Housing new birds with a cockatiel

[Eric&Rebecca]

Hi everyone,

We have a five month old named Edmund, who we are waiting for his first molt before getting a companion bird to finally confirm gender. I was looking to gather advice on several things.

1.) Is it ok to keep a same sex gender cockatiel in the same cage is we introduce slowly after quarantine period?- We have a spare cage we could use for this purpose.
2.) Is there another bird we could house with the cockatiel- I've read lots of things that say only other cockatiels can be housed and not other birds, is this true?
3.) We got Edmund hand reared but worked really hard with him so he's super tame- if we get another cockatiel (also hand reared) will Edmund become untamed?

[Polarn]

You can keep several cockatiels tame as long as you spend time socializing with them, handreared or not (but that's another discussion). As for other species caged together. I wouldn't recomend putting different species in the same cage really. However given enough space I'm a strong believer they can coexist. But for a cagesize enough to cohabitat several species I'd say you might as well use the biggest room of your house, and even then it's not certain they will work together (here is one of the aspects where I think parent raised birds are preferable since they actually learn their behavior better unless the parents were handreared, but then that reduces their chances of actually raising their chicks properly. So short: I wouldn't cage different species together. But it can be done my budgie and cockatiel came here caged together hand has been for about 9-10 years before they came here. But that might just as well have ended in disaster.

[Eric&Rebecca]

You can keep several cockatiels tame as long as you spend time socializing with them, handreared or not (but that's another discussion). As for other species caged together. I wouldn't recomend putting different species in the same cage really. However given enough space I'm a strong believer they can coexist. But for a cagesize enough to cohabitat several species I'd say you might as well use the biggest room of your house, and even then it's not certain they will work together (here is one of the aspects where I think parent raised birds are preferable since they actually learn their behavior better unless the parents were handreared, but then that reduces their chances of actually raising their chicks properly. So short: I wouldn't cage different species together. But it can be done my budgie and cockatiel came here caged together hand has been for about 9-10 years before they came here. But that might just as well have ended in disaster.

Hi,

I totally understand about the spending time part, believe me we are both massive advocates of playtime, Edmund getting at least 2 hours contact playtime in the evenings plus half an hour in the mornings before I leave for work. Additionally, my partner is at home most of the day when he studies so even though Edmund's in his cage he has plenty of room to jump around and always sits close to him when he sits on the sofa. We had him from 7 weeks so he's super tame; he can whistle, mimic and speak already which is good considering he hasn't even had his first molt yet

Anyway back on topic, we have had a budgie/cockatiel combo before that worked really well (Rambo and Fingel) but I wasn't sure about other birds. Having read your concerns it's probably best to get another 'tiel once we are 100% on Edmund's gender although vet, breeder and myself think he's a boy as his behaviour is very very male! With the possibility of having a talented girl until after the first molt I wanted to start planning things now.

Thanks for your help!

[Ursibear]

2.) Is there another bird we could house with the cockatiel- I've read lots of things that say only other cockatiels can be housed and not other birds, is this true?

The place i work has a huge cage/aviary with 12 cockatiels, 15 lovebirds, 9 budgies and 2 zebra finches and they all get along well they even nap at the same branches and play with the same toys. They aren't tame though. They don't get spooked when i walk in to clean around and feed them, but they don't really ask for cuddles.

[marie83]

Housing a 'tiel with another 'tiel shouldn't be a problem if they are introduced correctly but keep the spare cage just in case.
I wouldn't house another species with the 'tiel though, whilst the 'tiels are generally placid enough not to cause a problem other species are generally not ok with the 'tiels. In an aviary situation they should be ok with species such as budgies and finches as mentioned above but I wouldn't take the risk in a cage where there is much much less space even if they do have plenty of out time.

[Eric&Rebecca]

Thanks for all your help people! We have decided on a second cockatiel once we are sure of our cockatiel's gender. We are 90% he's a boy but we need to wait for the first molt which we think is imminent as he has started getting pin feathers and his crest is starting to turn more yellow. I will keep everyone posted with news!

[liz]

Two tiels of the same gender will get along. Any two housed together will decide who is dominant. If they are both male one might not sing.

I have two pair housed together and everyone gets along. The pairs sleep together but during the day if I did not know who was who I would not be able to match mates. Both of my males sing and sometimes even together.