FINCHforum

Hi everyone and Happy New Year!
We've been offered a budgie but we already have a pair of finches who are quite old (almost 9). They have a very safe and quiet environment and seem very contented- would the budgie stress them out or would they enjoy the extra stimulation? We plan to keep the new bird in a completely separate room for the first couple of months but it would be lovely to put the 2 cages next to each other eventually, once the quarantine period is over.
It would be great to hear your thoughts as we love the finches- we'd hate to ruin their retirement!!!
Thanks very much!

As long as they don't share the same cage I see no harm in that:)

If not housed with the finches it sohould not be an issue...I would not put it's cage next to them seeing how they are older and keet being bigger might stress them being real close. Most likey the finches will just go about their business as usual.

Mine usually clambers all along my finches' cage while they look on quite indifferent.

I would supervise a hookbill on a finch cage, one bite on a finch that lands on the side within reach the keet can result in a missing toe or an injury.

I find that as a rule of thumb, healthy birds generally don't require (or even enjoy) total peace and quiet during daylight hours. The jungle quiets down in the presence of a serious predator. A quiet jungle is an "unsafe" jungle. When I used to have a house full of canaries, they would all come to life in song when my kids (or yours truly) would blast music, we had parties or would run the vacuum cleaner. As long as they aren't close enough for the budgie to bite them, I don't think they'll mind the extra stimulation. JMO Bob

I have three birds - two star finches, and a canary. They are all in separate cages, and talk and babble away to eachother quite contentedly. I have looked after relatives budgies, and they are fascinated with the finches and chat away! I would be careful with letting them out separately, but just cover up the budgie's cages with a cloth to make sure they can't bite their feet.

I have 12 finches and 15 budgies. The budgies are all in one giant flight cage, the finches in two different large cages. Neither group seems interested in the others. Could be because the budgies have enough other budgies to keep them happy, they don't seem to care about their smaller cousins, and the same for the finches. Budgies in general will be very interested in whatever's going on nearby, whether it's outside their cage or neighbors inside. You might consider getting a second budgie to house with the first one. In the wild, they live in giant flocks, and are very social birds. So, either you need to be its "flock", or a companion is a very good idea.

As the others have said, be very careful about letting the budgie get a hold of finches or even finch feet that might land on it's cage during free-flight. Budgie beaks are strong enough to cut into wood, mineral blocks, plastic, they are very strong, and very destructive, which along with their intense curiosity, would spell disaster for the poor little finch very quickly.

cindy wrote: I would supervise a hookbill on a finch cage, one bite on a finch that lands on the side within reach the keet can result in a missing toe or an injury.

I totally agree with Cindy and Nerien. I had my Java sparrow (also a bigger bird and with very strong beak) bite my zebra's toe as she was hopping on his cage and that resulted in a twisted nail after an infection that took a week to clear resulting in a swollen toe. Now I cover the top of the Java sparrow cage with a transparent plastic when the zebras are out and likely to land on it. He still tries to peck at tiny feet but cannot reach them through the plastic. Now I never let both species to fly out together unless they are supervised.

Thank you so much for all this excellent advice- I really appreciate it! I'm so pleased we can bring him home as I think the finches will love having another bird to chat to- I just wanted to check it wouldn't upset them. Will be careful about letting him get too close- thanks for the warning. Off to find a lovely cage now....