Getting a "little extra" on the side

[mangotiki]

Does anyone have a bonded pair where the female (Saffron) has taken to feeding another bird? The other bird in question (Mellow) is about 9-10 months old and I believe it is female as it is a pallid, whose father supposedly ( I havent seen them) was a visual dutch blue and mother was a pallid too. This happens during playtime, until this I have never seen Saffron interacting with a bird other than her mate, Monet. Usually she just chases them away or ignores them. Could this be a precurser to her dumping Monet for a walk on the wild side, or just normal social behavior? I want to keep her with Monet.

Thanks
Traci

[Keltoth]

When Shadow lived with us, I had melody and Zipper paired up. They were happy and Melody was continually feeding her, but then Shadow also started to feed her at any given opportunity. Since they had not produced eggs yet, and because Zipper had taken to plucking the back of Melody's neck, I broke him and Zipper up and caged her with Shadow for the end of March, and all of April and May. Shadow liked the arrangement; Zipper didn't really care and started plucking Shadow straightaway - but Melody was absolutely miserable,and he would continually call out for Zipper. Any time we would let all the birds out to mingle, he would immediatly run over to Zipper and try to feed her. She would take it, and then Shadow and Melody would squabble and fight.

Finally, at the end of May when no eggs had been produced, I couldn't take Melody being so unhappy; he had dropped 6 grams and was not the happy bird we loved when we would take him out and handle him. I removed Shadow and put Melody back in with Zipper, and this time Zipper was ecstatic with the change, Melody was in heaven - and Shadow was flaming pissed off. When we allowed the birds to mingle, he would run over immediatly and try to drive Melody away from Zipper and HE would feed her - and she would accept it after a few failed attempts. When Shadow was caged, he would call out to Zipper constantly and try to get to a vantage point in his cage where he could see what Melody and Zipper were doing at any time, and if he could see her, he would call to Zipper. I finally had to move him to another room, but it didn't help a whole lot.

In the end, I had to move Shadow out of the house and send him to go live with Kendall. Looking back, I probably should never have broken Zipper and Melody up in the first place - but at least she is not constantly plucking Melody's neck anymore.

If it was me, I would leave her with Money if you even think they may be tightly bonded already, but that is just my opinion.

[LauraO]

I've had several of my bonded birds go through phases with other birds both bonded and single. I've never seen a female feed another female though. It's usually a male and female who are trying to mate or a female that's trying to get another male to feed her. The latest thing I've noticed is both Shy and Basil trying to solicit Won Ton, which is disturbing as he is their father. I think this behavior relates to Basil's mate being only 7 months and Shy's mate being uninterested in mating. None of these flings has really lasted and the only time I've ever had a lovie leave one for another is usually a same sex pair or siblings who separated as they matured.

[mangotiki]

Some of my younger birds do the swinging singles thing, and I have had to rearrange living quarters to accomodate their eveolving preferences, but Saffron and Monet have been together for 2+ years and have had two clutches...I wonder if Saffron is missing Oreo and Boo, who were pulled a couple of weeks ago? In any case, i do not want to encourage her interaction with Mellow, who has her own "friend" already...during cage time she "owns" the easily dominated and completely uninterested in sex Tiki.

As far as females, Malibu for one likes the younger females, who she can boss around and feed. She courted Pop until Pop broke Mango and Tiki up. She seems happy with Rain for now though.

I really have had a soap opera going on...I cant imagine having them all in an aviary...there would be no rest for anyone!!

Traci