1 or 2 cages for new caiques?

[Mikecup]

My first post here, hopefully many more.
I am getting 2 white bellied caiques from a breeder here in Ohio, they should be ready in a few months. I bought a cage its interior size is 32x23x44 dome top 3/4 bar spacing.. Now is this cage ok for both of the birds, I have been debating about buying another cage, one for each bird. Or I was thinking maybe I could remove the feed doors and hook the cages together, they would have the feed door openings to go from cage to cage. Just looking for some thoughts.

[Wolf]

The size of cage that you have given would meet the minimum size requirements for two birds of this size provided that they are a mated pair. If they are not mated pairs then you always need separate cages for them.

[liz]

I thought one would be enough if they came from the same clutch. Is there a problem with 2 males or 2 females when they mature?

[Wolf]

With the exception of cockatiels and budgies most of the other parrots would not allow another parrot in their cage as they view it as their nesting area. So yes their would be a problem from the time they reached puberty and onwards.

[Mikecup]

Yes they are from the same clutch, 2 boys. Ok sounds good one cage for both.
Now comes the fun of buying toys and perches, I saw this great looking Java tree on Amazon its $399 but would be a great play area for the birds. May see if my local bird store has it first.
Thanks for the help.

[Wolf]

Just don't forget to get a second cage before these birds enter puberty or you may ne setting the stage for either or both of them to get seriously injured. Most parrots will not accept anthing other than their mates in their cage once they reach puberty and become adults. Even then their can be problems.

As an example to this, I have two little parrotlets. One of them is an 11 year old female and the other is a 5 year old male. The male is a retired breeder bird. I introduced them and they got along great and all was well or so I thought. Because of space limitations I had a pair of budgies in a cage next to theirs. A couple of weeks back the male suddenly turned on my female and very quickly plucked her head nearly bald. Even though I was in the same room and less than 10 feet away from them when this happened I did not hear a thing. I very quickly put the female on my shoulder while I moved the budgies and set up another cage and placed the male in it and put it where the budgies had been next to the females cage. I did some research and learned that with parrotlets that the male will turn on its female mate if they can see another bird next to them and that the male has been known to kill the female in these cases. So I have built a nest box for them and have made a wooden blind for the parrotlets cage so that they will not be able to see the budgies in their cage.

I am sharing this with you because I would hate for anything to happen to either or both of your birds due to my not presenting you with adequate information and they fight because of being together when they should not be. Please understand that with parrots that the mate bond is stronger than the bond between siblings and if things are not done right that even with mated birds that severe injury or death is likely when birds are caged together. Yours may be fine together for a while but not after puberty. After puberty keeping them together is asking for trouble.

[liz]

Two Cockatiels who had been together for years came to me from the same human. They were a mated pair but the male had been abusing his mate to the point that she had spars feathers all over her body. I don't know how it started but it was definitely spousal abuse. That was Curly and Sunny. Sunny even had an abused woman's reaction as if she thought that was the way life was and that she loved him and he "didn't mean it".
I separated them but she called to him all the time. It was pitiful. I had to give her to a woman who had two bonded males. One of her males called her when she first got in the house and claimed her as fast as he could. The other one did not seem to mind a female in the house and they did fine.
To keep Curly from getting into trouble with the other males I got him another female, Rosie the Pit Bull. He accepted her like a trophy wife. I don't know what happened to make Curley abuse Sunny but I have encountered many strange things with my Cockatiels.
Keep another cage ready for if you have to separate them. Let them choose if the want to go back to the same cage after "out" time.