys,my cockatiel only layed two eggs she was suppose to lay another one last night but she didn't!!!!!she layed one on sunday night or monday morning and then another one on wednesday and now she was suppose to lay one last night but she didn't!!!!!!does that means shes only gonna lay two of them?Or can it take longer then 48 hours?And how many times a year do they lay eggs?thank you

Answer
Hi again, Usman.

She may only lay 2 eggs.  Tiels lay up to 6 eggs per clutch...this doesn't mean each clutch contains 6 eggs.  Yes, it can take longer than 48 hours, especially if there's been an interruption in their incubation process, etc.  

Some birds may lay some of their eggs within 24 hours of each other instead of 48 hours and sometimes an egg doesn't come for 3 days.  

The number of times per year they lay depends on if babies are produced and how healthy the parent birds are.  If babies are produced, they won't lay as often, as they are caring for their babies for a couple of months.  However, and this is very important, you need to control the number of clutches you allow your birds to lay in order to protect the health of the parents and their babies.  If your birds lay 6 eggs per clutch and they produce 4-6 live babies from these eggs, you should limit their number of clutches to 2 per year, depending on how they and the babies do.  If your birds only lay 2 eggs per clutch, and 2 babies live, then you can allow your birds to produce perhaps 3 clutches per year.  To overbreed your birds can result in unhealthy babies, unviable eggs, babies that hatch and then die shortly thereafter, and can ruin the health of your adult birds.  Can also shorten their lifespans by overbreeding.  You need to control their breeding.

Chrys