Parakeets and starling

[sansonet]

I have pet starling, she is about 8-9 years old and until now she lived with her mate, another starling. He died not long ago so I got couple budgies to keep her company. Starlings are social birds so I don't want her to stay alone. They are not in the cage, I have small room for birds with perches, etc. But now I wonder if I should keep them. They are nice, not very tamed, but not wild too. They don't bite hands when I hold them and sometimes I can get then to sit on the finger, specially when they in the cage. I use cage just for food/drink, it's door is open all the time. But they keep chasing my starling! I don't know why but I saw couple time that male grabbed her feathers. She just trying to get away from them when they do. She is twice bigger so it looks weird. They also stealing some of her food, which is mainly cat food. I don't know if that is good for them.
Tonight I noticed that Starling avoids to use one leg and looks like it hurts. But I don't see any injury. I wonder if budgies did it. And I don't know if I should keep them at all if they will keep harassing her. Anybody had experience to keep them with other species?

PS. Sorry for grammatic, it's my second language.

 

[Kalidasa]

Budgies should never have access to cat food. Are you talking about budgies or another kind of parakeet? No hookbill should ever have cat food. This doesn't sound like a good match. Can you keep the budgies in another room?

 

[MikeyTN]

Parakeets can be nasty little buggers. If that's the case I wouldn't keep the parakeets with her cause parakeets can work together harassing a specific bird.

 

[sansonet]

Budgies should never have access to cat food. Are you talking about budgies or another kind of parakeet? No hookbill should ever have cat food. This doesn't sound like a good match. Can you keep the budgies in another room?

I don't live in palace so I have only one room to spare for birds And I have cats in the house. I can't stop them to eat starling food since all birds are free to fly all over room.They don't go to her feeder, but taking crumbs that fall on the floor, etc. It's not 100% cat food, it is starling mix Adult, injured, or pet Starling Diet

 

[sansonet]

Parakeets can be nasty little buggers. If that's the case I wouldn't keep the parakeets with her cause parakeets can work together harassing a specific bird.

This is strange, if you go to wild bird forums, they all talking about starlings to be aggressive ones, but not in my experience. They lived peacefully even with zebra finches. I can't say budgies are really aggressive towards her, more like curiosity to me. For example - when I bring treats for her and she sits on me to eat it, they fly close to me to and sometimes making attempts to land on me too. Normally they don't care about coming to me, only when they see she is with me. I have only pair of budgies. I'm trying to get another starling, maybe that will make things easier. But it's not easy to get one, they are not sold as pets and can be only rescued.

 

[Betrisher]

When I lived in College, a friend brought me a baby starling that had fallen from its nest (at the top of a three-storey building). I raised him along with the injured budgie I'd found under the hospital steps. The pair got along like best friends! Like you, I had no cage (birds were not allowed in College, so I couldn't keep an obvious cage). All I had was a perch across my window, where the pair would sit at night and then another over my desk where they (mostly) sat in the daytime. Daniel, the Starling, was allowed outside as he needed to forage for his food. Kipper, the injured budgie, couldn't fly very well so he was not allowed outside. At no point did either bird harrass or injure the other: they just loved each other, snuggling up together during the cold Armidale nights and preening each other in the sunshine. I wish I'd thought about giving Daniel cat food! It's probably the best alternative for an insectivorous bird when nothing else is available. I have a feeling your only alternative is to get a cage for your budgies so the starling can have time away from them. Even though he's much larger, it's not in his nature to peck in the same way parrots can: I think he could be injured by your budgies with their hooked beaks. Please let us know what you decide to do and if there's any other way we can help, do ask questions!

 

[sansonet]

Maybe they just need time to get used to each other since budgies lived here for only month. They are still in teenager period so maybe they will calm down once they will get older. Her leg got me worried, but she also in process of changing scales on her leg, she had some problems of scales getting too big and now they falling out. Maybe her leg hurts because of it and not because of budgies.