housing bourkes together

[bourke88]

Long story so I'll jump right in. I recently adopted a rosy bourke from petsmart through CNYSNAP, she is terrified of me. Ive had her almost two months and she still makes a hissing noise at me when I cover/ uncover her cage and when I change her food/water. She seemed pretty lonely so I started looking into getting her a buddy. PetSmart happened to get in two more bourkes. They were in the same enclosure at the store and I couldn't bear to separate them so I took them both. One is a rosy, I believe the other is a rainbow or something similar (I'm new to bourkes).
The adoption agency believed they were both female (not DNA tested), which is what I wanted. As soon as I got them home I could tell a difference in the way the rainbow chirps compared to the two rosys and this got me thinking maybe the rainbow is actually a male. The rainbow has a greater variety of chirps and chirps more often, behaviors that are typically associated with males.
Right now my first rosy is in her own cage and the two new bourkes are in a cage together. I was planning on getting one large cage (63"Length x 19"Depth x 30"Height) and putting all three in at the same time but now that I'm thinking one may be a male, I feel it wouldn't be wise to keep them all together. It is a breeder cage so I would have the option of separating them if needed until I figure something out. I have no intention of trying to breed them.

So I guess my questions are:
Does it seem like my rainbow is a male?
If it is a male can I try keeping the three (1 male, 2 females) together in that large of a cage or is the risk of fighting extremely high?
If I got a fourth bourke would that even things out to cause less fighting?
Any suggestions or other advice?

Thanks for reading!

 

[EllenD]

Well I'll start with I have lots of bird experience, and I bred English budgies for years, but I have no experience with Bourke Parakeets. That being said, there are some good rules of thumb that are generally accepted when it comes to any birds...

First, there is no way to know whether the bird is a male or female without a DNA test, that's the bottom line. Just because a bird chirps more or is more vocal in general means nothing about sex, I've found that out the hard way before. Assuming it's a male because it's more vocal or female because it's quiet will get you in trouble, or can. Before you know it your male is laying eggs! I don't believe there are any external ways to sex a Bourke, so I'd have all 3 of them DNA tested. You can search online, there are many places that will do this for you with a feather or a small drop of blood from a toenail clip. Or take them to your avian vet and they can do it. It doesn't cost much, like $20-$25. That's absolutely the only way you'll know.

As far as putting birds together, the best advice I can give you is don't. Never make assumptions that they will be OK, and never let them together unsupervised. The two you just brought home were housed together or have been housed together, so they're OK in the same cage (I'm assuming they've been together for a while with no problems, if not then they should be separated too). But do not put your first bird in a cage with either of the new birds. You could come home to 1, 2, or 3 dead birds. You need to have at least 2 cages, one big enough for the 2 together and another for the first one. They need to be introduced slowly, like by putting their cages next to each other for a couple of months, supervised short out of cage time together, etc. This will take time, you can't rush it, and it may never work. I have 4 larger birds and 2 are bonded, the other 2 are not bonded to anyone but me, and the 2 that are bonded hate the other 2. I would never let any of them alone, even the 2 that hang out together when I'm home...You just never know. So you may never be able to put your first bird with the other two, and the two you just got that are together may have to be separated, you just don't know...But the bottom line is just absolutely do not risk it or try to force it, because you can't force it, and if you take a chance you will most likely regret it. I'd also have a third cage on hand, just in case the new 2 you just got start to fight, or if they are a male and a female you'll have to separate them unless you want babies soon.

Now all of that being said, you should be quarantining the 2 new birds in a totally separate room for the first month anyway! You don't want your first bird to get something, or vise versa. So I'd put the cage with the 2 new birds in a completely different room from the first bird for a month, like right now. Then after the quarantine move their cage (or two cages if things go badly) into the same room as your first bird, and put the cages next to each other, and then start slowly introducing them. There's no guessing or guaranteeing how this will ever work out, it will happen how it will happen. Just be smart, safe, and responsible about it all. And again, I'd get all 3 DNA tested now, you'll get the results in a month or less. They should all have an initial well-birdy checkup the first week or so you have them anyway, that's when I always DNA test my new birds. Then separate accordingly to avoid unwanted babies. A good rule is to have an individual cage available for each bird you have...Like if you end up that your first bird is a female and doesn't get along with the 2 new birds, and the 2 new birds are a male and a female, or the two new birds start fighting...Then you'll need 3 cages...

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[bourke88]

Thanks for your reply. I know that I cant be sure of any of their sexes and I will look into getting them DNA tested. Unfortunately my closest avian vet is over an hour away.

I'm not planning on putting the three together any time soon, if at all. The two I bought as a pair have been great, they show absolutely no signs of aggression toward each other and love to sit together. I also looked for signs of injury on them before I bought them to make sure they hadn't hurt each other during the month they spent at petsmart (and its likely they were together even before petsmart got them). I know you can never be sure but I am confident that they wont hurt each other. The pair are in one cage and my one rosy is in another. I was planning to slowly move their cages closer together to get a feel of how they might get along. If things clearly don't go well from the start I would not consider even trying to house them together. Believe me I don't want any of my birds getting hurt.

If they do well with their cages together then I would move all three into the new cage at the same time to avoid territory issues. The cage I'm planning on is a breeder, so I was planning to give them supervised time together without the divider and I will put the divider in if they are to be unsupervised. Unfortunately I cant give them out of cage time, they are not the least bit hand tame. Even with the divider each side will have a 31 inch length. I always have extra cages if needed.

I'm not completely new to birds, I've had parakeets (I'm actually working on hand taming a stubborn little guy right now) and my first birds were finches. So I haven't worked with anything super demanding or large but I'm always gaining knowledge and experience. I do know enough to not just pop multiple birds in a cage together. This is my first time having bourkes and this would be my first time trying to introduce new birds to each other. I haven't been able to find much info about keeping bourkes together (I actually haven't found much helpful info about bourkes in general)so that's why I decided to try posting here.

Again, thanks for your help!

 

[EllenD]

Honestly I don't often see much about Bourkes, I had no idea PetSmart even sold them. I've known 2 people that had them, and both were breeders, one still does breed them. He lives about an hour and a half from me, and when I was thinking about getting another baby bird it was between my female cockatiel, who came from another breeder I know that lives near the Bourke breeder, and one of his babies. I drove to Harrisburg where both breeders were, and I went to the Bourke breeder first. He probably had 5 clutches of 6 babies a piece, all rosy, and they were absolutely beautiful. But they were all parent raised babies and honestly I've never seen any parent raised babies that are only around 8 weeks old that were so scared of people. Maybe that's just their nature if they aren't hand-raised, because the other breeder I knew had the same issue. They were very much like wild birds. He told me that they were tough to tame, that they typically take a little longer to tame but eventually they make good pets. So I left and went to the cockatiel breeder, and instantly my little girl was climbing all over me, giving kisses and wanting head scratches and to cuddle. So that was that. But the Bourke Parakeets are gorgeous birds!

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