# Should I seperate my two cockatiels? And do baby cockatiels sleep alot?



## FredKreuger (Jan 12, 2011)

I recently purchased two cockatiels last week. One is a 6 month albino girl (personally I think its a boy) who has an eye defect, and an 11 week old normal grey male. I placed them into a large cage together because I thought they would be like my last birds, who bonded with each other immediately. However, what I've noticed is that whenever my normal grey (Fred) goes down to the food bowl to eat, my albino (Iris) will always follow him and begin to eat with him, sort of shoving him and pecking at him. 
I'm becoming very anxious because I don't want one bird hurting the other, especially when the other is so young. Iris doesn't disturb Fred when he's eating his veggies, because she doesn't like them too much herself, but it seems like she is hogging up all the food. 

Another question: Is Fred (11 weeks old) supposed to sleep alot. He seems perfectly healthy, eating well (besides Iris's bullying), his poo's pretty clean and he has bright eyes. Whenever I see him, he's always sleeping on the top most branch of his cage. He's puffed up and his heads in his wing sometimes, and other times, he's sleeping on one leg puffed up. I have an appointment with the vet on Friday, but I'm so anxious about him that I have to ask this now. Is he okay?


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## lperry82 (Aug 2, 2010)

When i first got cookie all he done was be quiet and mostly sleeping but it took him 2 to 3 weeks to get settled in, i think they still need to settle in their new homes.


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## Jess (Jun 20, 2010)

I think you should keep them in the same cage but add another food bowl. Keep the vet appointment as well to be on the safe side, make sure the vet knows what he is talking about where birds are concerned though as a fair few vets don't know much about treating birds.
Are you in the UK? Something else you could do is ring avain biotech and ask them to send you a pssiticosis droppings collection kit. Collect droppings in a tube on day 1, 3 and 5 then send them it for a test, it's not too expensive.
Here's the link below


http://www.avianbiotech.co.uk/disease_testing.asp


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## FredKreuger (Jan 12, 2011)

Thank you guys. I really appreciate your help


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## olive juice (Mar 30, 2009)

Yeah, it's always a good idea to have more than one food bowl in a cage with multiple birds. Just like any other animal, birds can be possessive about food.


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## clem&peeps (Nov 17, 2009)

Resting or sleeping on one foot is a good thing. It just takes a while for birds to adjust to a new environment. When i brought my second tiel home (Clementine) i remember being very concerned about her because all she did was sleep and not move from her perch. But slowly she started to come out of her shell. 
It's always a good idea to bring new birds to an avian vet for a checkup, so good for you
I have 4 food bowls in my tiels cage and even though my two are very bonded they still like to squabble over bowls, but at least there's the option of going to another bowl.


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