Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!att!ihlpm!jsl
From: jsl@ihlpm.ATT.COM (00771a-Levy)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Question on Killer Budgies
Keywords: budgies breeding parakeet
Message-ID: <3633@ihlpm.ATT.COM>
Date: 6 Jun 89 23:03:03 GMT
Reply-To: jsl@ihlpm.UUCP (Levy,J.)
Distribution: usa
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories - Naperville, Illinois
Lines: 14

I raise English budgies and would like to pose a question
to other breeders.  I have some females who are particularly
aggressive towards their offspring when the fledgling is about
4 weeks of age and the mother is about to lay a new clutch.
These females go so far as to savage and kill a chick and so
have to be removed from the breeding cage.  The father is then
forced to complete the raising of the chicks.  The question is:
can anything be done to prevent such behavior and do you feel
such females should not be bred?  I have other females who don't
seem to mind older chicks walking all over their new clutch.
This problem is very upsetting and mysterious.  I tried going
to a larger breeding cage (2' x 1' x 1') with no results.
Thanks for any help,
Janet Levy