Inter Cage Distance

[Michael]

As I'm making further preparations to accept my Cape Baby, I'm wondering how far apart the cages should be kept apart (after quarantine and once put in same area).

In the meantime, I'm keeping Kili's cage in the middle of my apartment full time. I finally bought one of those chinese screens (like the ones that zig zag and people get changed behind in movies) and use it as a divider between her side and mine so that she doesn't see me during the times she is supposed to be in her area in the cage or when sleeping. This way the best cage area is vacant for the Cape Baby and Kili is getting used to not flying back there looking for her cage. I've been moving the new Cape cage further and further into Kili's previous area and it is practically in her old spot now but she isn't landing on it which is good. Same goes for the new tree. In fact I've been doing a little training to enforce this. I put the new Cape Tree right next to Kili's tree and sending her to her tree in training and only rewarding when she lands on hers but shouting "off" if she lands on the Cape tree which scares her off. By day 2 she doesn't land on Cape tree at all.

So you know how huge the new cage is. It used to be just Kili's 18x18 cage in that area but now it is to be shared between hers and the 33x25 cage as well. The rug there - basically the size of the area without having to rearrange things - is 5 x 7 ft. I'm curious if I will eventually be able to keep both cages in that space and leave enough around their perimeter that anything falling out still makes it onto the rug. If I have to I can probably expand that area till about 7 x 12 but I'd prefer to leave it the old way if possible. In the worst case scenario, I will still have the divider I bought and can stand that between the cages so that they do not see each other.

Of course I know that everything depends on personal situation, bird temperaments, etc. But realistically, what's a reasonable ballpark distance I should expect to keep between the two cages? For folks with multiple parrots, what kind of spacing do you maintain between their cages? How much does each parrot's personality affect the spacing?

[pchela]

My three cages are directly next to each other. There is probably 6 inches of space between each one. I've never had any problems. The birds can't reach each other and I let them all roam on each others cages when they are out. In some cases, if the birds hate each other, you have to give them separate out of cage time but of all of the birds I've had, I've never had to keep their cages far apart. I actually like that they can see each other and chatter to each other when they are in their cages. It also keeps the mess mainly in one area of the apartment which is nice.

[lzver]

Lucy and Jessie's cages are probably about 4 ft apart in the same room. They do not get time out at the same time. If Lucy is being rambunctious, she'll fly over to Jessie's cage, but that doesn't happen very often. Although tonight and today, their smaller trailer cages are side by side on a table and that doesn't seem to change anything. I think once they are used to each other's presence, it doesn't really matter how close their cages are.

[Natacha]

My cages are very close together, for the most part distance between cages is just enough to allow me to open the doors leading to the food/water bowls, which is enough to not have any physical interaction while they are in their cages.