Expert: Marie Charon - 11/6/2009

Question
Hi, I've had a male lovebird for about a year now (he's just over a year old).  We got him a friend to keep him company (another male, 3mnth old) At first the older male was bullying the little guy, but now the little guy's started defending himself and the older one runs from him. When they get close they fight.  We've had to keep them in separate cages, as the older bird would become really upset when the little guy was in his cage.  It has now been 2 months.  They still don't get along.  I was wondering when of if ever they will become friends.  Should we buy a brand new bigger cage and try to put them in it at the same time? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you
Bruce

Answer
Lovebirds can be tricky at sharing cages with the same sex; you may never be able to put them together, but usually this is not the case.  So even though it is likely that they will eventually work it out, the time frame for that depends on the temperaments of the birds, and all of them are different.

With that said, they are flock birds and when everybody learns their place (dominant/submissive, etc) then the fighting ceases, in the wild this is how it works, but it can end up with birds being hurt. We protect them from each other in captivity, so the process takes longer.

But you can try letting them socialize in two cages next to eachother (as you are doing) and then try seeing how they socialize together outside of their cage. Birds tend to be much more territorial of their cages than anything else.

If they start to get along well outside the cage then I would consider getting a bigger cage at that point!

Blessings,
-m