# Cockatiel pair not mating properly!



## DivaMamaBird (Mar 2, 2018)

Hi looking for advice with my pair, after a unsuccessful batch of eggs, I have them in a cage where I can continuously observe them to see what went wrong. The first thing I noticed again is the way they mate, they are not making any contact during the course of mating. This is frustrating because my male is 16 years old and he has been through this phase before although at the time he was about five or seven. The female he has is three years old. They have multiple branches to choose from, but he keeps losing his balance and falling off. Every step is new to them even how to sit and care for the eggs. I am exhausted with this process because it is four years of no productivity, he actually had hens to choose from and still no babies. It is quite expensive breeding them just with food and supplies the result is eggs that do not hatch. Any tips would be helpful, thanks!


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

Practice makes perfect. Honestly, that's about the best you can do is to keep letting them practice. You have to also realize that he is older and may have arthritis or whatnot in his joints so mounting the hen and holding his balance may be harder.

That being said, I discovered a couple years ago that breeding cockatiels for profit was pointless. If it can go wrong it will. Trust me, I know. I lost an ENTIRE season of babies, with no clue as to why (necropsies couldn't find anything definitive.) Then I lost pairs. Found out as we were moving the house we were in had black mold. I had decided at that point that keeping birds because I like them is the way to go. They really aren't money makers at all.


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## DivaMamaBird (Mar 2, 2018)

Sorry to hear about the birdies you lost Roxy, that indeed is a sad story and black mold is so dangerous. My cockatiels are back to mating again since losing their batch of eggs. The problem is I have moved them to the larger cage with the nestbox and starting over. At first they are not paying the nest box any attention, but today after I cleaned it with new bedding they are now back and inspecting the box. Should I leave them in this cage for the next batch of eggs instead of moving them to the smaller cage, I do not know if switching them back and forth will have a impact on breeding, last time in the larger cage Sunny kept laying the eggs of the perch and dropping them on the floor. However, she finally went in the nest box in the large cage. It's almost a week since I gave them a break from sitting on the eggs from a month ago. She is showing signs of laying another batch. Thank you for all the help but advice.


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