Can I keep six BABIES in one cage forever?

[lmeijer]

My two sets of lovebirds had babies, six total. O hand raised them and can part with them. Can they all live in one big cage forget? I know it's usually not a great idea but if they grow up together does that make a difference?

Next time my local mom and pop bird store will raise them since I am too much of a sucker for those baby faces :-)

[Lolle]

I had 5 babies and they would hear none of me give them each their cage.. They kept going together.. Just till they hit the teen years... now they get very upset if the wrong bird is in the wrong cage.. They might grow up together, but they will need their space..

[personatus]

As long as they have enough space, it can work yes.

[lmeijer]

I want them to have plenty of space so what size cage???

[personatus]

I would use a 1m x 1m flight cage

[lmeijer]

Thank you

[Chickobee]

Have these birds been DNA'd so you know males from females? When they reach sexual maturity you may have serious problems unless the cage is really big. With an odd number of birds there is more risk. Also, if there are more females than males there is more risk.

If you leave them together you will want to be watching very closely to make sure they aren't picking on the odd bird. I had this happen once with five babies from the same clutch in one cage (3 hens, 2 cocks). Things changed from harmony to disaster in one day. Luckily we got home from work before they had actually killed her. She was huddled into a corner by herself and had a serious injury on her neck. They had definitely been trying to kill her and possibly our arrival stopped the attack.

All of those babies were DNA'd so we separated them into three cages, putting the odd hen by herself to heal.

Leaving sibling pairs together isn't a good plan either because when they reach sexual maturity they will want to breed. They will become closely bonded and you could have problems pairing them later with unrelated birds.

Wouldn't it be nice if they are all males? Then maybe they could get along and not breed!

[lmeijer]

I will have six... I already thought of that but sex could be an issue. I am sexing this week. My luck I'll have all girls that get hormonal and grouchy :-)