Finches/doves/button quails/cockatiles

Question
Hello

Can zebra finches, ring neck doves, button quails and cockatiles live together in a cage thats; 6 feet tall, two feet deep and four feet wide?

What other finches could be kept in this cage?

Can a male canary live with the other birds?

Will cockatiles bother the smaller birds?

Answer
Hi,

Unfortunately the birds you picked out are just too different in size and temperments to get along.

Zebra finches are fast, small birds. Ring neck doves are slow and calm larger birds. Buttom quails get along with jsut about anybody and cockatiels are parrots... so they have VERY different personalities than finches or doves.

It is recomended to stick with finches and other finches (with possibly some buttom quail at the bottom of the enclosure.

Doves with doves and cockatiels with other cockatiels.  These guys would not flock together in the wild and will not do well in confinded space together.

Some commonly kept finches that you could mix would be spice and society finches. Zebra finches can sometimes be aggressive, and definately no bronze winged finches- they can only be kept with their own kind. If you want to get zebra finches into the mix, just make sure they are outnumbered and preferably only get females (or possibly all male zebras... just don't mix genders- otherwise you will have hormonal/territorial issues come into play)

Society finches are very sweet and docile and get along with just about any other species of finch or canaries.

Male canaries can be kept with other birds, but some males can be bossy. So make sure to only house one male canary or one male/one female canary in an aviary.

Cockatiels usually will not bother small birds- but they WILl be very stressed by the small birds. These fast, small things zippy by their heads really freaks them out and will cause them a termendous amount of stress.

Doves are the most docile of all the birds you mentioned and are the easiest to keep in aviary situations because of this.

I hope this helps.

-Maggie