two cockatiels - advice on living in the same cage

[Lupa]

Hi Everyone

 

We added two baby tiel's to our flock awhile back both around 6 months old now. A whiteface pied and a cinnamon pied. The cinnamon, Crash is male and the whiteface, Burn, is female (they haven't been dna sexed so these are guesses)

 

The problem is that I don't think they like each other very much. When I separate them, carrying them around the house, they call for one another. But they are very nippy towards each other when together. They don't seem to really hurt one another but they fight a lot and bite as soon as the other gets too close.

 

They do get time everyday out of the cage, about 3-4 hours.

 

So I've narrowed down a few options to what I think I should do:

Get another cage so they have separate cages, I'll leave the cages next to each other so they have company.

OR

Buy a bigger cage (parrot size) so they have more room and don't get in each others faces so much. They currently are in a cage that is 80cm x 60cm x 90cm this is what the pet shop recommended

OR

Write a post here and leave them be because someone will tell me its perfectly normal for cockatiels to fight and I'm being paranoid. :whistle:

 

Thanks in Advance

Andrea

[judygram]

I can't comment on the cockatiels as I have never owned any but I did want to comment on the names you picked out for them, I just love those names, Crash and Burn, how cute is that.:lol:

[Tari]

It is my believe that is it easier to keep birds tame if they are not together. Unless you plan to breed I would get a double cage or another cage and have them next to each other.

Not knowing the size of the cage you have no I really can't tell you if a bigger would address the problem.

But I do believe having their own space it the way to go with tame/pet birds.

[Lupa]

Thanks for the advice :-)

 

I think I will get a second cage not sure where i will put it tho. :unsure: They started fighting again this morning which kinda helped my decision

[Tycos_mom]

Why don't you buy one big cage with a divider down the middle that way they have their own space and it won't take up as much space as 2 cages will and then if you decide at a later time that you might want to put them together all you have todo is take the divider out

 

[Lupa]

I will go have a look this weekend at the options for cages. They have a few cages with a divider but they are usually breeding cages and they don't look so great normally they are wooden with cage bars only in the front.

 

I'll post a pic of the cage i get

[M2MM]

A tiered cage would work. Two cages in one - one over the other.<br><br>Post edited by: M2MM, at: 2008/06/26 10:18

[M2MM]

This is the kind of thing I mean.

[Lupa]

Wow that one looks lovely! Do they have any problems with the one being in a cage higher than the other?

 

Thanks for the pic!

[siobha9]

My 2 greys are in a cage like that, and they have no problems at all.

[Tycos_mom]

I love that cage I'm going to have to see if I can find one of those it would be perfect for my Conures

 

[Lupa]

Hi guys,

 

Thanks for all the advice.

 

Here are the cages I eventually got. I ended up getting two new cages.

 

 

They seem happy

 

Mission Accomplished B)

[Tycos_mom]

By looking at them I would say that they are both males do either of them have lots of stripes all the way down there tails. if not then they are males the females usually have barred tails and the males don't. If you put them in the same room with yor Grey they mat learn to Talk my little guy talks all the time

 

 

 

[Lupa]

Ok it didn't work out

 

As soon as I would open up the cages Burn would jump into Crash's cage and hide there. When trying to return her to her own cage she'd flap away to his cage. They try to stay as close as possible to each other in there respective cages and Burn will actually try push her head into the corner of the roof trying to get out.

 

So eventually I gave in, they are back in the original cage, they don't want to be together but they kick up more of a fuss when they are apart. So now I have two extra cages :whistle: very interesting exercise.

[Lupa]

Hi Tycos_mom

 

Thanks, Im not sure of the difference between stripes and bars.

 

Here are some better pictures http://shani.homedns.org/CrashandBurn.htm

 

I'll try to get better shots of there tails.

[Tari]

LOL you give up to fast.

Glad they are happy.

So is the cage they have really big so they can retreat from each other if need be? Mabye a larger cage well cut down on the figthing?

Or maybe you could take out one side on the the two new cages and make it one big cage. Still keep them side by side so they have more floor space.

Did that for some finches at the farm and it worked out great.

[Lupa]

:-) Well I have to return the two cages I got and swop them for a bigger cage. Unfortunately the two cages dont come apart in a way that I could just make it one big cage.

 

The things we do to keep our babies happy :laugh:

[Tari]

That well work too. lol