# Fighting over sleeping perch



## RedQueen (Feb 21, 2012)

Hello all,

First a quick update on Tyko and Galilea - they are doing well! Galilea is learning new tricks (slowly since we have little time/energy for training, but she's so smart!), and Tyko is mixing up more and more tunes he's picked up from my fiance's whistling! lol he can never sing one all the way through, he always does his own remix version! 

They get along pretty well, they get more and more tolerant of each other with time, never really fight or anything, but they don't exactly love each other (aside from Tyko's occasional singing into Galilea's face and incessant flock calling when she's not in sight).

But there's one thing that's been bothering me. Tyko is somewhat of a bully towards Galilea  He's usually the sweetest bird, much more tolerant of touching from us than Galilea, very calm compared to her, more clumsy and generally a coward when it comes to exploring new places/things or being left alone. But when it comes to sharing a toy, food bowl, or sleeping perch, he just goes for it with no regard for Galilea's personal space, until she decides she'd rather walk away from it. This is especially bad when it comes to sleeping space. We always give them about 20-30 minutes right before their bed time in the cage uncovered, after their usual out of cage time with us, to get settled into their sleeping spots. Right before covering them they would sit on different food dishes that are about ~20cm (~8") apart and look all ready for sleep. As soon as I start to cover them (I try to do it quickly) Tyko decides he wants to sit on the food bowl where Galilea is and climbs to it and lunges with his beak at her while she quickly retreats in a panic. He will do this even after being covered, when it's pretty dark in the cage. I have always noticed that they get cranky and somewhat aggressive when they are ready for bed, and especially when they are being covered (Galilea will lunge at my hand as I'm covering), but in this case I worry about poor Galilea and how stressful it might be for her getting bullied like that every time before bed and having to find a different sleeping spot. There was one time when I had to separate them (put the removable divider in their cage) because they just couldn't settle down with Tyko constantly climbing over to Galilea and lunging at her. But when we did that, they flock called to each other for a bit and then ended up sleeping on the opposite sides of the divider but almost next to each other.

So I guess I'm wondering if Tyko's behavior is a reason to separate them before bed, or if it's something that will eventually resolve itself, and is his lunging dangerous to Galilea, or is it just a warning and he won't actually hurt her?


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## meaggiedear (Nov 20, 2011)

i honestly let my birds work out their squabbles without getting into something so extreme as separating them. if tyko gets to the point where there is potential injury, then i'd separate. but past that- galilea will either get sick of it and fight back (what my girls started doing) or she'll just move out of the way before tyko escalates it. 

does she always sleep on the food bowl? i would try to duplicate whatever she's sleeping on and place it side by side so tyko will have one too.


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