Danger of multiple species

[Laurasea]

I feel I need to share a negative aspect of multiple species keeping. Especially size difference, and behavioral differences in species.
My sweet so friendly budgie Cloudy has suffered at the beak of my territorial GCC Ta-dah.... Not once but twice!!!!! Ta-dah bit off two toes , one each on two different occasions.... Cloudy is ok and healed now, but he lost a lot of blood and suffered to heal.........
The GCC is territorial of her cage, when she is in it and anyone touches her cage she is so fast and sneaky at biting...I've made changes to help prevent this, and I feel so very terrible that it happened TWICE! That's it's taken me a bit to share it with you all. .......
But after posting cute interspecies picture, I had to post the negative too.....
Poor Cloudy always wants to be everyone's freind, the other Budgie Clear is to smart and quick to be bitten . So here is cloudy notice the two larger toes on the right foot have been amputated.....sigh.....he doesn't limp or suffer now. I spent a lot of thought on if I should rehome him for his safety.... If anything so terrible happens again I probably will.

 

[munami]

Thanks very much for sharing this Laura. It takes a lot of guts to admit mistakes. I think it's good to consider both possibilities. Hope for the best but prepare for the worst.

 

[Laurasea]

Thanks very much for sharing this Laura. It takes a lot of guts to admit mistakes. I think it's good to consider both possibilities. Hope for the best but prepare for the worst.

Thank you, it's the shame .....but I believe it is important to share the negative as well
Positive experience. Out of the cage Ta-dah and Cloudy are friends. And Tada can't be blamed for following her instincts...
It's the twice part that kills my soul

 

[Rozalka]

Poor Cloudy!!
I heard about how GCC are territorial and because of it I am little scary of letting Zenek (my GCC) to Bourkes (they are simillar size like budgies). Today he met one of them so close but didn't have bad intetions - he was on one my shoulder and the Bourke on another one. Zenek touched Bourke's head (but not bit) and later wasn't interest any longer. Maybe he didn't do anything 'cause it wasn't his "room"...

2 years ago we also had an attack between two species but the reason was breeding - a budgie went into Bourkes' nestbox


I hope the same accident won't be again! All the best for Cloudy Thanks for sharing!

 

[LaManuka]

Oh poor little Cloudy! Yet he looks very healthy and happy regardless! Our Valentino has been in a few scraps with Lilly Pilly because he LOVES to hop in her cage and eat her food, (actually so does Fang but he’s much bigger of course.) We’ve has Val down at the vet because of an irritation to his eye which I’m fairly sure was caused by Lilly scratching him with a claw or beak, and she can bite mighty hard for such a tiny bird! Thankfully Val’s eye is fine now and he’s back to his regular feisty chirpy self but he’s eating Lilly’s food again even as we speak, lucky for him Lilly’s too busy wrestling with me to notice!

 

[GaleriaGila]

Laura, my friend... thank you. You are brave, and you're putting love of birds and truth about these issues ABOVE your own pride and privacy.
Thank you.

 

[Laurasea]

Rozalka, lamanuka, Galleriagila, thank you for sharing your stories and your support.
I share mostly good stuff, cuz most of my life with the birdies are good. But it helps no one if you don't share the bad stuff too....
Sadly tonight Cloudy has a spot if blood by his toenail on his good foot ....... Tomorrow I will make more changes. I love this cheerful beautiful budgie....I'm afraid to give him up, and would have to give both budgie together to be fair for them...but I'm so afraid a new home would tire of the budgies after the newness wore off. And they wouldn't be out free flight all day with veggies
But I also fear to keep them and have them be maimed more or even killed from an ifection or blood loss. .. I'm so unhappy. I thought I'd made her cage too safe, and I believe today's bite must have happened while all were out together.... And was it Ta-dah??????? Before I knew it was her today I don't know....now I'm not sure what to do

 

[LaManuka]

Oh dear I do hope you don’t end up having to rehome! When is it that Ta-Dah is at her most dangerous? When she’s out and about or is it when she’s inside her cage with the budgies on top and she nips their toes from underneath? Lilly was pretty bad at nipping Fang and Val’s toes from underneath but lately I’ve fixed one of those sisal cargo nets over the top of both cages so now those tempting little pink toes are out of her reach. Happily she doesn’t seem interested in nipping their toes at any other time, although she and Val still fight over her food periodically. Val still has to learn when to hold ‘em, when to fold ‘em, when he should walk away and when he should run!

 

[Cardinal]

I have noticed this phenomenon in many households where there are both larger parrots and budgies. The larger parrot, when it gets on the budgies' cage is very friendly. to them and is very playful, peaceful and "naughty".

But when the reverse happens- ie the larger parrot is inside his/her cage and the budgie intentionally or inadvertently lands on the larger parrot s cage, then all hell breaks loose and the large parrot loses no opportunity to lunge at the poor budgie.

Hope such accidents can be avoided by people with multiple species.

 

[plumsmum2005]

Ah poor Cloudy, it is good that you have shared a negative with owning different species and injuries are more common than you think. I have a G2 and she is itching to make a beeline to where my RB2 sits with us when we are relaxing. Thank goodness for her nakedness and lack of flying abilities tbh. My G2 has gotten keener to get to my RB2 the more she has settled in and become a mummy's girl, she feels she is No 1 for sure. This could be the case for Ta-dah also? If they are all flighted then seperate out times are gonna be a must hun as well as covering cages that could be landed on. It is impossible to have eyes in the back of your head. Hubby yelled at me the other day that G2 was gonna try jumping to get to the same place as RB2, I could not see her intent. Very rarely does owning different birds conform to the dream of them all getting along. Cheer up hun, keep Cloudy safe but also enjoy him too.

 

[Flboy]

Thank you for sharing the realities of complex relationships!
We have a member that learned, at the cost of life, how horrible this can go! And it was an obvious accident!
It was a Macaw/Cocktail mix. They were buds! He was training his Mac, it sitting on a stand. The little one did his typical jet pilot flyby and startled the mac! He bled out before anything could be done!

 

[Aspie_Aviphile]

Shortly after Bo bonded with me, I let him land on my late budgie's cage. Thankfully, I removed him before anybody got hurt, but it shocked and dismayed me that he immediately tried to stab her in the head with his beak!

The cognitive dissonance was deeply unpleasant, and I now understand it was caused by me anthropomorphising. In some ways parrots are like human toddlers, cognitively and emotionally, but I didn't yet know some important places where the overlap stops, including the parrot instinct to respond to perceived territory and resource threats with outright murder. Normal toddlers don't do that, so I couldn't accept that "my baby" would do such a thing.

 

[Laurasea]

Cloudy is ok.....but I'm deeply worried about keeping his remaining toes on his body!! Not bitten off.... Thank you all for your replies...I'm still feeling stress

 

[HEEDLESS]

E-hugs have to it! You are wonderful.

​

 

[Ellie777Australia]

Thank you for sharing this 'learning lesson' Laurasea. Thank you to others who have shared within this thread.

We recently adopted Bertie and were vigilant in observing interactions to ensure that Ellie didn't hurt Bertie. Ellie became aggressive towards Bertie at first. One day, I turned my back after placing Bertie safely within his cage and started with dinner prep. I heard a noise and turned around to see Ellie on top of Bertie's cage and Bertie attempting to bite her feet. We managed to get Ellie off quickly without mishap.

Big Lesson: Be vigilant with same species as much as you would be with different species within a flock. Also, do not assume that the 'non-aggressive' bird would not become aggressive to protect his/her territory.

From reading these stories I have to think that whatever the species and sex mix of our flock, whatever the previous interactions, always observe interactions.

 

[Aspie_Aviphile]

Big Lesson: Be vigilant with same species as much as you would be with different species within a flock. Also, do not assume that the 'non-aggressive' bird would not become aggressive to protect his/her territory.

From reading these stories I have to think that whatever the species and sex mix of our flock, whatever the previous interactions, always observe interactions.

Good point. From what I've read, one of the most dangerous "friends" you can bring home for a male IRN is actually a female IRN! I'd love to have a flock of adopted birds whether the same species or not but I don't have enough time or resources to make it work without having them all locked up most of the day, and Bo seems perfectly happy as he is with the things he values the most, just his freedom and his human.

 

[Laurasea]

Cloudy was just attacked again by Ta-dah. I can no longer keep him safe. I've tried everything! He is just so friendly, he wants to be freinds with every bird . I will post on the rehoming board. He and Clear will be re-home together. To a good home, with veggies, and free flight time in house.

 

[Rozalka]

Oh no!! Were you thinking about isolate them to another room? As example my GCC is in another one than budgies & Bourkes, and they have a rare contact. Generally when they meet, Zenek is a visitor - then he can't attack 'cause that's not his area.

 

[Tami2]

Oh my Laura, I am just seeing this thread for the first time. I'm so sorry.

Why can't you alternate their time out? Wouldn't that solve the problem?

As far as Cloudy flying on to Ta-dah's cage, cover it or move it to another room & close the door?

Poor Baby.

 

[Laurasea]

This happened while I was making afternoon veggies everyone was out and Ta-dah sneak attacked, it was not a cage attack. He was sitting near her and she attacked..
I can and gave tried many different things. But if I mess up , the next time this wonderful loving budgie could be dead.......