# would two adult tiels automatically breed?



## jojo09 (Oct 9, 2010)

I would really like to get a female cockatiel some time in the future when gary has a bigger cage and what not, but i do not want to bring in a female cage mate if they will breed. I have really no interest in breeding. is this something that would automatically happen? should i not consider bringing in a female at all if i do not want chicks?


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## HungryBird (Oct 10, 2010)

I've had a male and female living together for a few years now. I don't give them a nest box or anything that might be mistaken for a nest box. Iggy occasionally lays eggs but never hatches them. I really don't want to encourage any baby-making ideas.

That being said I would get another male if I were you. With females you have to worry about them laying too many eggs. When I first got Iggy she had problems with that and it was kind of scary at times. It made me worry about getting another female cockatiel.

I have a pair of male and female parakeets that live together as well and they have never had babies. They have never even laid a single egg.

I have no idea how old any of my birds are but I've had them for about four years now so none of them are youngsters. They were all adults when I got them.

My parakeets were a pair when I got them but Squeaky and Iggy were not. I had Squeaky first, then the keets, then Iggy. I did not put Iggy right in to Squeaky's cage when I got her because it is good to separate them for a while to make sure they don't bring in diseases. Then I let them see each other in their respective cages and call to each other for a while. They had supervised interactions outside of the cages for a while and then Iggy moved in with Squeaky and has been torturing him ever since! I'm kidding, but he is devoted to her and she is an ice queen.

Their cage is very big though. I think it is a good size for two cockatiels but not many more than that. Here is their cage:


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

They don't automatically breed but there's a high probability of it.

Unless the male's instincts are somewhat messed up, which does happen. I suspect that it's caused by a lack of exposure to opposite-sex birds and the opportunity to see mating activity when they hit puberty. Vlad has two hens trying to solicit sex from him but he has absolutely no clue what to do with them. I'd love to get babies from him but I can't figure out how to tell him what he needs to do!


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## HungryBird (Oct 10, 2010)

Hm Squeaky definitely knows what to do...

For some reason there are just no babies, which I am very grateful for. I don't need twelve cockatiels!


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

Some hens won't lay eggs without a nestbox and some will. That's why I have 8 cockatiels. If I'd kept all the babies I'd have 24 - my four original adult birds plus 20 chicks!

Shodu is my very determined mama bird. She's had four clutches, and with three of them the first egg was laid without a nestbox because I was trying to convince her not to breed. Preventing the second clutch of the year is harder than preventing the first clutch, apparently. This year the long nights treatment kept her from laying any eggs at all, but it simply doesn't work when she's already had her first clutch of the year and is going for #2. Long nights do stop her laying from a third clutch though.


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## lperry82 (Aug 2, 2010)

tielfan said:


> Some hens won't lay eggs without a nestbox and some will.


 so what are the chances when my cookie goes with lucky in her cage (cant forget tweety & dobby) i dont want babies as their just babys them selfs and i got enough lol
All them egg stories (rio who died  poor baby) i be in bits  and gone crazy :wacko: if i did find an egg


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

There's no way to calculate the odds, it all depends on the individual birds. But if you serve as the hormone patrol you'll probably be able to keep things under control. Read up on hormone reduction techniques (examples in the last half of http://cockatielcottage.net/egg_laying.html ) and take action when their interest in breeding starts ramping up. 

The tricky part is figuring out when to intervene. Some birds will mate repeatedly but lay no eggs. Buster and Shodu did that for six months so I assumed that she would never lay eggs without a nestbox. I was wrong. When springtime rolled around her hormones must have increased, because one night she laid an egg on the cagetop play gym. Freaked me out SEVERELY, and I had to make the tough decision about what to do next. I bought a nestbox the next day and ended up with a clutch of 6 healthy chicks (including Teela and Squeebis whom I still have).

When those chicks were three weeks old the parents were obviously interested in starting a second clutch. I took the nestbox away so she laid the first egg somewhere else. I put the nestbox back up. That's how I got Snowy.

The next year she had her one and only fully authorized clutch. The second clutch was a repeat of the previous year - nestbox removed, egg laid somewhere else, nestbox replaced. That's how I got Henry.


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## lperry82 (Aug 2, 2010)

Ha ha aw how sweet guess there was no stopping her lol


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## jojo09 (Oct 9, 2010)

awh man this is a hard decision. I won't be getting another tiel any time soon because gary just got a new cage today. We weren't planning on getting the cage so soon, so I thougt i had time to decide whether we should wait and save for one big enough for a pair, but petco had the exact cage we've been wanting for over half off! It was normally 299.99 (which is WAY over priced) but we got it for 60.00. I couldn't pass it up because gary's old cage was so cruddy. Sadly though, this new cage is a strictly one tiel only size. It wouldn't be nice of me to put two in there. Really the only reason I was so fond of it was because it has a snazzy playtop for him  *sigh* either way, I guess I have a super long time to decide on a female cage mate or no.


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## lperry82 (Aug 2, 2010)

I aint had my cookie long and he is not as loving as lucky, so i know now why girls are more cuddly then to boys. I can manage a few seconds with him then he backs away


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## MeanneyFids (Aug 24, 2010)

ya, males i find are cuddly only on their terms...

i have 2, i know their young but i know for a fact dally is mature-ish. shes shown me certain behaviours before i got tsuka. they share a cage and they basically tolerate eachother. i dont plan on breeding them, but theres still the chance they might. but theres ways to prevent it. as stated before, it depends on the birds. dally is more interested in me than she is in tsuka. tsuka is more interested in my boyfriend than anyone (besides Jessie, my cat. he seems to like her)


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