You may have purchased your Gouldian finches thinking that you could put them in the same cage as your other birds. You may have hookbills, finches, or a combination. You may have an aviary, and you’re thinking that’d be an awesome place for a few Goulds. But Lady Gouldian finches are very calm, quiet birds and don’t do well as cage mates for just everyone.

Before you go putting them with other birds – they don’t do well with Zebra finches. The zebras are flighty and sort of nervous. The LGs … aren’t. They are very laid-back birds and do best by themselves or with other similarly laid-back varieties.

I tried them with society finches, but the societies like to pile into a nest at night – even if the bewildered Gouldian is already present! That didn’t work too well. I put 2 canaries in one of my colony cages and the Goulds were frightened for a few days. They eventually settled down, but I removed the canaries and gave them their own space.

I have a parrotlet who likes to fly into the Gouldian cages for visiting. Supposedly parrotlets are really aggressive and will kill other birds (even their own kind). I know people who have come home to find that a parrotlet killed its own bonded mate as well as birds much bigger than they are. Mine never got the memo. He doesn’t mind sharing a cage with anybody. He sneaks in and uses their swing, and occasionally takes a little nibble of their food.

Here he is trying to convince me he’s innocent:

That goes to show you that every rule has an exception; I still do not let my little guy remain in the cage, once I find him there. With that in mind…

You should never keep them with hookbills, unless you have a really REALLY large aviary AND it is planted or contains a lot of plants where they can hide. But in general, don’t put them with hookbills. They’ll get chased and possibly injured.

So I don’t keep my Gouldians with other species. You can, however, you just have to be careful. Below are a few acceptable cage mates that would go nicely with the Gouldian personality.

Laid back Birds to house with your Gouldians:

That’s quite a list to choose from! Of course, your aviary full of many-colored Gouldians might be enough to please you.