need advice from multiple bird owners

[aliray]

My sweetie pie is one year old today, happy hatchday. I also have a female red bellied parrot about 6 mo old. They are about the same size. They each have a flat top flight cage and the cages have been about 1 or 2 inches apart for several days. I bridged the top with a playstand with toys. I would like to have them both be able to be out at the same time. They don't seem to be bothered inside their cages, but once I think he tried to qrab her toe from the top when he was inside and she was outside.She let out a screach and flew off. No problem or damage. The other time they were both out and I think he treid to grab her tale feather. Same thing screech and off she flew to the floor. Question one how do parrots play together and how do you tell if it is serious aggression verses normal play. All advice welcome as this is my first time having two parrots at once and by the way I do not know sweetie pie sex However they are twoo different species so I don't think it matters. Thank you for any help or advice. Alison and sweetie pie

 

[amysaviary]

Birds have to "fight" out who is top bird. If there is feathers flying or blood it is bad and pull them apart!! Most times they r just saying "this is mine not urs" or "I am top bird" and they have to work them things out on their own.

That being said I don't think letting them play on the top of each others cages is a great idea till they do learn how to play nice. Birds will defend their cages and this can cause problems. If u have a play gym not on top the cages they can play together on I think that would be better at first. If u see them doing fine together on the play gym then try the cage tops. I don't let me birds play on each others cages, they play together on a play gym. Ur birds r young and should have no problem getting along but u can't push things and u want them to feel they r safe in their own cage so start with a play gym.

 

[aliray]

Amysaviary, Thank you for your answer it makes a lot of sense. The playtop is a portable two decker wooden playtop that I bought from MSBS so I can remove it and set it up elsewhere. Also that information about a pecking order I really hadn't thought of it. Alison and Sweetie pie

 

[cdog]

I have 9 birds and they only get along with the ones they were raised with. Beebee, Scooter and Rosey all get along together. They argue sometimes but it's not actually fighting, it's just wrestling and dominance. But they don't get along with anybody else.
Ella and Sunny get along together, they too have their arguments but it's also just dominance not actuall fighting. Ella doesn't like anybody else besides Sunny, she attacks them.
Sully and Bella only get along with each other and try to fight with everybody else, they will actually fight with all my other birds so they don't get to play with anybody else.
Scooter, Beebee and Rosey fight with everyone else except now Rosie is looking for a boyfriend so she is taking a liking to one of the babies.
They all come out at different times to avoid fights.

Just give it time, some birds just don't like other birds. Yours could become friends eventually or they may just tolorate each other, or they could fight. I can tell the difference between my birds fighting, wrestling or being dominant. As long as they aren't grabbing each other with their beaks and there isn't any feathers flying they are probably jut working out the ranks, one bird will always be dominat over the other and once they establish their ranks the squabbling should subside.

 

[Didomum]

I keep my budgies away from the IRN and Quackers because they are Billy's and try to pick fights when they are out they are not allowed on other cages. Yes I have budgies bully lol. They might be small but the don't know that they have been known to make the basset cry.

 

[WharfRat]

Oh man.......where do I start?!..

We only let the same breed birds interact with each other and even then it's always keep an eye and/or ear at attention. Our Hahn's is never left unsupervised out of the cage. If out it's in the office with one of us 95% of the time. If not, she will climb on the Zon's and/or GW's cages in a heartbeat (that little thing has absolutely NO fear at all) Now I have been able to get the Hahn's on one leg & ReaRea (GW) on the other, but they have to be in a REALLY good mood to achieve this but even then I am super attentive.

The Zon's constantly act like typical "brothers" to each other (they aren't, same parents one clutch apart) always horsing around but it too can get out of hand and one of us has to intervene before anyone gets hurt. I will add that they are the only 2 that are housed together at this time. If the situation worsens, we will separate them in different cages. They seem to be at their worst out of the cage, come bedtime we have no issues at all.

And then we have the big birds, ReaRea & Miri both GW's, Rea is queen of the house no doubt, although probably the most mellow, gentlest bird of all of them, she is also the biggest and oldest (except the Hahn's which is over 2 yrs. old). ReaRea gets alot of grief from Miri but will only let it go so far, when ReaRea has had enough, you'd better get there FAST. It's very easy to hear/see it building so we're able to prevent it from escalating now. They were originally caged together but that didn't last long at all. Rea is my baby and the bond is pretty strong, I know very well what she is capable of doing if she were to get upset.

Who's to say this won't change over time, but for now, better safe than sorry