My Ring Neck Parrots

Hi there everyone. I am Deri and I need some advice on my ringnecks please. I have a male and female and the male is adorable, very loving and gentle, the male started off loving and gentle when I was hand rearing her and then after that she became a maniac and just bites always. I then separated the two as she was such a bully and I put Mumbles (the boy) in our avery outside and Blu (the girl) stayed in a cage in my lapa, it just became too much of a noise keeping them inside and we all suffer from sinus. Anyways, I then decided to put Blu in the avery too as I felt she was lonely, but she wrecked everything, all the nesting boxes (I have red rump parakeets too) so now they have nowhere to nest. And Blu is just a huge bully. After wrecking the boxes, she moved to the ground and dug a hole to china, her bunker, which I have never heard in my life before. And she is even more aggressive than before, she is like a snake, she beak butts whoever or whatever walks past. She has even dug the hole right through so she could escape but she doesn't. My daughter has since discovered 2 eggs, and then I discovered a 3rd egg on Monday??? I am so confused. Can they lay infertile eggs?? Why I ask this is because I don't think she would allow anything near her, let alone the male as a mate, she is too full of nonsense. Now I am worried, as our rainy season is going to start soon and her bunker will get flooded, haha. Shame. Although I really do not want babies. I have enough pets to feed. But what is this underground bunker part all about? Hope to hear from someone soon. Thanks & Regards

Welcome to the forums...

First of all, yes, all female birds can and do lay infertile eggs during hormonal periods, just like female humans get their menstrual cycles, etc. Same principle, if the eggs aren't fertilized by a male they just get laid infertile.

The fact that your female is acting the way that she is and is also laying infertile eggs tells me that she is going through a hormonal period, probably due to a combination of the male Ringneck being with her, along with having nest-boxes in the aviary with her, as any small, dark places and/or nesting material can trigger their hormones as well...And believe it or not, the hole-digging is also a hormonal behavior, she isn't trying to get out, she's nesting/brooding.

First off, I would not put your Ringnecks in with any smaller birds, especially that female, as something bad is going to happen, especially since their hormones are raging. I would separate both Ringnecks from the smaller birds ASAP. Secondly, I would also separate your female Ringneck from your male Ringneck, because not only is this making her hormonal, but he could also get hurt, or vice versa at any moment. It happens suddenly and without notice. Also, why do you have nest-boxes in the aviary in the first place? They need to be removed, or she needs to be removed from the aviary and from any and all small, dark boxes or places that she can get into/under, and anything that she can use or think of as being "nesting material", such as bedding, wood chips/mulch/bark, soil, etc. All of these things are causing her hormones to rage, and this in-turn is causing a lot of her aggressive behavior. But the main thing is that she be separated from all other birds while she's like this, because she's no doubt going to eventually hurt another bird, or worse.

And the eggs that's she's laying may very well be fertile, you can't tell if they're fertile or not for at least a few days, as at first they all look the same, just a yellow/clear yolk/middle to the eggs. If they are fertile, then in a few days if you shine a flashlight through them you will start to see red veins forming. So what I would do to get her to stop laying the eggs is to remove each egg immediately when you see a new one, boil it for 20 minutes, let it cool, then put it back with her, and do this to each egg she lays. This will keep babies from developing if they are fertile, and then you need to leave them in with her until she stops laying them and she loses interest in laying on them. Once she realizes that they aren't going to hatch she will stop laying on them, and at that point you can remove them and throw them out, and remove all nesting material/boxes.

The last thing you want is babies right now, because she probably isn't going to be good with them, and may very well kill them or simply refuse to feed them or lay on them, and then they'll die unless you take-over and hand-raise and hand-feed them, which you definitely don't want to do unless you've got experience doing so.

You also need to block the hole on the outside of the Avairy, as a creature or snake could get in and kill all the birds....

Derilee, I deleted your other thread... it was almost identical to this one, and now all of your replies will be in one place.

Wow, what an overwhelming situation. You have gotten great advice above, and will get more, and all in the same thread now.

If I get any additional ideas, I'll post them.

In the simplest terms if you don't want a behavior to occure you make it very hard or impossible for the behavior to occure. With that in mind, you can divide the Avairy to separate her from everyone, you can return her to the cage you had in before, you can add a
Fencing to the floor of the Avairy. I'm sure her hormones got going with all of the attention, and being with bird friends. If you give her a chance this behavior will calm down. It sounds like being in the Avairy will be better for her well being in the long term, if you weren't interacting with her and having her out of the cage inside. I hope this helps