How hard is it to add a 2nd bird to your family?

[Cambios]

My family is close to becoming "bird people" for the first time!

We are definitely getting a Sun Conure as our youngest daughter has totally fallen in love with it and she was the reason we started on this journey to learn about birds in the first place.

While visiting breeders/shops, we also found a blue and gold macaw that took us by surprise.

This put us in a really challenging quandry. We suddenly really wanted to get both. They have been babies together which we are told is the ideal situation if you are going to have multiple birds in the same household - especially given the size difference.

But I am very worried we're making the wrong decision to get both. Will it be too much for us?

No amount of research is comparable to real experience, and we simply don't have any experience.

If we decided to only get the conure, and if the experience having a bird turns out super amazing, how difficult is it to add another bird to the family later?

We were already likely going to have to monitor the birds at all times when out because of their size difference and the fact that we have a corgi. Is this much different if we got a 2nd bird later and they had to gradually get used to each other?

Thanks,

[GMV]

It completely depends on your family and your birds, it is hard to tell what will happen until the bird sets foot inside your house. Personally i would not get 2 birds at the same time unless it is the same species, especially not if they are you first birds. Additionally, b&g macaws are not good starter birds, they are sweethearts if trained right, but they can be so bipolar and choose to like certain people and not others and they could snap a finger off if they wanted. The good side of macaws, however is that they are probably the most predictable parrot, you know where you stand with a macaw. Both sun conures and B&Gs can be extremely loud so if you plan on keeping even 1 of these birds you have to be prepared for screams louder than you could produce yourself. I assume you already know about the mess factor? I will give you that bird owners tend to overstate the mess involved. I am not trying to talk you out of it, but you need to be informed of the cons, i'm sure you already know the pros, because pet stores or breeders ONLY talk about them! I doubt anyone on this site will be able to tell you exactly what will happen, or even close to that, so be prepared for anything. in general however, a second bird later on will eventually be get along well enough to live with the other given enough time, depending on the types of birds(keep in mind this is not always the case).
You will definitely need to monitor them, because birds that get along for years can get in sudden fights, and a macaw vs conure is not fair at all.
Good luck with whatever decision you make!

[Wolf]

My knowledge of Macaws is limited, partly because I don't have one. Basically, I know that a B&G Macaw can bite through chain link fencing, not an easy task, even with bolt cutters. This means that even a playful nip to a human can inflict serious injury. This is a fact that can never be overlooked. Which brings me to the second thing that I know about them and that is that they are normally very laid back and gentle birds. In some ways they are easier to take car of than many of the smaller species of parrots. But you have to feed them properly and you absolutely need to keep them on a solar light schedule, and you also must not pet them in the wrong places as it will cause them to become hormonal if you don't adhere to these three things. The very last thing that you will ever want on tour hands is an aggressive, hormonal B&G Macaw, it is simply way too dangerous. That pretty much is the extent of my knowledge of this species of parrot.
As to introducing other parrots into your flock, well you never know how they will react to another bird, even another bird of the same species. /so it is something that must be done under careful supervision and done slowly. They may be the best of friends or not, you just never know.
I have four birds, all are of different species and each require their very own cage. I am able to allow all of them to be out with me at the same time, but not all of them on me at the same time. It has taken many months to reach this point with them. Three of them I can allow to be out of their cages at the same time with minimal supervision, meaning that I can leave them in the living room alone while I go into the kitchen and do the dishes or walk to the mailbox for the mail, but never for more than just a few minutes at a time. I could probably go for a longer time frame, but I am not yet comfortable with that. As long as what I need to do that day is in the house I let them spend most of their time out of their cages. The fourth one is so much smaller than the others that it is always with me, in her cage or in its hamster ball.
I have a Congo African Grey, and an Amazon, which are similar in size. I also have a Senegal, which is about half the size of the other two but she can hold her own and/ or fly away from the larger birds. My little one is a parrotlet, and although she thinks she is bigger and badder than the others she is only one sixth the body mass of the Senegal. If I want her to have more time out and can't hold her at that time, I put her in the hamster ball and let her roam the floor. She actually love to go in her little protective bubble and chase cats and dogs, under supervision , of course.

[GMV]

Wolf, would you recommend a hamster ball be something I consider? I have no experience with parrots and hamster balls, but I imagine it would somewhat circumvent disaster.

[Pajarita]

Your birds are too big for a hamster ball, Gordon. Plets are teeny tiny compared to a tiel.

Adding a second bird is actually great for the first bird BUT it needs to be done after the bird is deeply bonded to you, sexually mature (and, with a macaw, you are looking at five years down the road) and settled down in his daily routine AND you need to think very carefully which species and gender of bird the second one will be.

You are aware that both species you are looking at are at the top of the loudest screams list, right?

[GMV]

Your birds are too big for a hamster ball, Gordon. Plets are teeny tiny compared to a tiel.

Adding a second bird is actually great for the first bird BUT it needs to be done after the bird is deeply bonded to you, sexually mature (and, with a macaw, you are looking at five years down the road) and settled down in his daily routine AND you need to think very carefully which species and gender of bird the second one will be.

You are aware that both species you are looking at are at the top of the loudest screams list, right?

I have quite a big hamster ball, you would be surprised! I own 2 gerbils, and bought it for them, and it seems to big for them. If i sterilize it i think it could make do. Would you like pics to see its size?
And yes, if i hear scream the first birds that come to my mind are macaws (B&G specifically) and sun conures.

[Wolf]

As far as I am aware, there are only 2 sizes of hamster balls and mine is the larger one and is about 8 inches in diameter. Size wise it is great for my parrotlet, she is about 4 inches long. Beyond that it depends on the bird, I wasn't sure that it would work out. I knew the bird would fit in it but did not know how the bird would like it.

[liz]

I decided that Rambo needed a friend. I search for a long time then 3 years ago I found a 1 year old BF who needed a home. I would not give Myrtle up for anything but it has been rocky. These two brats are like a 2 year old little girl with her 5 year old big brother. She torments him until he gets angry and fights back. The only time that they actually get along is when they think I am not looking. They will call to each other when in separate rooms.

Cockatiels are flockers. When my Sweetie died I thought Shadow was going to have a nervous break down. I got him a Maggie. Shadow is not mean to her but he treats her like she isn't there. It is heartbreaking.

You never know what the reaction will be.

[Pajarita]

Indeed, Liz, you are 100% correct - sometimes, it takes years to get the dynamics right when you introduce a new bird BUT some species are harder than others and I am surprised at yours because, usually (and I guess this IS the operative word), amazons and tiels are easy (same as budgies and conures).

[shiraartain]

My friend's mother has a Sun Conure which my friend tried to convince me to take in when I told her I was looking at conures as a potential option months ago. I had zero intention of doing it!

I have a pair of twin sisters, who when they argue, get pretty loud. That does not give me a headache. Sunny's (name of the sun conure) screams did! and that was during the first fifteen minutes of my 3 hour visits, I cannot imagine living with that. And then a macaw on top of that. I would die. Just my personal perspective.

I would definitely, definitely, not take on a macaw as a first bird with no experience with them, I personally am paranoid about all the things I could do wrong. And if it doesn't work out, you've left the bird with a bad experience which will never leave it.

Re: adding a 2nd bird in general, it was just a pain when my dad brought home his cockatiel. I had to keep the two birds in separate rooms for the first 90 days, then separate cages, even cleaning up after them separately, and while I didn't resent it at the time, I look back on it now and shake my head. Then again, they bonded closely before I could begin resenting the extra work and started biting me if I tried to separate them for bedtime. My parakeet had already hit puberty (she was around 7 years old) and had no jealousy over the bond between me and the cockatiel, so I think this was also a factor which made the process easier.

I think conures and macaws are more likely to be jealous of the attention, and it's just a balancing game I do not recommend playing, esp. with different species.