Unwanted Parakeet Mounting - how to discourage?

[kim_111316]

Backstory:
I've had Maggie (F) for six years. Several months ago, her little buddy passed away & I have since gotten her a new friend. Misty (M) was adopted about a month ago. They became chirping buddies instantly from separate ends of the hallway. After a month of being neighbors? We combined them in a larger cage & they had an instant connection. Lots of cuddling & preening.

Now that a month has gone by, Maggie's showing aggression to Misty - especially when he attempts to mount her. To my knowledge, this behavior started yesterday? She chases him off her occupied perch. Never in my 15 years of bird ownership, have I faced this dilemma & never have my birds been interested in mating. But once this little guy was adopted? I'm learning something new just all the time! (lol) And Google Searches have been constant but I just could not find something for this new dilemma!

What approach should I take to discourage Misty from this? And what are the chances of Maggie actually laying eggs for her age & her undesire to mate?

[Wolf]

I am assuming that by parakeets that you are referring to budgies. If you never had any mating responses in 15 years, is it possible that up until now that you had birds of the same sex? Color pictures of the previous bird including their faces may provide the answer to your question. If you can not post pictures PM me and I will give you my e mail address so that you can send me the pictures and I will post them for you.
I will say that if there are mating responses that I do not know any way of stopping them and even if they are not acceptable now come spring that will probably change any way. I have a pair of mated budgies and it normally works out this way... when the male sings to the female, he is trying to initiate a mating response from the female. Until she is ready to mate, the male will try but the female will chase him away from her and the male will just continue to sing and attempt to mate. When she is ready then she will allow him to mate with her. As long as the apparent squabbling does not turn aggressive to where one of them is in danger of being injured then I do not think it is anything to be worried about and falls into the range of normal behaviors. You could separate them if you feel that one may injure the other, but if they do not appear to be that aggressive I would leave them together, I would watch them to be sure but as long as there is no danger of injury I would not separate them.

[Pajarita]

Well, the thing is that you have a female which seems to be not interested in breeding and a young, healthy, strong and full of pep male that sounds overly hormonal for the season (I don't know where you are but, in the Northern Hemisphere, birds are all in their resting season). And, yes, male budgies can be real bullies when it comes to mating - They are very affectionate husbands as long as their wives respond but, if they don't, they turn into the troglodytes of the parrot world!

Now, the thing with budgies is that they evolved to be highly opportunistic breeders so, give them a finger and they will take the hand, so to speak One needs to be super vigilant with the solar schedule and the diet because either one, by itself and even in a small measure, will be good enough to start them producing hormones. Your Misty must have been kept at a high protein diet and human light schedule and, most likely, without a mate so, when he came to your house and saw pretty little Maggie, went head over heels for her.

I would make sure they are on a lower protein diet, a super strict solar schedule and allowed to come out of their cage and fly around for many hours. There is nothing like flight to dissipate sexual hormones in the bloodstream and provide not only distraction for the normally one-track mind of the hormonal male but it also gives the females a chance to escape their attentions. It will take some time for this to work though so, if he gets too pushy and she seems bothered by the whole thing, I would put them in separate cages side-by-side and allow them to come out together to fly and interact. That way, he can't hurt or stress her out unduly but would still be allowed to court her to his heart's content until his hormones disappear.