Parrot co-habitation behaviour - help with analyzing!

[cml]

I have in the past been trying to describe our fellas behaviour towards each other, and their interaction. This thread is an attempt to summarize everything, and hopefully get some helpful insights and pointers from you all =)!

Bare with me, it is quite a long post, but I want to be thorough !

To do so I will try and cathegorize their different behaviour, as well as supplement with a short videoclip. All clips are about a 1 min each, as to prevent them from being tedious to watch ^^. Just bare in mind that they represent a certain behaviour, and not that this is what is being exhibited at all times.

Chilling:
This is what they love to do the most, especially if we arent in the room. Often they sit on the same perch, very close to each other, or go about their own business playing with the various toys in the cage. This is by far the greatest cathegory, which I would estimate to be around 75% of their day.

Short clip, where they just sit close to each other (this time on different perches).

Eating:
This is most often done in peace, although it CAN be a trigger for a short fight. Usually they tend to eat in their respective bowl, not arguing about the same bowl, but it does happen.
Right now they are eating from separate bowls behind me in complete silence (save for all the cracking from the pellets being chewed up ^^)

Eating, different bowls

Eating/drinking same place - with stitch telling Leroy to move away, without any fighting.

Playing:
This is also done mostly in peace, they prefer different toys and dont fight over them, with a few exceptions (but I think this is rather about WHERE the toys are). I dont have a video of this, but Stitch is generally more of a forager, and Leroy more of a chewer!

Fighting:
This is the bad part, even if its only a very small part of the day. It happens maybe 2-5 times a day, sometimes more, sometimes less. It looks a bit violent, as in the video below, but usually it ends very quickly.

My observation is that it happens most often when we are in the room, I can never hear any fighting when I am moving around the house.
A conclusion to that is that its either jealousy or attention craving. I ignore them completely when they fight, either by just sitting at my computer not even looking their way, or I leave the room.
Another trigger seems to be bedtime, or about half an hour before bedtime (just like kids not wanting to go to bed).

Leroy has lost a couple of feathers on his head, is this something to be concerned about? There is something wierd here you see, sometimes Stitch preens Leroy, and both of them are happy, but them something happens - maybe Stitch pulls a little hard or something, and Leroy reacts by trying to move away.
The response from Stitch is to pull harder, and Leroy has lost a couple of feathers on the head in this way (you know the really small ones right on top of the head). It doest show, more than afterwards when you can see the down as his feathers are a little disheveled. I would like advice here!

A (violent) fight, this is in the new cage and was clearly over who gets the spiral.

We would love any advice or insight you can offer us =)!

[liz]

Looks normal to me. Stitch is just trying to remind Leroy that he was with you first.

Rambo is like a 6 year old boy and Myrtle like his little sister of 2 years. When they are alone they eat together and play near each other. When we are in the room Myrtle gets brave. Like a bratty little sister she torments him to the point that I make her fly away from him.

Rambo's lack of flight give him a disadvantage. He is older, smarter and out weighs her but she flies when he retaliates.

I guess if they were caged they would be just like yours.

[pennyandrocky]

i like the cage but didn't it come with a divider?i couldn't take the chance of keeping 2 in the same cage even if there wasn't a large size difference.my birds are only caged while sleeping anyway so they can get away from eachother.mya did pull out penny's head feathers once but since she gained flight she's more tolerant.mostly it seems they get along well but it could go bad i've heard about birds who loved eachother one day then the next one ends up seriously injured or dead.

[cml]

Liz and Penny, thank you for your comments.

I do believe that the enrichment they get from living together is great, which is why we have them housed together, and why I first build a huge cage, and then later bought this one. We have gone through separate cages, and waited with introducing them in the same cage until parallell behaviour was present. They have also lived in the same cage close to a month, with better manners as time progressed.

Perhaps it can be related to working out zones, places and boundries in the new shared living space, as Ive speculated previously?

Of course we worry when they fight, but the ideal solution would be to work that out, rather than putting up the divider (which I could do, after a small modification as to avoid toe biting). But to me, that is not working to solve something, but rather taking an easy way out.

I think you might be spot on Liz, seeing that the fights are almost always when we are present, I dont think it has to do with them disliking each other (I know they dont) but rather to prove themselvs. In the video above, it was an example of: "Hey thats my toy, I want it (even if Stitch wasnt playing with it)". With a big cage, its possible to move away, if not as easy as when not caged, still quite easy. The footprint of the cage is approx. W5.5ft x H6ft x D3ft.

Keep the comments coming, its valuable insight and experience =)!

[liz]

You have two little boys. One is a little older than the other. They are buddies but even they get into it sometimes. I remember a few slap fights with my best friend when I was little.

The way I feel about mine is that they will never actually hurt one another. I have seen them play tug of war holding onto each others beaks. I have seen foot fights and kicking. They know they need each other.

Myrtle loved Rambo from day one as soon as she realized he would not attack her. She even gets on the floor and follows him through the house just like a pesty little sister. Rambo only gets respect when we are not with them.

When I get up in the morning before they know that I am up, I can hear their "da da" communication. They are together either eating or destroying something, but they are working together at it.

[Cage Cleaner]

Gl

[cml]

Thanks for your help and support everyone, its great to be able to discuss things with you all!

Liz, I think you may be right, boys will be boys eh?

Cage cleaner, thank you for relating to your own parrots! I dont have any references so its been hard to tell how "bad" the fights are.

What do you guys think of the head feathers? He's lost a few now, it still doesnt show more than that he looks a little disheveled but I dont want that to keep going either!
Its not something that happens often, most of the time they are just getting along great, but I think it may be that Stitch doesnt know how to preen another bird properly. My thinking is that they will work this out soon by themselvs, if Leroy doesnt want to be preened, he will say no. I still worry though, as always when it comes to my parrots, I really want the best for them =)!

What are you thoughts?

[Cage Cleaner]

Ok

[cml]

I would say that you seem to be worrying too much in general. Just let loose and let things flow.

My wife thinks the same.

[cml]

Everything is fine now, just wanted to let you know . They are back to being best buddies.

It probably was the new cage environment that started their bad streak of behaviour. Now that they have settled in their new home its all great again!

I overreacted, because I was worried they would keep at it. The last couple of days they have been preening each other, beak to beak-kissed a little and do pretty much everything together! It has been wonderful to see =)!

Cheers.