bad behaviour from my IRN help needed!!!

[Channelle]

About a month ago i got a tame young male IRN (has not got his ringaround his neck yet) that had previously lived in a cage inside, to be a friend for my male IRN in an aviary which also is home to two cockateils and about 40 budgies. the new IRN (his name is Harry) has adjusted fine and gets on well with our other IRN, but just the other day i caught Harry harrassing our budgies by grabbing their tails and pulling them off perches quite violently and giving them a shake before dropping them. Has anyone else had this sort of problem or know why he has started doing this after a month of being a good bird????
I'm wondering if he is trying to show that he is top dog? Any ideas on how to stop this? as i have now had to remove him from the aviary and put him in a cage, but i would really like to get him back into the aviary!!!

cheers Channelle

[smallworld]

Sometimes its just not recommended to mix 2 species of birds. Maybe they get along really well and maybe they dont, it really depends on your bird. I guess Harry is the 'birds of a feather flock together' type of guy and decided to drop the budgies from his friends list.

Normally, you wouldnt mix the birds in right away but rather expose them to each other slowly for short periods of time and if they show signs of getting along, you could try supervised contact before completely letting them spend time with each other. He probably did not attack the budgies in the first month because he was still getting use to his surroundings, checking out if the budgies would really put up a fight and also still a little scared at the size of their flock.

After a month he sized the situation up and he didnt like it. Its not his fault really, birds are just like that sometimes. I would say dont try to put him back in with your budgies. Its only going to irritate him.

[Channelle]

thanks for the reply, that does make sense. maybe I try the supervised contact time as he does enjoy the company of our other IRN.

[jimmyjack]

you could place a cage in the aviary for him, so that he is still interacting with the other birds but segregated still.

[Channelle]

I have tried that one but the budgies go and sit on the cage so he still gets annoyed.will keep trying the supervised visits to the aviary and if that doesn't work I do have a smaller aviary which i thinking of putting the 2 IRN in together.

[smallworld]

Yeah you could try that with the supervised contact. No harm done there but I wouldnt trust him to be with them alone just yet. You're lucky its a guy, females tend to be more aggressive and you might have lost a couple of budgies.

I'm sure he wouldnt want to be alone and away from all the excitement with the other birds too. But another reason for his hostile behavior could also be jealousy. Just a thought.

Best of luck

[Roadcat01]

I had two female (sisters) IRN which I had to separate because one got so aggressive, actually biting the other, blood everywhere...now I've only got the aggressive one but can't get her to stop screaming.