Introducing my a baby to two adult females

[armageddon1024]

I have two adult female lutinos, and they've been living with each other for about a year now. Today I bought a baby peached faced lovebird and I put him in the cage, until....chaos! The more-aggressive female started attacking my poor baby, and after a while I decided to separate him from the two.

Is this the best decision? Or do the three need more time to get acquainted with each other?

[Elle]

Hi,

You absolutely did the right thing by removing the baby from the cage. Once quarantine is over, it takes time to introduce a new bird to antoher or a flock. I don't know if your two females are tamed but if they are allowed to spend time out of the cage, you want to introduce them slowly to each other in a neutral environment.
It takes many sessions to ensure that they will get along. You can place the baby's cage close to your two females cage ( but not too close so they can reach between the bar and nip at each other's toes) nd let them socialise like that.
It is never garanteed that a new bird will be accepted by the old ones. They may never share the same cage. Personally, I would not keep an odd number of birds in one cage.

Hope this helps a little, and I am sure other will be able to offer great tips .

Best regards,

[Janie]

It is great that your two hens get along well but I don't think you can expect a third wheel to be accepted by them.....probably ever. I've read here that three is "usually" not a good number. I do happen to have three and it has worked out very well but they are all three males and it was months before I allowed the younger two (clutch mates) to be with my older bird. I never expected that they would get along and the reason I got two more instead of just one was so that they would have each other since Oliver already considered me as his mate and I didn't think he'd accept another bird as his buddy. Turns out that he likes both of them and they like him. I do NOT cage them together at night. Oliver has his own cage and Big Boi and Shy share a cage. I don't think that three in the same cage would ever be a good idea. Maybe they will eventually play together outside of the cage but not in a small space. Honestly, you are lucky that the new bird wasn't killed or seriously injured by one of the other two.

Please do quarantine your new bird for 30 days minimum. The cage should be in a different room. I would also recommend a vet check for the new bird.

[linda040899]

It's a rare adult hen that will accept a baby in her cage. Most will not and if not removed, you could easily find the baby dead on the bottom of the cage, back of its head split open. Hens don't mess around so I would not count on having a loving trio. If the baby happens to be a male (please DNA sex to determine gender), you may be able to split the hens and get the remaining hen a new mate.