Cage Etiquette Question

[Zoom]

Simon Grey is now living in his big cage in the living room (I confess: we didn't last long with the quarantining). He likes his new digs.

 

Kazoo, the Amazon, lives across the room from Simon. He enjoys watching Simon, and actually cheers him on when Simon attempts to climb the toy hook on the playtop. So far they haven't had much direct interaction - I'm leaving that to them. (Simon doesn't seem very interested in Kazoo yet.)

 

The etiquette question pertains to Oboe the Lovebird, who lives upstairs because I need to protect him from Duncan the cat. When Duncan goes outside, I bring Oboe down for half an hour or so to fly and socialize.

 

He's like a pesky little brother though. His mission statement is to drive everybody else crazy. He flies circles around the other birds, divebombs Kazoo, and nibbles on Simon's toes. Both the bigger birds snap at him but he's much faster than them.

 

Today he actually went INTO Simon's cage while Simon was in there eating his mash. He went in and made himself at home. He sat on his perch, played with a toy, and then took a bath in Simon's water dish. Simon looked annoyed, but he was busy with his breakfast and besides, he could never catch Oboe.

 

And finally, we get to my question. Should I intervene? Should I draw the line at Oboe going in Simon's cage? Or should I stay out of it and let them figure things out between them?

[judygram]

I would be very concerned about Oboe going into Simon's cage for even though he may be very fast when he is inside the cage he may not be able to get away from Simon if he takes a notion to go after him and believe me if he ever does it will be the end of Oboe, besides greys can become territorial about their cages and that would make him more aggressive to Oboe if he ventures inside his cage. I think he was lucky today that Simon was busy feeding his face but it may not be like that every time. All it takes is one second and your lovebird will be history and personally I wouldn't want to chance it.

[Ray P]

I would be very careful with Oboe around the larger birds especially the zon It would just take one mistake by oboe and he could br injured by the larger birds.

I had lovebirds at one time and they drove the other birds nuts. We had a cockatiel that was so mad at the lovebird it pulled a tail feather from the love bird just to keep it away from his cage.

[Birdnut]

We have a lovebird, and she flies loose with the other birds in the bird room. It hasn't been a problem for us, since all the birds have a healthy respect for her beak and give her a wide berth. Only the parrotlet will stand up to her. Her cage is in another room (not the bird room), to avoid cage defensive squabbles on her part. Moussa, the grey, is also housed outside of the bird room. We do not have the grey and the lovebird loose in the same area at the same time, as the lovebird will attack him, and he is terrified of her. So far, we have not found it necessary to protect that little feathered piranha that is Izzie, the lovebird, from anyone or anything!