Advice needed on housing two red rumps together?

[learnincurve]

basically my friend has decided that hers is too messy for her. they are 5 months and brother and sister and I told said friend when she got the female that I would take her if she proved too much.

I'm seeing conflicting advice on the internet, some of "mine were fine together" (pet shop had them together) and some "they were fine till the male tried to kill the female"

I have a second parrot cage that is big enough for the pair of them to go in or I can just have her in on her own.

What do I do? I have till Tuesday to work out logistics.

 

[JLcribber]

You start out with 2 cages and you let the birds decide how this is going to work out.

 

[learnincurve]

Birds were in the same cage for 5 months until we separated them. what worries me is that some people have said that they have heard of red rumped males turning on females after living happily in the same cage for years.

 

[JLcribber]

Birds were in the same cage for 5 months until we separated them. what worries me is that some people have said that they have heard of red rumped males turning on females after living happily in the same cage for years.

That is a possibility. You don't know the circumstances of those events which something we would need to know. For example 2 siblings spend years together until puberty kicks in. Suddenly they are not compatible anymore. Just one circumstance. The point being they are all individuals. You start out "safe" (2 cages). You observe and learn as time goes by. Depending on what you observe, determines the course you take. There are no rules.

 

[expressmailtome]

@Stormcloud or @CheekyBeaks may be able to answer the question about this species specifically. They are both very knowledgeable and helpful.

Matt

 

[Stormcloud]

How long have you had them separated and how large is the cage you're looking to house them in???

 

[learnincurve]

How long have you had them separated and how large is the cage you're looking to house them in???

They have been apart a week, (Montana Memphis III) larger cage is 84cm, 48cm, 162cm according to the description. I need to get it set up tomorrow for her to go in regardless, obviously if it seems too small when it's all assembled then the question moot as the cage he is in has height but not width which is fine for him as a base station but too cramped for two.

Oddly I only got the bigger cage because it was 1/3 the usual price which is lucky.

 

[Stormcloud]

I have Mulga Parrots, Golden Shouldered Parrots and Hooded Parrots which are all closely related species. If they've only been apart a week I'd put them in the same cage and watch them closely, but have a second one on standby if they don't get along. Be aware that the males are aggressive and can be pretty vicious even to their own kind so expect some bickering to occur as they mature. If your birds are 70g or heavier I'd be tempted to acquire the largest cage with 5/8" bar spacing as you can get (4'L X 4'H X 2'W is good). Make sure you have two food bowls for seed/pellet mix and have them about a foot apart so the male doesn't monopolise the food supply. A good sign of acceptance is if they go down to feed together. All Psephotus grass parrots like to bathe so I use a 9"L X 5"W X 2"D oval ceramic pie dish for a water bowl.

Most of Australia's true grass parrots, such as Red Rumps, have evolved to survive in nutrient poor environments so I recommend using pellets only in small quantities...no more than 20% of their total daily dietary intake. 2 teaspoons of seed to 1 & 1/2 teaspoons of pellets. The rest can be made up of fresh veggies & chop.
If they haven't been converted to pellets I'd recommend two 5oz bowls with 4-5 teaspoons of budgie seed and sprinkle 1/4 of a teaspoon of Harrison's Lifetime Mash over the top of it. I'd also make up a homemade grit mixture that consists of 50% crushed cuttle bone, 49% crushed sea shells and 1% crushed activated carbon. Still give them chop and/or veggies daily. Chard, curly endive and kale are favourites here. Hope this helps.

 

[learnincurve]

That's a massive help thank you very very much

 

[learnincurve]

Well, this is annoying, turns out I have half a cage which is also broken. Amazon are coming to pick it up again.

On the plus side..Shy is here Fairly amusing moment when my friend and I were having a chat and heard squawking coming from her car, only to see said bird happily flying around inside it. Turns out she has worked out how to use the perch to get enough leverage to open the cage. Zip tied the cage shut, and took her into the house with her tweeting away, her brother heard her and they were calling each other till I got her up the stairs. Now they are in separate cages side by side, she clearly wants to be in with him but he's far more wary of her. The personalities couldn't be more different, he acts like a stroppy teenager and ignores all his toys and humans and just wants to be flying around the room, she is far more engaged with her toys and doesn't create fuss when you go near her cage. I'll give them a day in cages next to one another and then let them out separately then see how it goes with letting them out together the next day, if he still wants nothing to do with her then I'll keep them in the separate cages.

 

[Stormcloud]

The Psephotus genus of grass parrots are very different to most. Girls are generally little angels and the boys are thugs...even with their mates, which is why a large cage size is important. Unlike lovebirds, pairs are not together all that often. He will learn to play with toys and eat veggies etc from watching her. If they weren't hand-reared when you got them, the best you can expect to achieve is for them to hop on your hand when you present food. The best thing about this genus of parrots is that they sing rather than scream or screech.

 

[learnincurve]

This does absolutely tally with what we were seeing, my friend was telling me how Shy would run around on the floor playing with a ball and sit on her shoulder or on her swing and be fed fruit, while Drama was deliberately ignoring me this end.

I'm currently watching her beg for a treat by running up and down the nearest perch to me, meanwhile he is doing the same thing on a perch at the back of his cage just because she is doing it, silly birdie.

 

[learnincurve]

Update, bought a huge cage from the amazing pet shop/borderline zoo near us also a cockatiel to go in the original large cage it was the largest I could find and is about 3l 3w 4.5h and the top opens up. Shy loves it, drama's opinion is unknown as he's still flying around my daughter's room and refusing to get in a cage. We were wondering why he wasn't going in for food and water till we realized he had found the millet stash and had been drinking the budgie's water through the bars. This mistake has now been rectified.