Can budgerigars and lovebirds live together?

Please take notice of this rule: all bigger parrots should never be kept together with budgerigars. Some of those bigger parrots only think of budgerigars as little pests, because they misunderstand their body language and behaviour. It takes no more than one hit with their beak to kill a budgie.

I sincerely hope that by the time you are reading this blog post, you have NOT tried to put budgerigars together with love birds. These two species don't get along at all and start fighting almost immediately, and the budgies can't possibly win the fight - they get hurt or they die.

Other reasons why you should look out with budgies and lovebirds:

• Lovebirds are known to be extremely territorial and aggressive, especially during their breeding season. Any poor little budgie who even comes near them will be chewn to pieces.
• Their beak is their most powerful weapon and the more bulky lovebirds won't hesitate to use it, which would cause deadly wounds to the budgies.
  
• Lovebirds can be so nasty that even adult macaws are scared of them.
• Budgerigars prefer the company of other budgerigars. It's that simple. You should never put their life in danger.

Providing a large aviary would offer your budgies a small chance to escape the lovebirds when they attack. Image (c) Foxlow Snapper on Flickr

While there are always exceptions in the personalities of birds, there are some generalizations that are often true. Not all small birds get along with each other either. There are budgerigars that bully eachother and try to keep others from accessing all the delicious food in the cage. Budgerigars are also known to dominate the more mild-mannered cockatiels. Luckily for the budgies, cockatiels are friendly and get along with pretty much all other small birds. But I repeat: this is NOT the case with lovebirds! They can be aggressive to both bigger and smaller birds.

In case you still want to experiment with putting two incompatible bird species together - despite all warnings - please make sure the following things are done first:

• provide a very large aviary of minimum 10 squaremeters. This would offer your budgies a small chance to escape the lovebirds when they decide on having the budgies for lunch.
• Birds that are raised together from the time they are babies can be the exceptions to these horror stories. Several people keep different species together without any incidents. But the birds are in a very large place with plenty of food and water, so there is no real need for competition.

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