# Keeping male and female together?



## Coreyrox

Is there anyway to do this without having babies? I know it may be a long shot. Just curious. I really want a lutino and the place I want one from mostly has females because there always born to different color mutations than lutino so I know their females. I really want a lutino.


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## Cheryl

Yes, but you can't full proof mating. There is a high chance they may mate. Don't have a nest box or anything that may look like one or any nesting materials. Also, keep their days decently short.


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## olive juice

Could you not keep them in separate cages?

That's what I'm doing with my male and female. My male's older, seven years now, and the female's just a baby, three months, AND my male is absolutely terrified of other birds so the chances of mating are slim to none, but still, I don't want to take any chances.
Your birds can still bond without sharing a cage, if given lots of visits to each other's cages and plenty of out-of-cage play time.


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## sweetrsue

Also a grate in the bottom of the cage discourages breeding or at the very least egg laying. That with limiting the amount of light to about 10 or 11 hours a day should keep those hormones in check.


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## xxxSpikexxx

You could change the cage around every week and even have different areas where the cage will stay. For example a few months in the living room and a few months in the computer room. Also long nights would be good, I have read that you should start with 8 to 10 hours of daylight, and if thier behavior improves (being less hormonal), you can increase the daylight to 10 to 12 hours. Of course caging them separate would be the easiest way to prevent breeding.


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## Renae

I′m gonna try stay on topic here, it is to do with preventing breeding

I read that giving them less Vitamin E (pretty sure it was that) helps as well?


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## Coreyrox

olive juice said:


> Could you not keep them in separate cages?
> 
> That's what I'm doing with my male and female. My male's older, seven years now, and the female's just a baby, three months, AND my male is absolutely terrified of other birds so the chances of mating are slim to none, but still, I don't want to take any chances.
> Your birds can still bond without sharing a cage, if given lots of visits to each other's cages and plenty of out-of-cage play time.


Well the whole reason I am considering is because they can share the same cage. I am a bit hesitant to even get another bird. I only have two but they keep me busy with all the other things I have to get done in a day. LOL

Thank you guys for all your input on keeping male and female together.  Keep it coming!


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## Danielle

I keep all my tiels together - 2 males and 4 females. The older boy is great, he's not interested in the other tiels at all (although he does preen and regurgitate on ME), but the younger boy has already bonded with one of the girls. They groom each other, feed each other and so forth.

The only reason I haven't seperated them yet is that they're both under 4 months old and don't -really- know what to do yet. Flash often mounts her, but it's always sideways or backwards and I can always intervene because they're very vocal about it.

You can't really stop it if they're bonded. Flash and Ivy bonded literally instantly, they were snuggling up from the moment they met. Harley pays no attention to the girls and I really don't see ever having a problem with him trying to mate with them - they ignore him and he ignores them.

You're probably best to keep them apart. I've been trying to snap Ivy and Flash out of the mood since I got them and nothing's worked yet. I think once they bond there's always going to be that danger. They were a lot worse before I put them in with the other 4 tiels. Having the others around is a really good distraction for them, and because they're both very young the older birds don't really tolerate them messing around and peck and hiss at them when they do try to mate.

If they don't bond, you might be lucky and not have to worry about it. I know they breed even when they're not bonded, but it certainly facilitates things when they're keen on one another. All I can really tell you is that you should keep an eye on them and use your best judgement. You might be able to snap them out of breeding mode when they get in it, but you'll have to keep doing it.


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