Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Can budgies and canaries live together?


As a general rule, it can be quite risky to house two kinds of birds together in one cage. In this case, however, the budgie doesn't play the weak part. More likely the canary will be in danger. Budgies can be quite pushy to other birds, they are even bold enough to attack a cockatiel (even though the cockatiel is more likely to win from the budgie). Don't confuse cockatiels with lovebirds though, because lovebirds can't stand budgies and will kill them when they come too close.

After some research on the internet, I confirm that I don't recommend keeping budgies together with canaries or any other domestic finches because:
  • Finches are smaller than budgies and are not able to defend themselves, should the budgie decide to attack
  • Budgies can hurt the canaries badly: they can take off their beak or feet
Budgies can suffer the same fate if they are put together with bigger parrots, so putting together different kinds of birds is definitely not a good idea.

IF you still want to give this a try (after all, canaries don't eat the budgies' food and are almost the same size as them), then you should do the following things:
  • Make sure the budgies and canaries are raised together as babies
  • Supervise them frequently, see how they are getting along. From the moment they attack one another, put them apart forever.
  • Provide a big space for both species so that they don't start fighting over who is allowed to sit or sleep where.
  • Keep an extra eye out when the budgies or canaries start breeding. Females tend to be more aggressive when they're in breeding mood.
But from time to time, you can find real friendship between them :)



The canary is like "Dude... chill out!"

Other posts in this series:
Can budgerigars and lovebirds live together?
Can budgerigars and cockatiels love together?

14 comments:

  1. Great video ^_^ Crazy little budgie... Did you see it dancing at 1:35?

    This is really interesting! Congratulations on a great post, love :D <3

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  2. Hehe yeah, the sweet baby budgie just wants to play ^^

    Thanks baby, your comments mean a lot to me :) <3

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  3. I've had both many years....never put these 2 in the same cage. The Canary could be attacked and loose his foot, beak, eye. Bad idea.

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  4. Where can I get one of those water fountains?!

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  5. Where can I get one of those water fountains?!

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  6. Hilarious! Thank you for posting this fascinating video showing the bird personalities.

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  7. Can i put pair of canary with pair of love bird at the same cage

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    1. Omg NEVER. lovebirds are NASTY. They bite each other's toes off. I took in a lovebird with one leg because it was with other lovebirds

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  8. I have a rock dove that i rescued. I'm going to put some budgies in with him for company.

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  9. thank you so much :) I recently got two parakeets and a canary and they're getting along really well and often spend all their outside time together and even go into eachother's cages. They're all very young so I'm expecting a lif-lasting friendship

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