what is ruby doing?

[pertiebirdie]

please forgive me if i ask many silly questions here. i am new here and i have other birds but i am new to lovies.

anyhoo: ruby's cage is right next to the cage that houses my two budgies daisy and speck. they haven't been around each other long but speck seems to have taken a liking to ruby. she is always climbing over to the side of the cage closest to ruby and talking to her and such. but some times ruby will hit her beak against the side of the cage as if this really annoys her. i don't really understand because she is always hanging out as close as she can to the other cage and sometimes she will get really excited and squeak and squack and rub her beak up and down the side of the cage there as if she wants to come out and play with the budgies.

but i have read that lovebirds can be very terratorial so i cannot decide whether ruby really likes them or is really annoyed and is just trying to stand her ground and keep her terratory clear to the other birds.

another related incident: the one time i have let her out of her cage so far she bit speck's foot through the cage for no apparent reason. it was very frightening! speck was talking to her and all excited and then all of a sudden she clamped her beak onto speck's foot! it is all very confusing.

i hope all of that makes sense. can anyone give me some insight into this behavior? does she love them or hate them?

:p

erin

[Teri]

Erin - Love birds are very agressive birds. big attitude lil package. They've been known to hurt and even kill birds larger them themselves. it's probably not a good idea to let her near the lil budgies. If you do decide to let them interact be very weary, a lovebirds beak can snap off a budgies toe easy..or worse.

[pertiebirdie]

Erin - Love birds are very agressive birds. big attitude lil package. They've been known to hurt and even kill birds larger them themselves. it's probably not a good idea to let her near the lil budgies. If you do decide to let them interact be very weary, a lovebirds beak can snap off a budgies toe easy..or worse.

thank you! i definately will NOT let them out together, though i am not sure how i would keep ruby away from their cage when i start letting her out again. i have a pretty small apartment so i would probably have to move one cage to another room entirely.

but then of course ruby is a rescued birdie who was lost for who knows how long - she loves to fly and her wings haven't been clpped in a long time (the animal shelter was going to euthanize her because they don't take in birds here and they didn't know what to do with her) and maybe if i get her wings clipped it will be easier to keep her where i want her - away from the poor little friendly budgies!

my husband suggested putting a divider between them so that they cannot see each other and maybe ruby won't feel so threatened by them or so aggitated at their presence. do you think that would help? or should i just seperate one of the cages into another room?

thanks again.

>o

[Teri]

I only have one lovie so I'm not use to having to deal with multi-bird issues. hehe I would say it would be best to interact with her outside her cage in a seperate room from the other birds that way ruby feels like she has your undivided attention and has no reason to be territorial over her cage. Lovebirds are lil divas, it's all bout them all the time. Many of the other members in this forum have multiple bird households I'm sure they can give you some better suggestions. Good luck!

[hungrycorgi]

Birds can be very deceiving when trying to decipher if they 'like' another bird or not. I compare it to when a strange dog that you dont know is wagging its' tail, it will sometimes bite, because what we consider friendly behavior has more to do with the animal being overstimulated and excited, not being friendly. My lovebird did the same thing to my parrotlet and vice versa. When one crawls on the others cage, it seems like they want to play until the other tries to bite the other birds foot! I put a stop to that! Excitement doesnt always equal friendly behavior, at least that is what I found out with my birds!

[Janie]

Erin, very good advice from Teri and Sarah. :)

[pertiebirdie]

Birds can be very deceiving when trying to decipher if they 'like' another bird or not. I compare it to when a strange dog that you dont know is wagging its' tail, it will sometimes bite, because what we consider friendly behavior has more to do with the animal being overstimulated and excited, not being friendly. My lovebird did the same thing to my parrotlet and vice versa. When one crawls on the others cage, it seems like they want to play until the other tries to bite the other birds foot! I put a stop to that! Excitement doesnt always equal friendly behavior, at least that is what I found out with my birds!


that definately makes sense. i guess the best thing to do right now then is just keep them away from each other and just see if they at least get used to each other's presence?

is it always the case that a lovebird will be aggressive with other birds? i mean can lovebirds ever have fun and enjoy being around other birds?

thanks for the input!

[Janie]

Sometimes they can and do get along with other species but it's something that should be a pleasant surprise rather than expected. My older lovie, Oliver, was caged with different species a couple of times before I adopted him and he got along fine but I think that is rare.