How do you keep multiple birds?

I had a few questions about how people keep multiple birds.

- How do you guys manage to keep multiple birds together? Whether the same species or different.
- How do you prevent them from breeding if they are the same species?
- How do you manage your time?
- How do you keep the area clean? Especially when they're all flighted.
- What do you do when they don't get along?
- Are there any tips and tricks?
- What do I need to know?
- Is there anything I should know?
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My husband and I are currently smitten with Luna. However in the future, we'd love to get more birds. This wouldn't be at least for a year or so, I want to spend more time really getting to know Luna. Plus we would need to set up an entire room for them and quarantine area.

I'm looking into creating a bird proof exclusive room. Each bird with their own cages, food bowls, play areas. I'd want to put cameras and baby monitors in the room to make sure they're okay when we're in the house but not inside the room. When we're going out for whatever reason, we'd put the birds back inside.

Posting in the cockatiel sub because I would ideally like to get more tiels someday but my husband has expressed interest in a GCC or IRN potentially.

Not difficult at all.
I had an Alex and cockatiel.
Alex moved away and now I have a jenday conure and cockatiel.

I have just shared there pic of today.
They share cage , food and our shoulders.

Just give them love. And time when u have.

Intistar, your birds are all babies. Very different from managing multiple adult birds together.


Alex HATES Legs. He HATED Fatty, hated Pistol, hated pretty much every single other bird I have ever had. Man does he HATE other small bords. I have never let him around larger birds, but it would probably be the same. That is probably because Alex was hand fed as a baby and raised to be people oriented. That said, he likes having the other birds around so he can talk to them and whistle at them and such. He just wants them to stay... over THERE. You know that tiel "youre too close, go away" squeal of displeasure? He does that combined with a loud distressed contact call for me to come save him if another bird comes within several feet of him. LOL



Fatty(rip, budgie) LOVED Pistol(lovebird, rip), and would get VERY people aggressive when the two of them were together... to keep the peace, they were only allowed to interact through cage bars.



Legs loves chasing Alex around, but I bet if he ever let her get close she would not like him. She likes the baby budgies when they are cute little snakebirds and fledgelings, but once they start to turn more into normal budgies, she shifts to strongly disliking them.



Within the budgie flock, some are friends and others dislike each other. Jinx(Leg's dad) and Boo(Leg's "uncle", not blood related though) are the BEST of friends. To the point that it saved Boo's life(probably) once. We were foolong with Boo's babies trying to take them out for play time, and Boo took off(our adult breeders are not clipped, tho the babies we do clip for now for safety). All of the windows and doors were wide open(lesson LEARNED. All windows and doors get shut up now when we so much as feed and water the cages with unclipped birds). But he kept coming back. Not to go to his babies, but to go hang out on the outside of Jinx's cage. Eventually we were able to safely get him back in his cage.



I really could go on, but in short: it is a grab bag. They all have their own personalities, and some birds rub some other birds the wrong way. Or they could be the BEST of friends to the point of attacking YOU. Or they could be friends and still be bonded to you.


For clean up, they will find their favorite places to hang out, and you just spot clean those as needed. If you have tile floor in the bird room, a once a week mop job is a good idea too.



Preventing breeding: don't give them a nest box or site to lay. If they lay anyway, adjust light and swap the eggs for dummy eggs and remove after the hen looses interest. Tiels I have heard are little egg laying machines, but Alex is a little rooster so I don't have direct experience with that, sorry. I have heard good things about weak raspberry leaf tea for hens to prevent egg binding, but have not tried it yet. Healthy well excersized hens with plenty of calcium and humidity tend to bind less.



I split my parrot time between Freedom and the little guys, but eventually once quarantine is up I will be able to have them in the same room(tho out of cage time will be separate for the littlies and Freedom). I keep Legs distracted when she wants to pester Alex, and can usually have them out together, tho they also get one on one time.



Having 2 birds depends on the birds. But it can be like having 2 single birds, or it can be like having 1 pair, or it can be like having 2 birds, if that makes sense. But I think ultimately, if you are up for the challenge regardless of how it turns out, and if you guys really want another bird: go for it. Life in a multi home is different than in a single home, but it is no less enjoyable.

All depends on compatibility and how much room you can dedicate, either with large cages or bird-proofed room.

I have a family of five goffins, sadly they cannot be together. Two are wild-caught parents, separated years ago because of aggression. Two of the three offspring are fine together, so they are paired with the female mother in a bird-proofed room with a timneh grey. They have cages but are never locked, all four get along very well. The oldest offspring is extremely bonded to me, thus jealousy from the others. He has his own cage in the family room. The wild caught male is housed in large flight cage with a citron. She is a bit larger and he is not aggressive with her, nor is there a nest box. My first bird, a bfa is aggressive to all living beings, so he has his own cage. He spends plenty of time on a playpen watching all movement in the house.

Cleanliness: The flight cages have a layer of very thin painter's plastic below to catch waste and food. Swept daily, changed every few days. The bird-room is more complex as it has tile floors. I cover completely with a thicker type of painter's plastic (available in a roll) and have a secondary layer where they usually play/sleep/stand. That is swept daily, changed every few days. The primary layer is changed every month. Note: Painter's plastic has a scent, so to allow out-gassing I hang the sections vertically from an upper floor deck. Once brought inside, no odors. The birds do not ever pick at the plastic on the floor.

Bottom line, it is possible given enough room, cages, and your personal time.

Thank you so much for the advice guys! So generally:


I don't feel comfortable having them share cages or food. I feel like if they don't each have their own space, it could potentially cause major problems down the line. Especially during breeding season...oof;;

And don't forget quarantine for safety! At least 30 days is the typical advice, and try to get the new one seen by a cav before the qt period is up. have fun!

I agree with everything above and your summary! I have 5 (4 conures and 1 cockatiel) in my flock. In my house - Baby and Tango love each other and share everything including a cage (their choice) but I have the ability to separate them if it every becomes an issue. Bindi, Stanley, and Screamer all have their own cages and spaces. Baby and Tango are the only two who get along - so our out-of-cage hours are planned to fit that - you develop a routine and it works fine. Cleaning is like you say - adding cages and space doesn’t really increase the work dramatically...you are already cleaning, it’s not a big deal. I love them all as individuals...and like with family group, you just adjust to suit what is needed

My Cockatiels are broken up into 2 cages of 2 male birds each and 1 cage with 4 female cockatiels.

The female's get along with almost no fighting just occasional disagreements. There is a food dish for each bird in the cage so if one bird is forced to move it can eat from another location.

1 of the male cages, the one that houses Cheeky (father) and Popeye (Son) do fight/squabble now and then. If they don't stop after being warned I separate one to a separate cage and let them cool off for a while.

I have 2 relatively new amazon parrots (Luna and Merlin) and I am still trying to get them to the point they can share a cage. They do like each other and they groom each other when out of there respective cage's but they lung at each other some of the time.
I think Merlin is just too young to be interested in a relationship. He is very playful and less than a year old. Once he matures I think things will work out but there is no guarantee.

My Son Helps me with feeding and cleaning. My wife helps with making birdy bread.

@bug:
Yes of course! I always bring my pets to the vet right away as well. Beside that, I would want some time to bond with a new bird too.

@Jen5200:
Exactly! I clean the whole room regardless of whether there's another bird there so I imagine it'd only take me another 10 minutes if I did add another. Rather than that, I worry about one or one and training time.

Also since texsize did mention it, is there are preferred ratio of genders? Would it be best to get all females?

I did want to at least get one male. I really enjoy the whistling, singing, and dancing of tiels.
Of course I have to mention, even if he never made a peep in his life, I'd still love him regardless as I love Luna. She's an angel and she's so quiet even when she wants something.

Thank you all for your responses! It's helping me consider things I did not necessarily think of at first!

The downside of the female birds is the potential for egg bind.
One of my girls um... self stimulates by sitting underneath a toy and having it rub on her back. This has not caused any egg laying yet and she has been doing this for months now. If it becomes a problem I will of course remove or relocate the toy.

Male Cockatiels are more vocal that the females and the male birds do the "heart wing" display that is so cute. And of course egg bind is not a problem.
My best guess is that if there is no female birds around 2 male birds will get along better than if there is a female that will lead them to compete with each other.

@texsize:

I wouldn't mind the noise with multiple males but I already have Luna who is a DNA'd female. I've heard two males will fight over a female when they reach sexual maturity and I don't want to cause any bloodshed.

I do worry about egg binding but the most I can do is eliminate hormonal triggers and provide ample calcium.
I have seen a recommendation of always making sure the ratio of females is higher than males.


Thanks again!

Yep I have to agree quite vehemently with it being pot luck as to whether the birds will get along or not.

My IRN Lumen is the Supreme ruler of the Universe and everything living in my house must obey her or suffer the consequences.

My Pineapple GCC Ari is as sweet and as loving as you could want unless you are another bird.

My GCC Echo can't stand Ari or Lumen but has no interest in Ghost or any of the budgies.

Ghost is only concerned with my son.

The budgies are like a bunch of teenage girls(Well what they were like before mobile phones anyway). All sweetness and light gossiping to each other that turns into a total catfight in an instant and then almost as quickly back to sweetness and light.

All of the birds bar the budgies are housed separately and given time out with one of us or on the play gym depending on how social they feel. I have plenty of free time as I don't work so for me its a rotation of about 1hr blocks per bird as none of them really get along. Budgies are new (less than 48hrs) so they need to settle in and get used to being handled. So far it's working out pretty well.

The mess can be daunting but once you have a routine in place it's not really an issue. Cordless lightweight vacuums are an absolute godsend. I can zip about and clean up when and where needed.

Given my situation I have to have my birds clipped so the problem of poop ending up everywhere is not an issue. In saying that I find a packet of baby wipes to be great to have on hand for quick clean ups.

When I first started keeping birds I started with cockatiels. I had a smallish flock of about 10 birds. I was pretty ignorant back then and made plenty of mistakes. I had all of the birds together in a decent sized aviary indoors. They were allowed to do what they wanted during the day. Mixed genders kept together. If they didn't get along they just avoided each other. I DO NOT recommend anyone do that but I have found that it is more likely for both budgies and cockatiels to get along with birds of the same species. Not that it is a guarantee of course.

Anyway enough waffling on. Hopefully you gain something from that mess of text.

Based on advice from my local experts I made the conscious decision to keep my birds all the same sex and all the same beak strength.

Give them as much room as possible. Crowding can cause conflict.

I let them decide when they were ready to play together, house together during the day, and sleep together at night. Respectfully, after quarantine they took about 2 weeks, 1 month, 1.5 months, and I watched them like a hawk in person and on camera. I will say the resident bird was the most docile of the three so I don't know what effect that had on the timeline. They are all flighted. That did slow down the taming of the two newcomers.

Keeping the house clean has been a challenge. Bird 1 is potty trained, but 2&3 have no concept since they were allowed to go everywhere in their first home.

I do still keep separate cages available to them. Bird 1 still needs a break now and then from Birds 2&3. I just lock bird 1 in the cage. She likes it in there. She plays and is happy to be by herself.