New Bird being dominated a bit by Older bird

[bwji36]

Hi all



I am after some advice please, it has been about 4 weeks now since Leo and Ollie started to share the larger cage after a brief introductory period via separate cages. To my surprise Ollie (blue and white English Budgie) was a very good flyer and had no navigation issues round the room like Leo did when he was younger, and they quickly started getting on, with Loe obviously asserting himself as the dominant bird as he is about 3 years older thang Ollie.



Things seemed to settle down after a week or so and they started preening and kissing each other, feeding together and coming out the cage to fly together. However I did see a change in Leo's behaviour, he did not touch any of his favourite toys he was normally obsessed with, and was giving Ollie 100% of his attention often getting right in Ollies face and Ollie would back off.



Leo has been very vocal but Ollie is extremely quiet, I know this is not uncommon for an English Budgie. However I started to get the impression Leo was dominating Ollie a bit, he had become very forthright when he has always been quite skittish. Putting himself first for food, flying to my hand if I have millet before Ollie, and Leo was always a bit wary of flying to the hand before Ollie came !



Sorry this is a bit long winded but wanted to give a bit of info, anyway today I had to put Leo back in his Geo for a bit as he was flying in front of Ollie and blocking him from getting to his food and I felt they both needed a bit of time out. Ollie will push Leo out of the way but I wanted to get advice in case I am handling things wrongly, having two birds with different natures is new to us and its difficult trying to interact with Ollie with Leo acting so head strong! I have now noticed Ollie is now being very vocal and trying to say a few things now he has not got Leo in with him which is good to see.

Leo not so happy !


Any advice would be greatly appreciated, picture of the boys attached.



Kind regards

Colin

[Hezz]

I’ve replied on your other thread. See below.

[Hezz]

As long as you have two of everything so that both can feed and drink at the same time if they wish, otherwise I’d leave them to get on with it. There is always a transition, settling in period where they are still both finding what works and what doesn’t. Leo being the resident bird, it is understandable that he is making his dominance known. This most likely will be temporary and they settle into life together like an old married couple. Argy-bargy is okay as long as there is no full on aggression

[bwji36]

Hi Hezz

Thank you for getting back to me on this, that has put my mind at rest a bit, hopefully thigs will settle down in due course. I have moved the food bowls apart a bit and will get some more toys so they don't get bored.

[Hezz]

I would put the seed pots as far apart as possible - opposite sides of the cage - so that both have a chance to feed and Leo isn’t just chasing the new one away and continuing to feed and hog both pots. If separated he will have to fly away from the one he is at, to interfere with the Ollie’s feeding and leaving the one pot free for Ollie to fly to and feed. I would be surprised if Leo kept this up for too long as he will be expending a lot of useless energy without getting a decent feed himself.

[bwji36]

Hi Hezz

thanks i did try that but Ollie was not feeding from the bowl, Loe is hogging both bowls as you say and is also following Ollie around and putting himself in front of him only letting him eat sometimes, after he has had the lions share.

I notice when I put the feeding bowls at either end of the cage Leo can be feeding from one and Ollie will be right by the other one but wont feed from it? Is this because Leo is intimidating him and he is to scared to eat unless Leo lets him, or is it because he just wants to eat next to Leo?

Its frustrating because Ollie is a lovely bird who I know has a lovely voice but he is being controlled by Leo to some extent at the moment, Leo is behaving very out of character at the moment and any sign of food he is straight on it, all fear of approaching the hand has gone!

The only thing that is not causing to much friction is the kebab with veg on it which they are both sharing ok.

I feel I may have let them cage share too soon and Ollie is still very young.

[Hezz]

I am more inclined towards the wait-and-see school because most often the birds sort things out for themselves and regardless of how much we may interfere, it often doesn’t make much, if any, difference. Separation often does not go down well.

Also, this might be a good time to get Ollie used to being handled by weighing him each day at the same time of day (first thing in the morning is good) just to be sure that he is getting enough to eat and is not losing weight. While you have him out of the cage could also be a good chance to give him access to his own little stash just so he does get to have at least one uninterrupted feed for the day.

[bwji36]

Hi Hezz

thanks for the advise, they have actually been better today so I think you are right and patience is they key, ill keep a close eye on them.

Any tips on getting Ollie on the hand without using millet, that just seems to make Leo compete and come to the hand fist stopping Ollie from doing so.

[Hezz]

Re the millet scenario, not really. What I’ve found to work best is to have a piece in both hands. Whoever gets to you first isn’t important, but you can then turn your body and the occupied hand away from where the other budgie is, offer the millet quite close to him so that he knows the millet is available and wait for him to hop on. Your other one, most likely Leo should still be too busy eating his own piece to twig onto what is happening. You should get a good few seconds of separate feeding before one wants what the other has got.

Alternatively, if Ollie is food-driven, you could keep Leo caged and let Ollie out and have some one-on-one training time together. This won’t work if Ollie only wants to be where Leo is. It does depend on the bird.

[bwji36]

Thanks Hezz

My wife had Leo on her hand last night and I had Ollie on mine so we will work on that for a bit, it's giving both birds attention at the same time. I think Leo is getting a little calmer as the days go on, will keep working at it

[Hezz]

Yes, and Leo is having to learn to share his hoomans, not something he has had to do previously.