IndianRingNeck.com

A couple of months ago I purchased two male Indian ringnecks from a street vendor in LA. The first bird ( Pika ) had no tail and his wing feathers were completely hacked off..He was also underweight ..He was and still remains traumatized and terrified. I purchased a second bird (Taco )who was in much better condition and housed them together in a large cage.
But Taco picked on Pika so I seperated them..
They are now housed in their own large cages... eight feet high by 5 feet ...
Taco is very vocal but Pika rarely makes a sound. His flight feathers are grown in enough now that he can fly from one side if the cage to the other and he also has about 5 tail feathers and his weight is normal...

Their cages have several perches..ropes..logs from outside..ladders large rocks on the bottom.. toys etc.. but these are extremely abused birds that will not tame ( I can't tame them I don't have the time )so as they must live in their cages and don't get along well enough to house together.. I'm thinking of adding a female to each cage. (as a companion not to breed) good idea or not?

Each ringneck is housed alone in one of these cages:

http://www.cagesbydesign.com/product/ta ... viary.aspx

The bar spacing is half an inch ....

Terry,

I have had similar issues with an IRN and Alex who fight if left in the same cage (cage size has never helped). Its not a species issue (they should be fine) and they are male female. My problem is the serious attitude of the near-feral IRN who tries unsuccessfully to bully the very tame Alex.

It's a horrible situation, the IRN screams at the alex, lashes out and occassionally grabs a feather. Eventually (and it takes a lots to wind an Alexandrine up) the Alex pummels the IRN.

I have used separate cages and although the birds get a lot of free time, I normally try to chaperone. Eventually, after 6 months, they sleep 3 inches apart (uncaged), eat together and I almost have the confidence to cage them together.

I thought long and hard about buying a female Alex and a male IRN but decided against. Thats a HUGE number of noisy, messy birds in a house and there was no guarantee that the male/female pariing would be effective. I've had a few birds pass through bird-sitting and the IRN started old routines of bullying.

I've had a bit of advice from long time owners and the opinion was always 'give it plenty of time'. They told me I shouldn't expect results in less than 6mths and that I shouldn't consider caging them together until they follow each other in (by coaxing them with treats); I'm nearly there with this one.

WRT to your birds feathers, mine was like a rag doll when I got her, 2 moults later and she looks like a showbird, just waiting for the tail

Sorry for not directly answering your question but hope this helped,

Ian

when putting birds together I never put one into the others cage. I always take the original bird out and mess things around in that cage or swap cages totally so that one doesn't think its his/her territory.Both (even with aviary birds) get put in to a fresh clean and new looking cage. I'm not saying this will stop fighting but it does give a level playing field.