One of the most concerning things I hear way too often is people housing their different species of parrot in the same cage. We oftentimes will try and pair single babies of different species together so they are able to learn how to be a bird together, but this usually doesn’t last and there is a point where we do have to separate them. I’ve heard it all, “they’re bonded”, “they’ve never fought before”, “but they’re flock animals”, and while, yes a lot of these things are true, that doesn’t mean it isn’t dangerous. Being in an enclosed space, no matter how big it is, is NOT natural and extremely dangerous. All it takes is ONE bad experience for one of them to be severely injured, or for you to potentially not have a second bird anymore.
Being in an enclosed space, like a cage or even a house, makes it so no matter where they run to, they can’t get away from the aggressor. Different species have vastly different body languages, so what is normal communication for one species can be very aggressive for another. Not to mention the differences in bite force. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t have incidents with the same species. Birds will do this for a variety of reasons, competing over nest sites, defending foraging spots, mates being too forward and aggressive, etc. All it takes is a bird to push the other a little too far, for them to lash out. We have seen way too many examples of birds that have been living communally for years, only for one day for them to turn and not be okay with each other. In the wild, birds have the ability to fly away and escape from any flockmate that is aggressive, but in a house or cage that isn’t an option, so they often get cornered and never really can get away.
Unfortunately, we have instances each year where one of our bonded breeding birds gets too aggressive with their mate, and we have to go in and separate them for a while, before it escalates. In our zebra finch colony, or even our wooden aviary we have on display in the store, sometimes an individual becomes very aggressive, and we have to separate them and slowly incorporate them back into the aviary once things have calmed down. In settings like aviaries, colonies, and pairs, we have to be extremely cautious and watch them all on a daily basis to make sure they are all still getting along. Earlier this summer we unfortunately had to separate one of our baby caiques from their siblings, since they started to gang up on him and caused an injury to their beak; just at 8 weeks old! Thankfully it healed really well, but this type of thing can happen to any bird at any time. We aren’t saying you shouldn’t house your two cockatiels, or have a zebra finch colony, but to be very proactive about watching their body language and being ready to step in before these incidents happen. Being prepared for the worst can prevent it from happening.
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