# Fighting over a perch --> take away the perch?



## caterpillar (Oct 14, 2013)

Elvis and Georgia's squabbling is getting much worse. (Yes, we're going to separate them... we need to get rid of furniture in order to accommodate a second cage.) 

Mostly, they are fighting over the highest of their three perches. Elvis will be sitting on it, and then Georgia will climb onto it too and will start nipping at Elvis to get him to move over so she can sit on the end of the perch (which is where she wants to sit, but he won't let her). Sometimes Elvis will chase her off the perch, and sometimes she'll sneakily climb onto the end of the perch from another part of the cage, and he'll lunge at her screaming until she moves.

My BF decided he was fed up with the noise, and took away the high perch so that they couldn't fight over it anymore. Was that the right thing to do?


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## CaliTiels (Oct 18, 2012)

It may be best. What I have in my cage is varied perches around the bottom, but at the top, the perches are all the same level. They still pick favorites, but it changes on which branch they want, so they don't have the option to fight over the highest branch available


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## caterpillar (Oct 14, 2013)

Lougirl said:


> It may be best. What I have in my cage is varied perches around the bottom, but at the top, the perches are all the same level. They still pick favorites, but it changes on which branch they want, so they don't have the option to fight over the highest branch available


How much perch territorialism is normal and when does it start to get worrisome? E & G are fighting more than they used to, and they are attempting to pluck each other (unsuccessfully) and Elvis has been biting Georgia's feet.


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## CaliTiels (Oct 18, 2012)

Is all that fighting due to wanting the upper perch? If so, then that is too much. At most, maybe a disgruntled grunt and slight lunging, but biting feet and plucking is over the line


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## caterpillar (Oct 14, 2013)

Lougirl said:


> Is all that fighting due to wanting the upper perch? If so, then that is too much. At most, maybe a disgruntled grunt and slight lunging, but biting feet and plucking is over the line


They seem to be doing better today. Yesterday was super alarming, and then I think Elvis got a little bit more agitated that we took away the upper perch. But, against our initial observations, he seems to really love the big swing we got them.


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## caterpillar (Oct 14, 2013)

Ok so it's now been over 36 hours and I think they're still mad that we took the perch away. They aren't screaming, but they're being SILENT. No flock calls or responses to us, and they're only flock calling each other if we take Georgia into the next room (as much as Elvis torments her, she can't stand to be away from him and goes into a shrieking panic before she calms down a little bit and they just start flock calling each other. And they are being really nippy and aggressive both toward us and each other. They are largely refusing to step up. Elvis is not whistling at all. The only upside is, they love their new swing, but Elvis almost pushed Georgia off it today when she was trying to step closer to him and he lunged at her.

Could this all be because of their favorite perch getting taken away? Or, since they were already getting aggressive over the perch, is it just a sign that they're on a real downward spiral and we should stop delaying their cage separation?


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## CaliTiels (Oct 18, 2012)

I think it's best to remove one of the pin-pointed sources of their aggression. If they were trying to pluck each other then that's not ok. Have they still been trying to hurt each other?


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