So, my hand-fed Peach-Faced, Black-Mask and Fischer (all DNA males) are coming next week, and the current breeder is hand-feeding them together with no issues. They were not born far away from one another (1 weeks to days difference). I also have a Black Cheek & Nyasa expected late January/Early February next year, and still in the lookout for a Madagascar male (I'm only collecting males Lovebirds) as life-long pets, and I don't want babies but want to enjoy the character of each breed. I've kept Peach-Faced and Fischers in the past (hand fed, but this was 20 years ago, so I'm just getting back into African Lovebirds).
A few questions and thoughts...
1. The 3 new males will come to me almost weaned, and I will have to hand-feed them still for about a week. Should I keep them together and get a bigger cage if they continue to get along. My plan is to provide each of them with two of the biggest vision cages: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0012DOXFC/ref=emc_b_5_i and https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0012DOXFW/ref=emc_b_5_i. I have a client that runs a pet store and he can give me cages for free similar to these sizes. However, if any of them can be caged together with a much bigger cage even than the above, I would rather have that for space saving reasons.
2. If caged separately, is there a benefit to having the birds be in a different cages daily, every other day, or weekly? Can this potentially reduce any possibility of cage aggression?
3. Can I keep the hand-fed tameness of every bird if they end up bonding with another bird (assuming I handle them daily and interact with them, socialize and rewards)? Would keeping them together in the same cage be a problem in terms of maintaining their tameness assuming they get along?
4. I definitely want to keep my Abysinian (as well as the Peach-Faced if it shows aggression) separate as they are larger, but is it okay to leave them unsupervised with the smaller Lovebirds in a 16 feet long, 10 feet high and 6 feet wide indoor playroom wherein food and perches are well-provided for every member in various locations. In normal circumstances, I would like to always supervise or semi-supervise, except my work got changed to now in-office, and it will be a sad thing if I have to leave them in cage for 9-10 hours before I can put them in the playroom after I return, and even then they will only have 2 hours to play in the room before it gets really dark (indoor playroom is a cemented floor, glass-covered balcony converted into a playroom with heating).
I don't have to go bank in office until end of the month, so I'll have time to observe and supervise, and see how it goes, I guess, but just taking some constructive input.
Regards....and thank you in advance!
A few questions and thoughts...
1. The 3 new males will come to me almost weaned, and I will have to hand-feed them still for about a week. Should I keep them together and get a bigger cage if they continue to get along. My plan is to provide each of them with two of the biggest vision cages: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0012DOXFC/ref=emc_b_5_i and https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0012DOXFW/ref=emc_b_5_i. I have a client that runs a pet store and he can give me cages for free similar to these sizes. However, if any of them can be caged together with a much bigger cage even than the above, I would rather have that for space saving reasons.
2. If caged separately, is there a benefit to having the birds be in a different cages daily, every other day, or weekly? Can this potentially reduce any possibility of cage aggression?
3. Can I keep the hand-fed tameness of every bird if they end up bonding with another bird (assuming I handle them daily and interact with them, socialize and rewards)? Would keeping them together in the same cage be a problem in terms of maintaining their tameness assuming they get along?
4. I definitely want to keep my Abysinian (as well as the Peach-Faced if it shows aggression) separate as they are larger, but is it okay to leave them unsupervised with the smaller Lovebirds in a 16 feet long, 10 feet high and 6 feet wide indoor playroom wherein food and perches are well-provided for every member in various locations. In normal circumstances, I would like to always supervise or semi-supervise, except my work got changed to now in-office, and it will be a sad thing if I have to leave them in cage for 9-10 hours before I can put them in the playroom after I return, and even then they will only have 2 hours to play in the room before it gets really dark (indoor playroom is a cemented floor, glass-covered balcony converted into a playroom with heating).
I don't have to go bank in office until end of the month, so I'll have time to observe and supervise, and see how it goes, I guess, but just taking some constructive input.
Regards....and thank you in advance!