Keeping Keets from Breeding

User Question
I rescued two parakeets last year. The blue one is definitley a female, she loves to chew wood (all the time), while I wasn't sure about the white lutino one. He/She has a pink cere with whitish nostrils. These two have never tried to mate (male on top of female).

I recently purchased to young female parakeets. They are about 6 months old now and both have whitish cere which are slowly turning beigy/brownish. They love to chew too.

Well I have all four in one very large flight cage with lots of food, water, play toys and chew toys. They have been really enjoying eachother companies for the last 1 1/2 months.

However, two days ago I saw the white keet try to fly on top of my young green keet. So I believe that the whire keet is a male. The green keet got nippy with the white keet and doesn't seem interested. Thank goodness.

I also noticed that then the white keet tries to get sexually agressive with any of the other females, they nip and squawk at him too.

Is it possible that all three females are not interested in him? I sure hope this is case because I don't want to raise babies.

My second question is...any recommendations to discourage mating? I have three keet books and none discuss this topic. If need be, I purchase a separate cage for the white keet (CottonTail), but I would rather keep them all together.

I really appreciate your direction here.

Lisa's Answer
If you have sexually mature male and females together, they will naturally try to mate. That's how life is oriented :) You really need them in separate cages if you don't plan on raising chicks. There is really no other way to keep them from hopping on top of each other ...

If you keep them in the same cage, please go talk with a vet to make sure you have everything on hand necessary to raise the babies, and that you have a job / homelife that will allow you to be on hand for that task. It really takes a fair amount of time!

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