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Update: Lilah Is Making Herself at Home in the Budgies' Cage

AmyJas

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As an update, Lilah the cockatiel was introduced to the budgies after three weeks of quarantine. We cut the quarantine a little shorter than planned because it turns out my S.O. is a bit allergic, so she needed to be moved from the living room. After a couple weeks, the budgies have been generally indifferent toward Lilah and vice versa. However, Lilah has been playing in the budgies' proximity more, on top of their cage next to them, and today inside their cage--all without any problems. They're not really directly interacting with each other yet, but they're showing no aggression even in close proximity, so I take it as a good sign.

The budgie pair are actually used to a trio. They were housed with my mother's budgie for years without problems while I lived back home. Archie and Sashi are six and have never demonstrated hormonal or breeding behavior, despite being the opposite sex. I've read that usually budgies try to dominate or bully the cockatiels or are overly playful, but that's not the case at all so far. My budgies are pretty mellow and low energy and just seem cheerfully curious from afar about Lilah's presence. I'm going to give it some time of course, but if they continue to get along, I'll get a larger flight cage that can comfortably accommodate all of them.

I'm sure not everyone agrees with this idea, but from what I've researched, I don't see the harm in housing cockatiels and budgies if they are shown to get along and have lots of space. It's not uncommon, and aggressive attacks without warning signs are unlikely within these two species. These two species also tend to be much happier in flocks, and they'll have plenty of room to get away from each other, since they will have free reign of a bird room.

As far as training, Lilah is not a very affectionate bird and continues to be reluctant to perch on me, usually only if she wants to get somewhere, since her wings are clipped. But some days are better than others and it could be a lot worse. I just try to continue to work with her (increasingly using food bribery) and accept her personality. Every bird is different. She is a cute and entertaining bird at the least, and I am happy to have her.
 

aqualover9

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Ripshod

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Doesn't matter how well they appear to be getting along. It's usually when you're not there that bad things happen. It doesn't matter how many feeding opportunities there are in the cage they will get protective of 'their' food. Let them continue to be together during wing time but PLEASE don't cage them together.
 

AmyJas

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Doesn't matter how well they appear to be getting along. It's usually when you're not there that bad things happen. Let them continue to be together during wing time but PLEASE don't cage them together.
But if they choose to go into each other's cages, what's the difference? I will continue to limit their out-of-cage interactions to when I am home for the time being, but if I don't see any signs of aggression for a long period of time, I don't really see the harm. Besides, the budgies prefer to be out of their cage for most of the day and mainly use their cage for sleeping and eating. I know cockatiels are slightly bigger, but they aren't known to be aggressive.
 

AmyJas

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Well...they're all sleeping together now, in the same corner of the cage, closest I've ever seen them. I guess she's part of the flock now, but of course it's still very early to be sure. She didn't want to go back to her own cage all day, and the budgies seem to have accepted her. I plan to move her back to her own cage in the morning though since no one will be home to watch them for a few hours.
 

sunnysmom

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Sometimes budgies can bully tiels even though they're smaller. Just something to look out for. It's good that they're all getting along.
 
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