keeping males or females

[Barney]

Hi everyone,

thanks for all your help so far.Well we're nearly there i start building cage this weekend.
My question is the pet shop said they can only get males,so im gonna ask for 2 so they dont get lonely does anyone know if this will be ok im gonna make sure they have lots to keep them busy but am worried they could fight
Also how many nest boxes should i give them,i start building tomorrow so ill have some photos up for you guys next week if all goes well.

thanks Giuy

[Gilly]

Hi Barney   
I have 2 males but they are brothers which may be the reason for them getting along up to now. Plus they are nearly a year old and their testosterone hasn't quite kicked in yet. So I may have to rethink the living arrangements if they turned on each other.
You may be lucky by getting 2 males who get along. The general rule of thumb is 2 females to 1 male works best.
A single chippie would be fine. You may need to consider the possability of dividing the aviary if you had 2 males and they started to fight.
We will all look forward to seeing your progress, and I hope it goes well.......Gilly

[Barney]

Thanks Gilly,

Im a bit worried ,they are gonna be indoors so was not gonna get that many but thought 2 would be  good so they can play with each other when we're not home.the cage is gonna be fairly tall 1950mm but if i had to split them up it would be pretty small as gonna be 700x600mm.
so im wandering do you really think one chippy will be ok on his own.

thanks for your help

Guy

[Gilly]

It's been said that they do prefer to be alone as they are quite Territorial of their area. My dad has one female who is very happy. I felt the same as you though which is why I got 2 to keep each other company and they are OK.
If you do get the 2 males and they did fight, they can fight to the death in worst cases. Maybe if the space is limited one would be happier.
I hope this helps and doesn't confuse things.

[Doghouse135]

Hi

I've got two males living happily together and they are not related.  I got them at seperate times and therefore had to introduce them very carefully.

We had the two cages next to each other and then every so often, we swapped the bedding from one cage into the other.  When we put them together, we put them in a new cage so neither of them felt territorial about it.  They got a long fine for a little while and then the newest one reached maturity.  They started to chase and get aggressive so we split them up again.

They were only split up for a little while and then we put them back together and they've been fine ever since 

Good luck - it can work but you have to be prepared to watch them carefully and introduce them slowly.

[Barney]

thanks again so glad i joined this forum ,

this is getting interesting,i think if i had the space i would take the risk and get a couple but after what i've read im gonna get one little chippy and if i move home introduce a few more im starting to get really intrigued by these little creatures just look at the time anyway time for bed
thanks all