by alhee on Thu Oct 29, 2009 1:24 pm
Unexpected mate aggression does happen.
I hope that you separated the birds, if your report is true.
I am surprised that you did not recognize this behavior.
I just checked out one of your previous posts about your greys,
and I was just as impatient then !
I expect that you have not stated all the necessary facts. again.
This is what I think happened:
You were told that the birds might have been together for several years,
but you have no way of being sure. since you acquired them recently.
Sometimes mate aggression occurs when a pair is bought/sold/moved,
and the male feels unsafe. He wants the female to leave the area, so he attacks her.
Since they are contained in the cage with nowhere to go, he continues to attack.
The female's intense cuddling behavior leads me to suspect that this is the case,
as she was trying to calm the male.
The same behavior can happen if the male is in breeding condition, and the hen is not.
She is not going to get into breeding condition if she is being attacked.
Some folks feel that some males are just not safe as breeders, and there might be some truth there.