upatsix.com - Your Source For Pet Bird Information

Hello!

I am new to this site and I have been reading over some post and found some useful information. I am hoping that someone may be able to help me out!

I have 4 Lovebirds! Tequila, and Shooter have been together for about 8-9 months and alway got along fine. I recently purchased 2 more, Kiwi and Corona, who were also together for about 5 months and get along fine. I am however having issues getting the 4 birds to take to each other. I realize that it won;t happen over night, but I would like to have them all together in one cage if possible, wondering if there are any tips or tricks to help them adjust better?

All 4 birds are hand tame, they all come out of the cage everyday. They seem to get along pretty good, but Shooter and Kiwi do a bit of fighting. I am pretty sure that Shooter is a male and Tequilla a female but I really have no idea of the sex of Kiwi and Corona. I am hoping to get a Blood test done to find out for sure very soon, but we only have one vet who takes birds and he has been gone all summer. Could the sex of the birds be why they are fighting?

I just found out how easy it is to mail in a blood test for birds. You just clip a toe nail a bit short (just to cut the quick) and get a few drops of blood on a card (they send you one) and mail it back in. Easy.

http://www.healthgene.com/avian/dna_sexing.asp

Another good place that I use and trust is www.avianbiotech.com. The tests for blood sexing are about $19.50 plus postage. They do a great job, quick and they can send the results by email, fax or phone before they send you the certificate.

That's cool! I'm in Canada though so I'll have to check it out to see if I can still do it that way.....

Any ideas on helping me get the 4 of them together? I put them all in the same cage and they are ok, but 2 stay on one side and 2 on the other and when I open the door they drive each other out.....

When you put them in the same cage, was it a new cage? They need to be introduced into a neutral cage so no one can claim it for their own right away. If it was a neutral cage, I wou suggest hanging large toys in the middle of the cage so there is nore of a solid divider between the two pairs. How big is the cage?

tequila wrote:That's cool! I'm in Canada though so I'll have to check it out to see if I can still do it that way.....

I am in Canada too

The cage is 30"x18"x20". They spend quite a bit of time out as well, I would say 5-6 hours a day they are out flying around, they pretty much have the run of the house. Tequila and Shooter were in the cage for about a week and a half before Kiwi and Corona came. I have a larger cage that is 30"x18"x36" which I plan on putting them in but it currently has some Zebra Finches in there. I just need to get a replacement cage for the Finches First.

They fight when they are outside the cage too though........