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Question! Budgies and Cockatiel Share a Cage?

Would you house a cockatiel with budgies in a large cage?

  • Yes, it can be done

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • No, they are not compatible

    Votes: 3 27.3%
  • It really depends

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Absolutely not

    Votes: 8 72.7%

  • Total voters
    11

MPCacatúa

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Molly Perko
Hey guys! I am on a wait list to get a cockatiel and am so excited!! I am currently the 8th person on the list (getting closer!). I have 4 budgies in a large flight cage of 31” x 20.5” x 53”. I have been researching if I could house them together and have been getting answers in both directions. In the wild they live together and from what I am reading, it can be done if monitored closely at first. So my question is, after I complete the quarantine process with my cockatiel, can they live in the same cage? Why or why not? Thank you!!
I’ve also posted a picture of the cage I have so you can see the size and they are also let out during the day.
 

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Destiny

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I would plan on housing them separately. Cages are small. Even a "big" cage is still quite small. And small spaces are a problem if you are trying to safely house parrots with different beak sizes and energy levels.

Cockatiels and budgies do live in the same habitat in the wild, but there are many important differences between the Australian Outback and your living room. For example, in the wild, if two parrots have a conflict, they can fly away. Far away. So far away that they never meet again. Or maybe they will just fly to a different tree, if it was a minor conflict. But they can fully remove themselves from the situation, when necessary. Parrots will sometimes "argue" in the wild, but those fights are rarely serious because the loser gets to leave. And many fights never happen at all because, they are not forced to remain in close proximity to another bird. They choose to land on an unoccupied branch and they choose to avoid birds that they don't know and trust. In a flock, personal space is very important. You don't let just any bird touch your feathers. You don't move right next to a bird, unless you like them or want to bite them. That is how a parrot flock co-habitates peacefully.

But in a cage, those choices are taken away from our birds. We decide how big the cage will be and how much time they will spend locked inside it with another parrot. They can't leave after a fight or if they don't feel safe, because they are trapped together.

Even if they get along most of the time and seem to enjoy each others' company, everyone has bad days. You don't always get along with your roommate. Sometimes you need to give each other space or a fight is inevitable. Birds need that, too. They get tired. They get grumpy. They get frustrated. They get stressed or hormonal ... and then they get bitey.

It only takes one serious bite to lose a parakeet. I would not risk it.
 

Ripshod

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They can never be considered safe from each other in the same room never mind the same cage. That's one of the reasons mixed species should always be monitored.
 

Shezbug

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I’d personally not do it for a few different reasons. I don’t think you should even entertain the thought tbh
 

Sodapop&Co.

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It's simply not safe unfortunately. I don't even let my budgers and tiel have out time together unless it's very closely supervised. The difference in size (and the fact that budgies never seem to realize that there's a difference in size :bored:) just makes it very unsafe, and in my experience Tiel's are usually very much birds who want their space. So it's very easy to make them mad.
 

Sparkles!

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Budgies can have a very different personality compared to Tiels. I’ve actually known more tiels to be injured from budgies than the reverse! Mainly toe and pecking injuries in situations where there are multiple budgies vs one or two tiels- budgies can be dastardly little devils when they want to be. One tiel I took in was so picked on from being in a small aviary with budgies that she was intensely scarred and almost toe less, and she was only attacked once and just for a sheer moment by the budgies. The damage was permanent and she was a handicapped tiel the rest of her life.

I think supervised playtime in your situation can be just fine, so long as the budgies don’t show aggression. But definitely no cage sharing with multiple budgies. That’s asking for a rift.

I do know a few oddball pairs where 1 budgie fell in love with 1 tiel and they’re living happily ever after... but even in those cases, I think they should each go to their own cage at night.
 
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MPCacatúa

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Molly Perko
I would plan on housing them separately. Cages are small. Even a "big" cage is still quite small. And small spaces are a problem if you are trying to safely house parrots with different beak sizes and energy levels.

Cockatiels and budgies do live in the same habitat in the wild, but there are many important differences between the Australian Outback and your living room. For example, in the wild, if two parrots have a conflict, they can fly away. Far away. So far away that they never meet again. Or maybe they will just fly to a different tree, if it was a minor conflict. But they can fully remove themselves from the situation, when necessary. Parrots will sometimes "argue" in the wild, but those fights are rarely serious because the loser gets to leave. And many fights never happen at all because, they are not forced to remain in close proximity to another bird. They choose to land on an unoccupied branch and they choose to avoid birds that they don't know and trust. In a flock, personal space is very important. You don't let just any bird touch your feathers. You don't move right next to a bird, unless you like them or want to bite them. That is how a parrot flock co-habitates peacefully.

But in a cage, those choices are taken away from our birds. We decide how big the cage will be and how much time they will spend locked inside it with another parrot. They can't leave after a fight or if they don't feel safe, because they are trapped together.

Even if they get along most of the time and seem to enjoy each others' company, everyone has bad days. You don't always get along with your roommate. Sometimes you need to give each other space or a fight is inevitable. Birds need that, too. They get tired. They get grumpy. They get frustrated. They get stressed or hormonal ... and then they get bitey.

It only takes one serious bite to lose a parakeet. I would not risk it.
Thank you for taking the time to reply and explain your reasoning. That makes total sense and was not a perspective that I had considered!
 
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