Parakeet Aggression

Budgies and other parakeets are members of the parrot family. They're intelligent and personable birds, but they can act aggressively for several reasons. To improve your bird's behavior, start by studying it. Get to the root cause of the conflict. Then work at altering the aggression with love, patience and positive reinforcement.

  1. Causes

    • There are many reasons your parakeet might act aggressively toward you, others in the household or other parakeets within the flock. Parakeets bite or nip when frightened or feeling threatened. Stress, boredom or a lack of bonding with its owner can cause behavioral problems. Perhaps your parakeet has never been tamed and it's practicing defensive behavior. Aggression between parakeets sharing a cage is also common while breeding or if there are too few males in the flock.

    How to Respond

    • Parakeets are highly social, flock-oriented creatures. If you only have one parakeet in your home, consider yourself the flock mate. Give your bird plenty of attention and frequent out-of-cage exercise time. Provide pet toys to keep its mind active. Make sure the cage is large enough to keep your pet happy and stress-free. Give it daily attention. Move slowly, speak gently and never lose your temper. Consistent, gentle contact will make your parakeet feel more secure and trusting, and calm its aggression.

    Proper Training

    • Key tools for controlling aggressive behavior are love, repetition and patience. Properly trained parakeets will respond positively to your attention. The best training time is in the evening. Parakeets have short attention spans, so don't go longer than about 15 minutes per session. First, get your parakeet to perch on a handheld object offered as a perch. Spend several days getting the bird used to responding to your "Up" command by stepping up onto a pencil or similar object. Once this is accomplished, substitute your finger as a perch and proceed slowly and patiently. Reward good behavior with treats.

    Gender Wars

    • Aggressive behavior toward other parakeets can be the result of a gender imbalance within the flock, especially when breeding. Females tend to be more combative than males. Female-on-female fighting or bullying can be the result of too few males to go around. It will also occur if a male is introduced into a grouping of paired parakeets. To avoid this behavior, keep your birds in mating pairs or groups consisting of more males than females.