Questions about mixing bird breeds in cages?
We recently got a new bird called Romeo an 8 month male Cockatiel and we put him in a large cage with our existing birds Nathaniel a 10 year old male Parakeet and Charley a 10 year old female Cockatiel. When Romeo first went into the cage he was chirpy, then Charley died a day later, Romeo stopped singing and Nathaniel suddenly became very territorial and chased Romeo round his cage trying to bite him. We took Romeo out of Nathaniel’s cage and put him in a separate cage, but he still isn’t happy. Are both birds grieving?
We have another bird Shrek a 2 year old male Canary alone in a separate cage, would it be ok to put Romeo (male Cockatiel) in the same cage as Shrek?
Thanks any input or opinion would help (:
Usually when you bring home a new bird it should be quarantined. This just means you keep the bird away from your birds for a short period of time (a week or two), and then you introduce him to your crew.
People do this because some birds may have an illness that they can live with but another bird is not immune to.
I breed cockatiels and parakeets, and I have bred canaries in the past. I DO NOT suggest placing a parakeet or cockatiel with a canary. Parakeets and cockatiels are territorial birds by nature. Some may not be, but you don’t want to find out the hard way.
Here’s my suggestion: keep Shrek alone. Separate Romeo and Nathaniel but place them close to each other (side-by-side). If you see them getting along, you can try to place them both in the same cage, but I think they should stay apart for a little while. Also, please disinfect the cage that Charley died in. Simply scrubbing the cage with a brush and Dawn dish soap can help kill any lingering illnesses.
Hope this helps!
Parakeets are territorial but I have seen a lot of large aviary with parakeets and cockatiel in it. For your case I would separate all of them. Give them all different cage. Or if you like, get the three tier cage where they are physically separated in one cage.
If you thought different types of birds go well with each other then your wrong. Just look in a pet store, you’ll notice that birds are happy when they are with their own kind. Birds respond to each other with their chirps. Each type of bird has their distinct chirp similar to different languages of the world however birds are not as complex as humans.
In effect you are confusing the birds by forcing them to communicate to each other. The best thing you can do is to let them fly free because they get depressed and dye by not being able to communicate or you should put two or more of the same birds in one cage and get cages for each type of bird.