Conure and Ringneck are BFF'S

So today I have a really funny story. :09:

Yesterday I purchased a beautiful pineapple conure, and we named him Papaya, (pie pie for short) and I was concerned with putting him in the same cage as my current baby ringneck (he is 3 months old) he is very quiet, shy but he is slowly getting more tame and cuddly.

I knew that you shouldn't put conures and ringnecks together, but I just had that feeling that maybe my ringneck and he could get along. I was very wrong... but right?

Anyways, I slowly put the new conure into our ringnecks cage. BAM, bad idea. for the first time, I saw the ringneck's eyes dilate, and he was very curious and angry. He walked straight over to him and was attacking him, but the conure fought back. They would do this over and over, chasing each other around the cage. I was of course there, making sure no harm would happen and keeping a good eye on them.

Even though they were not happy together, I left them for a little bit so they get to know each other. Still the same thing happened. Papaya would try to eat but couldn't because he was getting chased around and nipped at. The chaos wouldn't stop, from here I was surely convinced that these two were never to be.

But then it happened, I sat and watched for another 10 minutes and Papaya was eating his food and the ringneck was pretty close to him, he wasn't intrigued or angry. It looked like he might have settled down and could accept the conure. This gave me hope, I watch them for some more and it seemed the two were starting to get used to each other. I was really happy, but then everything crashed down and all my hope is gone. They had started fighting again.

I said to them "now that's enough, be friendly and nice to each other!"

It was crazy! they immediately stopped and were calm again. I thought they might have understood me! hahaha.

I continued to watch them and see their behaviour towards one another, and it was like they started fresh! They were for once tolerating each other, by now I thought I might leave them alone, they seemed fine and very happy. I walked passed every minute to see if they were okay. And they were! it was a miracle.

I finally left them alone and by this time it was 8:00pm.

You won't believe what I saw... Here they are snuggled up to each other fast asleep, its was so cute! They now love to play with the same toys, eat from the same treat stick and love to just sit next to each other all day. They are the funniest birds and I love them so much! It's been over a month now and they are still the best of friends, nothing had happened since

I took a photo, but it woke them up

Very nice! But you really want them in seperate cages! Sorry, no time to elaborate, I am sure others will chime in!

Yeah birds shouldn't be housed in the same cage unless they are a breeding pair, regardless of how well they get along. In fact, housing them in the same cage can make them become less tame, and eventually begin to avoid human contact.

That's besides the issue of the quarantine period.

Very cute! My IRN and conure are best friends, too, but it took about 6 months of slow introduction. I'm a bit of a worry wart and IRN beaks are so large in comparison to conures when they both hit maturity, and I've heard horror stories of IRN's killing their own species when put into the same cage. So I'd definitely be careful. Both Shiko and Avery will get along well until they don't - and when they don't it's not pretty. They'll definitely fight each other. It doesn't escalate because they can fly away, but if they couldn't it could be very bad [emoji33]

Also, make sure you are dedicating a LOT of time into each of the birds 1-on-1 if you'd like to maintain a relationship. I've found IRN's are quick to pick feathered friends over human friends, and if you don't create a good bond in the beginning then they won't have any need to seek you out. Plus it's nice having two feathered fids who love to love on you [emoji4]

Just a word of advice though (especially for any new readers), slow introductions are always best! We may think we can intervene in time, but all it takes is one angry beak to attack a toe in a split second and that toe is gone forever. It's happened many, many times to many people, and I'm sure it will continue to happen. Neutral areas like new play stands, orbitals, or on the back of chairs in a different room that are away from the cage are great places to start.

Although I'm glad that it appears as if the two birds are getting along, I don't think there's anything good I can say about this post....


Two birds who were not raised together should never be forced to live in the same cage immediately.

Both could potentially do damage to the other bird, enough to cause injury, if not worse.

The green cheek should have had her own cage and gone through quarantine, or at least kept separate to ensure that both birds are healthy. Sticking two strange birds together is a potential recipe for disaster.

If you wanted two tame birds, then the recommended advice is to tame the birds separately before introducing them together.


You say you've had many other birds before. What happened to them?

Others have said more than I probably would have had the guts to say! I hope you will take their advice to heart as they know birds. You are tempting fate every day these two are together, you have already seen them fight and you say you are aware of what these birds can do to each other.

I have had an animal tragedy in my life. I watched my dog rip my cat apart while I tried fruitlessly to separate the two. I was the one who carried my cat out to the car while he was gasping for breath with a ruptured diaphragm. I was the one who had to hold my cat while he was put to sleep, and I was the one who had to clean up the blood. Maybe that's graphic, but it's no more graphic than what you could come home to and you should know it. I have seen an African Grey take off a Goffin's Cockatoo's toenail and there was blood everywhere - the birds were in separate cages with a 2" gap between and so much more would have been done if they shared a cage. It's fun to have two birds that get along and can share toys, play stands and owners peacefully but when you cannot be there to supervise, your birds should never have access to each other. This is seriously a tragedy waiting to happen and makes me feel very scared for your birds.

Sun conure and baby ringneck together?

Hello,
I have a 3 year old sun conure- name MANGO (hand feed by me)
And I just got a baby indian ringneck- name BLUE (about 4 weeks)

First few days Blue was very scared and was crying a LOT every time we approached him. Even when i was feeding him was crying and not opening his mouth. I though that if i slowly introduced Blue to Mango things would get better... The first meeting little blue tried to 'attack' mango (as he did with the rest of us)

As the days gone by (about a week later) the baby ringneck got used to us.. Now i m not force feeding him and his appetite opened up. Since he got used of human hands I started holding him in front of mango's cage few minutes every time.. They touched eachothers peaks few times.. Sometimes the little one got defensive and mango seemed curious of the new member.

Yesterday i took mango out of the cage while i was holding blue.. They didn't bother each other.. Today i took a step further and i let baby blue into mango's cage.. (supervising the whole time)

The ringneck slowly climbed to mango's perch and sat there. Mango was avoiding him and retreat from his spot. By the afternoon i decided to buy a new perch for blue so that mango won't feel left out.
And i did. They seem to be curious of each other and seem to get along..

I left them together for many hours..
By the evening it was time to handfeed blue again. Mango got out of tha cage too and its like he got jelus of the hand feed and he came to eat from the syringe too. I gave him few drops just so that not to be jelus. It was bit weird.. Mango is 3 years old and reminded me the time that needed to be hand feed.. He even do the up and down head movement when i gave him a little bit of the formula. Is that ok? I know it's not normal.. But did i choose wrong?

Anws, i put them back to the cage together.. They sat next to each other and mango slowly started to nipping blue.. I was watching them the whole time because i was afraid if one of them would bite the other. Especially when mango started nipping the blue's eye.. At that point i couldn't handle the stress and took blue back to the temporary box.

Do you guys think they get along? Was mango taking care of blue or secretly trying to find a chance to bite him? Should i keep placing them together?

To me they seem to get along but all tje Internet reading got me scared of the 2 species left together.. I was hopping to maybe later keep them in the same cage... Is that truly impossible?? Please help me.. I want them to have eachothers company but i don't want to make any mistakes..(p.s. Now blue stopped crying and when he's next to mango started making his own chirp sounds) i think that's a good sign.. No?

Hi, did you read all the replies in this thread? Nothing has changed! FYI, that cage is a bit smallish for your Sun alone! For two to stay in there, one will be severely hurt, or worse!

Mallory said:

Others have said more than I probably would have had the guts to say! I hope you will take their advice to heart as they know birds. You are tempting fate every day these two are together, you have already seen them fight and you say you are aware of what these birds can do to each other.

I have had an animal tragedy in my life. I watched my dog rip my cat apart while I tried fruitlessly to separate the two. I was the one who carried my cat out to the car while he was gasping for breath with a ruptured diaphragm. I was the one who had to hold my cat while he was put to sleep, and I was the one who had to clean up the blood. Maybe that's graphic, but it's no more graphic than what you could come home to and you should know it. I have seen an African Grey take off a Goffin's Cockatoo's toenail and there was blood everywhere - the birds were in separate cages with a 2" gap between and so much more would have been done if they shared a cage. It's fun to have two birds that get along and can share toys, play stands and owners peacefully but when you cannot be there to supervise, your birds should never have access to each other. This is seriously a tragedy waiting to happen and makes me feel very scared for your birds.

Click to expand...

Your post reminded me of painful episode when I had to take a fledging cockatiel out of my aviary temporarily. I had an African Grey loose in the house downstairs which would go into attack mode any time it saw a cockatiel, so I put the young cocka into a cage for its own protection. It was just gonna be for a few days. But one day I came back home and there were drops of blood under the cage. The Grey had bitten the cocka's beak through the bars in the cage. A couple of days later most of the beak fell of and, well I don't need to say more on this, it was really horrible.


I guess the moral here is - even when you think you've done enough to secure your birds' safety, think again.