Centurion, South Africa. Female rejected her mate

[RobinM]

Hi guys and girls - I have been lurking around here for some time, but this is first post.
We have two IRN bought as adults about a year ago, apparently friends but no idea if they ever bred before.
They have lived in and on the same cage since they got here without much nonsense.

So things were going fine until recently when we introduced a breeding box as it was coming up to that time of the year
She has since started exhibiting all the right signs as I see from the forums posts here ... courtship displays, working her box and becoming quite territorial. Unfortunately, also quite aggressive and has managed to trap him in the cage and seemingly tried to kill him.
He was rescued by my dad, fortunately and we have had to separate them - putting him into another cage next to hers.
Yet she persists in obvious aggression whenever they are brought close.
We will keep trying, but I am wondering if ...
1. We remove the box and let her calm down and don't try again.
2. We try introducing another male - any takers out there in my area prepared to risk their cock ?!
3. Put her up for sale by someone who wants a breeding female.

Thoughts ?
Robin

[Wessel Gordon]

Robin,

Remove the nestbox until at least the next breeding season (late July/early August for us South Africans). If she keeps on being aggressive to the male even though the box is removed I think you have 3 options:

a) Separate the male and female permanently - females are perfectly capable of killing other females (or males for that matter)
b) Get rid of either the female or the male
c) Get another male and female and pair the current pair up with them and hope for better results.

PS: Do you have any idea how old the pair is? I suspect (and this is only my opinion so I might be wrong) that they're a bit too young to breed but the hormones are already kicking in hence the violence.