Another Budgie?

[SparkLeAnn]

Hi I want to get my my budgie Sprite a friend and I was wondering if i do will she start to ignore me and pay attention to the new budgie. Thank you.

[hlasdf]

Never get a bird for your bird. Get a bird for you.

And yes, there is a chance your relationship may suffer.

[mrbowlerhat]

Never get a bird for your bird. Get a bird for you.

I agree with this to some extent, but I also think that birds generally do better with bird friends, healthwise. Interacting with a same-species friend is VERY enriching and nothing can quite compare to that, so I think it's a good thing, and I'm pretty sure we all want good things for our birds ^_^
However, some species may have a hard time warming up to that idea, and some individuals might not even like other birds - and that's why I agree with you, you should get a bird for yourself, because they might end up not liking eachother, and there you are with two separate birds, double the responsibility and half the time for each.
Budgies generally do get along quite well with other healthy budgies, and introducing two to eachother almost always ends up well, so with budgies, unless you're really unlucky, you more often than not don't exactly have that problem.

Now, your relationship with Sprite may very well change, but that's not always the case - surely a bird can have more friends than just one? It might take some work and dedication from you if he does prefer the other bird over you though, but it's not a lost cause or anything. Just keep interacting with him, and with the new bird if you do decide to get one!
(Also make sure to be prepared if something does NOT turn out the way you hoped.)

[marie83]

Budgies generally do get along quite well with other healthy budgies, and introducing two to eachother almost always ends up well, so with budgies, unless you're really unlucky, you more often than not don't exactly have that problem.

Now, your relationship with Sprite may very well change, but that's not always the case - surely a bird can have more friends than just one? It might take some work and dedication from you if he does prefer the other bird over you though, but it's not a lost cause or anything. Just keep interacting with him, and with the new bird if you do decide to get one!
(Also make sure to be prepared if something does NOT turn out the way you hoped.)

+1

As long as you but in the time and effort your budgie will remain tame and should still enjoy being with you however your relationship may not be the same. This will be because the budgie is with another of its own species and wont need to rely on you as much for companionship. I would suggest working with your new budgie, if you get one, as much as possible during quarantine in a separate room in order to establish a bond with you too before introductions begin with your existing budgie.

[Pajarita]

Never get a bird for your bird. Get a bird for you.

And yes, there is a chance your relationship may suffer.

I don't agree with this at all. Actually, everybody should get a companion parrot for their own parrot. It's the kindest thing you can do for them and a show of the degree of love you have for them because it means you want THEM to be happy. And it doesn't mean they will stop loving you because now they have somebody else to love -that's a VERY antiquated way of thinking, by the way. If you love them, they love you back. And this holds whether you have one, two or fifty. I have two of each (or more) in almost every single species and I actively look for good candidates to adopt (I always take in the ones that are difficult to place) for the ones that are alone (I have three but it seems that I found another Lesser Sulfur Crested too for my Zachary so now I only have to get two more).

Budgies LOVE been with other budgies, all small species are like this. The larger ones imprint more deeply to humans and sometimes they don't want another bird but all the little ones do.

[mrbowlerhat]

I don't agree with this at all. Actually, everybody should get a companion parrot for their own parrot. It's the kindest thing you can do for them and a show of the degree of love you have for them because it means you want THEM to be happy. And it doesn't mean they will stop loving you because now they have somebody else to love -that's a VERY antiquated way of thinking, by the way. If you love them, they love you back. And this holds whether you have one, two or fifty. I have two of each (or more) in almost every single species and I actively look for good candidates to adopt for the ones that are alone

I totally agree! I also have two of all (both) species I own, and three of my birds were actually rehomed to me for this reason. (Miley because they saw how much happier their Caique got when they bought another one, but they didn't have the time/space/dedication for another Sennie too, so they rehomed her to me and my Alaska - Meg and Nicko because they also realized Nicko would be better off with another Ringneck, but when crazy lil' Meg arrived I think they found out that they couldn't handle two (and maybe especially with Meg being so much more active than Nicko) and that they'd both be better off with someone more dedicated who could provide them both with what they needed. They especially didn't want to have to separate the two, so they decided to rehome both, even though they had had Nicko for 13 years)

We have a law in Sweden that pretty much says that if you can't be an actual, literal full-time companion for your bird, you have to have at least two together, and since it's basically impossible to be there for your bird as much as another bird would, it's usually recommended that you get two from the start.
From what I've seen, it's very unusual for people here to have only one small bird, and I feel like a LOT (at least the dedicated ones) of people are trying their best to make sure to get birdie friends for the bigger species too.

Haha, I'm really sorry for always bringing up our laws and recommendations - I just think they're pretty good, and also that the fact that we've got laws about certain stuff that people from other places may not even have thought about might get some people to consider why that is.

[Eric&Rebecca]

I have two... We never intended for Edmund to be a single bird but all the other cockatiels were females and we didn't want to breed. Cockatiels are budgies are flock animals so having a companion is always enriching for them. HOWEVER, I think it is important for you to be capable in every way for caring for two birds. It won't make the birds less tame providing that you work with them daily to maintain tameness.

If you have had a hand reared previously, I would recommend getting a parent raised ( you can work or hand taming while they are in quarantine) and then gradually introduce to Sprite.

I am so glad we have our boys

[SparkLeAnn]

Thanks everyone!