Female Keet Slain by Male

User Question
I have a male and female that are both over two years old. They got along really well so I thought. They would clean each other and share food. The female would get greedy over the food dish and the bed and wouldn't want the male around untill she wanted him too.

When I came home from work,I found my female dead with blood all over her face and neck! I don't know why my male would do that. I removed her and now the male keeps looking for her so I don't know what to think about that....

My question is... Why would they fight to the death after living with each other for over 2 years?

Lisa's Answer
It sounds like you had two keets with just one food dish - that's a sure recipe for disaster. Keets are like toddlers and don't like to share, you should always have multiples of food dishes, treats etc. so they cannot starve each other to death.

That being said, it would be REALLY strange for the male to deliberately slay the female. It is more likely that something else was wrong with the female - maybe causing her to be so cranky - and that she either fell and hurt herself while she fell, or the illness caused her to bleed from the mouth and nose. You could take her to a vet and see if you could find out, if only to make sure the male is not coming down with it as well.

Once you're sure the male is healthy, I'd then think about getting another keet - I have instructions about it on my site. Start with each keet in its own cage and introduce them to each other slowly.

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