Would it be OK to have a GCC and a Brown Headed Parrot?

[Akowalczyk]

Hi there,

My husband and I found a very sweet, hand tame, and very well socialized little turquoise pineapple GCC that we intend to pick up this weekend. She was meant to be flown to NFLD, but they backed out and she became available at the last minute.

We have been between a conure and a Poi, but were having a lot of trouble finding poi breeders anywhere near us, so we decided to go with the conure. Today I was told of a breeder with Brown Headed parrots that are about 4-5 weeks away from being weaned. She has 1 left. A BH has been my dream bird since I was young. My husband and I have discussed this at great length, and want to know how a GCC and a BH might get along? We intend to turn our second bedroom into a very large aviary room for them for playtime (separately, or together if they get along), and their main cages will be in our living room area.

Is that a bad decision to make? To bring home one, and then about 5 weeks later, bring home another? Neither of us lack experience with birds, so that's not what we're concerned with. I'm more so trying to figure out the dynamic between the two of them and how we should go about introducing them.

And if anyone does own a BH, can you comment on what they're like once mature? I've heard they turn right nasty and aggressive from a few people. If anyone has a BH and can shed some light on how they really are, we'd appreciate it!

Thank you

[Pajarita]

I've never had a BrownHead so I cannot help you on that but what I can tell you is that I have often found that owners are not always right in their perceptions of their birds' behaviors or the causes of these same behaviors so, although I would take them into consideration, I would not think of them as the gospel. In my personal experience and opinion, most 'undesirable' behaviors in parrots are caused by bad husbandry - and I will go one further and state that almost always the cause of aggression in a parrot is bad care.

Now, I don't see a problem in having two birds of different species together -I have several different species and they either live cage-free together in a room or have hours and hours of out-of-cage time together. But having a baby and an adult is a problem UNLESS you keep them separate until they are both adults or at least, a juvenile and an adult. Parrots are not naturally aggressive but some of them can be bullies and babies or smaller birds cannot defend themselves if they are relentlessly attacked (it's not as if they could fly away as they would in nature). GCCs tend to have a sweet nature but they are all individuals and just because a bird is not aggressive with humans, it doesn't mean it will not bully another bird - ESPECIALLY if there is jealousy. One of my GCCs loves the whitebelly caique and often allopreen so it's not as if they could not bond to each other - they might and they might not. But even if they don't, they can cohabitate in peace as mine do. The thing is that both babies and GCCs require an inordinate amount of one-on-one (we are talking MANY hours every single day) and the adult might get jealous of the baby if it perceives that it's getting more attention - which it most likely will because it will need hand-feeding regardless of the weaning process it might get at the breeder's (even older, truly completely weaned birds -which means a juvenile and not a baby- tend to revert once they are rehomed). But what you will have going for you is that the GCC might still be on its honeymoon period when you get the baby bird so that could give you an extra bit of time to make adjustments to your routine. I would not leave them together loose in the same room though - I would supervise them closely.