Ok this might Sound Odd..

[jugoya]

But Porter constantly goes into the budgie cage..

Has one perch that is his.. and even has his own 'food dishes' in there to keep him from stealing the budgies food dishes.

None of the birds seem bothered by it and it has become a nightly ritual.

Porter doesn't hurt them and heck Daffy usually wins the squabbles between all three.

They are closely observed during these times..

I have tried to keep him out of the cage but doing that means locking the budgies up.. and with the setup I have I cant really separate the cages as I don't have room.

He's only in there for a couple of hours at a time and it seems like he enjoys it while the budgies spend more time on top.

Should I stop him from going in their cage?

Pictures coming.. none of baby as he has his OWN cage being that he is my husband's bird and he wants him to be fully people oriented before we let him meet the other birds.

He looks so smug! Little brat.

Just sitting.. chilling This is the regular cage set up.

And here they are all just sitting staring at me..

What the heck did you put that black thing in here for huh? HUH?

Mrrrf.

I love my birds but they confound me.

 

[lisascannell]

I would just let them do it. My ringneck does that. She has her own cage but always goes into the cockatiel cage. When she prefers the option of coming out of the cage, or going to the cockatiel cage, she would always prefer to hang in the cockatiel cage! My finches like to do the cage swap too!!

 

[MonicaMc]

I think it's pretty normal behavior! Birds typically enjoy the presence of other birds.


When I only had budgies and got my first cockatiel, Casey kept going into the budgies cage to eat their food and play with their things! I couldn't keep her away from all the budgie stuff!

When I got my first conure, Casey then switched tactics and wanted to be with my conure! Considering size differences, I didn't want to allow it! But Casey had other plans, and the two eventually became cage buddies.


Fast forward a few years where Casey and my first conure share a cage but I allow a lot of out of cage time and the budgies are going into their cage to eat their food and play with their stuff! I was trying to get my conure to eat pellets but he had no interest. Then I started realizing that the pellets were being eaten by *somebody*. I didn't realize that "somebody" was the budgies, who wouldn't eat pellets in their own cage, but pellets in another birds cage? AWESOME!!!! *rolls eyes*



When I got down to one budgie and my second conure, that budgie became infatuated with Charlie and any time I'd let her out, she'd make a b-line for Charlie's cage. She could quite literally squeeze between his cage bars, and then she'd proceed to eat his food, chew on his toys and just check his entire cage out. Charlie was pissed! I'll admit, it was rather amusing watching this little budgie nimbly avoid Charlie and Charlie looks like the big giant fool who had to clamber around trying to catch a hummingbird as he climbed through his cage chasing her.... needless to say, I placed her in a budgie only home!





Right now I have a double flight cage acting as the cage for my four cockatiels. Jayde likes to fly on top of the cage. Charlie likes to fly on top of the cage and at times go inside the cage to eat the cockatiels food. Sometimes this involves chasing the cockatiels in their own cage and freaking them out! And he's *SO* proud of himself! So of course I have to extricate him from said cage so the tiels don't have a heart attack! (meanwhile, Charlie's eyes are pinning, he's making lots of noises, bobbing his head - all in shear excitement and fun!)

And then I have the poor, lonely bourke parakeet. Separated due to her health, but she'd rather live with the cockatiels. Given the chance and the courage, she'll fly out of her cage and directly into the cockatiels cage! She doesn't like the cockatiels. In fact, the cockatiels hiss at her for being in the way and she growls at them! And she'll even "kick" a cockatiel off of a food dish if she wants to eat out of the same food dish by nipping at their tail feathers. Thankfully, I don't have to worry about the tiels harming the bourke, or the bourke harming them (both more squawk than bite!), but if not for her health, she would be living with them. Last time I tried placing her with the tiels her health declined, so she remains alone. Only way she might be able to "live with" the tiels would be if I were to split the flight cage in half (it is a double flight cage! it's got it's own divider...) and figure out how to set the cage up in her favor. As much as I consider it, I'd hate to have to reduce the amount of space the tiels enjoy! (they are a mix-match of birds - only two out of four truly get along)






So from my experiences, it's pretty normal! LOL And it's up to you whether or not you want to allow the behavior to continue!