# Re-pair bonding process



## dotonearth (Oct 24, 2017)

I’m an experienced cockatiel breeder but took a long hiatus not owning any birds at all and am just now getting back into it. I always had good luck in the past with well-bonded successful pairs but I've had some problems with “bondage pairs” in 2 of my 3 acquired pairs. 

So I had to re-pair an inexperienced male with an experienced female and things looked great at first. They never hissed or lunged at each other and the male almost immediately began singing and talking to the female which he never did with his previous mate. He struts (not full heart-wings yet), bobs his head and taps his beak on the perch. I thought it was love at first sight!

They sometimes sit sort of close but if she gets too close he displays his "angry-beak” as a warning. They don’t fight and she tries to go eat with him but he says she’s not invited. It’s not violent and it’s only been about a week so far so I’m hoping it’ll just take time and I’m encouraged by his other courting behaviors. He was new to the cage they're in too so he's not seeming territorial. She’s very sweet and seems to keep trying to be accepted by him.

Is it normal for a male to be enamored by a new female and yet still be standoffish too? 

I’ve read the article on this bonding topic that I found in these forums but don’t have any experience with forced re-pairing so I could use some thoughts from someone who’s done this before.

Does this pair sound promising with time? How can I encourage bonding??


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

I've never force paired any of my birds. I have always let them pick their own partners as this seemed to work out best. I tried to get birds for each other and they always ended up picking a different mate then what I had intended lol. Hens are supposed to be the ones to choose their mates, not the other way around, so if he's not trying to court her I'm not sure this will work. It can be too early to tell and I would wait to see what happens but if it doesn't work out I recommend tossing the birds all into one big cage and letting them pair off on their own. It sounds like she likes him but he is unsure of her, which I've never had in my pairs that chose each other. Keep us posted on how it turns out!

Also, make sure he's letting her eat food and such and not blocking her from those things.


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## ninfatiel (Jul 22, 2016)

My first pair of cockatiels took 3 years -to get into breeding mood. male was very stand-offish and later-when they already had chicks-allowed the female to eat with him-only when babies were little(and not any time after) female wasnt so found of him either (she never preened him no matter how hard he begged). But eventually they began mating and had 2 clutches together. I do re-pairing sometimes but it will only work-if they like their new partner-I had to offer 1 picky male 5 succsessive females before he accepted one. Usually I would put the nestbox and see-if they jumped in togther-case is won-they will do great-if they fight over pocession of the nest box-I would remove it and put it back in a week-but if same beahaviour occurs-change of partners is due


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