Does my GC Conure need a companion bird?

[1976pianoman]

Hello,

I have a green cheek conure that is 14 years old. I adopted her 9 years ago. She's the only bird I have. Her name is Sophia. She's utterly spoiled and has a very good life with a whole lot of human contact (me) and she is in good health - however over the last few years, her behavior has changed. There seems to be an instinctual mating related dynamic going on that is getting pretty annoying and dysfunctional. Even though I am the only one that cares for her and sacrifices for her, she is now avoiding me and going to other human males (friends, family and most recently my housemate) in a desperate fashion to be with them. It's gotten to be very obsessive. I'm not personally bothered by this. I just want her to be happy. It's like she's given up on me and is hoping she might be able to make babies with these other guys. If only these other guys shared her enthusiasm. It just gets old after a while. If I put her back on her convertible cage, she makes a lot of noise and attempts to return to the shoulder of her new love interest. She can fly so if she's not sitting on her cage squaking out of discontentment, she's flying around looking for him. Believe me, this is not a situation where her time with humans is being neglected. She's got a TON of that. This is not just about her wanting to be social, it seems to be something more pathological focused on one particular male at a time. Right now she's stalking him, flying around in front of his bedroom door squaking and attempting to get his attention - and he's trying to work.

I want to do what is best and most healthy for her. This has nothing to do with me. I can't imagine having another conure, but I'm thinking maybe that is what she needs - a companion bird. I think she's got a syndrome going on because she's isolated without any other birds. So she's misfiring and going crazy on us humans.

It's discouraging how many vastly different options I am getting about this. Everybody says something different. Don't get another bird. Get another bird. Make sure it's a baby. Make sure it's her age.

I would love to see her happy and content with a bird friend. I don't want to do anything that will upset her though and make her worse. I don't know what to do.

[Wolf]

I am not entirely sure what is going on unless she is changing her allegiences from you to another human and is also hormonal. They are monagomous but do switch their bong on occasion. If she is hormonal in addition to this then you need to look at her diet to be certain that it is a low protein diet and that she is on a natural solar light schedule.
I really don't think birds should be kept alone. I do have three birds that do not have mates, but they are not alone as they can see and talk to each other although they could not be called friends. I think that it is great that you are considering a companion for your girl, but the first thing is to be sure that you want another bird for yourself as much as for your bird. Why? Because no matter how careful we are in the selection of a companion bird they may not get along and then you have two cages to clean and two birds needing individual and free time. I would normally look for a mate as well as a companion for my birds so that would in your case be an adult male GCC. I would not suggest a juvenile bird of either sex if it is to be a companion for your current girl as she would have no interest or use for it so it needs to be an adult bird.

[1976pianoman]

Okay. Thank you for your input!

[Pajarita]

She sounds super sexually frustrated, the poor thing! Do you keep her at a solar schedule and on a low protein diet? Because, this time of the year, they are already beginning to stop sexual hormone production and she seems not only to be really hormonal but to have been like this for a long time so her endocrine system has to be out of whack.

Now, I don't agree with the 'only get a second bird if you want another one, don't do it for your bird' argument. Personally, I take my responsibilities toward the animals under my care very seriously and if one of them needs a mate, that's what they will get regardless of what my desire and/or convenience are on the subject. Parrots are monogamous and are all highly social so the need for company and love from another bird is more than just a desire, it's a physiological need. Large species imprint to humans very deeply and some are satisfied by the companionship of a human but the little ones are not that easy to keep happy on their own... And GCCs are, in my personal experience, as needy as cockatoos so, to them, a mate is more necessary than for other species.

My recommendation to you is to re-evaluate your husbandry in terms of light schedule and diet to ensure her endocrine system is in tune with the seasons and to adopt a sexually adult male for her mate. I've taken in four GCCs, all came from being single birds and three of them bonded with mates without me having to do anything at all and very quickly (like I said, these are very needy little birds) so I would say the chances of yours not bonding with a male are slim to none.

[1976pianoman]

Okay, very interesting. Thank you.

My concern with a male is that they will mate. I do not want to contribute to the pet bird problem in our society and strongly feel that breeding parrots should not be allowed. Is it true that the chances of that happening are very slim? I need to be sure I'm not doing something that is going to end up putting more birds at risk of being unhappy.

[Wolf]

Even if they mate the eggs may not be fertile, but if they are it is really simple to freeze the eggs and put them back or to buy fake eggs to replace them with and no baby birds. I have two mated pairs and that is my answer for this concern.

[1976pianoman]

Oh wow. So simple.

Also, I wanted to ask this community a few more questions about all this.

Amongst all this crazy behavior, Sophia will occasionally settle for me and be really open to letting me touch her after she's given up on her love interest. She maneuvers herself into the palm of my hand just right and rubs on me. I allow this, and actually "help her out" a bit to help her along so she can "finish" and maybe have a clear head. It's about 3 minutes of crazy bizarre sounds that get pretty loud.

Is this wrong? I would hate to turn her away because it seems her sex drive is what's behind all this, and I want to help diminish that drive.

I am definitely not starting this nor encouraging her to start it, rather, engaging in it for the sake of helping her after she starts doing it.

[Wolf]

This is an area of right and wrong that I can't help you with as that requires me to make a moral judgement that is not mine to make. Because you wrote it you may catch some flack for it, I don't know, but if so just grin and bear it and let it pass.
I actually think that while difficult for some folks that it is a valid question and should be discussed as it is a part of every parrots life and therefore part of their caregivers life as well. To put it short and sweet I pretty much don't involve myself with my birds sex life other than noteing it for health reasons, their health. I neither encourage nor discourage their sexual displays or behaviors and I never take an active part in it either. Sex between birds or with a birds toys is for me strictly a bird thing and I am not a bird. I only pet them in appropriate places as I don't want to cause them any problems.
I would say that if you are going to have visitors over while a bird is hormonal and don't want the bird to try and have sex with them that I would refrain from being this helpful to the bird. I also am aware that some birds have gotten excessively aggressive with their mate ( bird) when it is no longer sexually responsive and seriously injured them or killed them. I don't know if this behavior would also carry over to the bird human mate or not but since I am not a fan of getting bitten I would not chance this.
I am not citing any scientific sources on this just my opinions, but there are probably some scientific documents somewhere that may address this issue even though I am not aware of them.
As far as I am aware of scientifically the only things that we can control without falling into a gray area where we could be considered to be abusive to reduce the time that our birds are hormonal and/ or affect the times when the bird goes into breeding condition is by providing an appropriate low protein diet, providing a natural solar light schedule paying special attention to be sure that they are fully exposed to the pre dawn twilight period and the twilight period of dusk as the light at these times is what adjusts the birds internal clock and to encourage plenty of flying time as this is the only form of exercise that a bird can do that has the ability to reduce the amount of sexual hormones in the birds blood.

[Pajarita]

OK, what you are so politely trying to say is that you allow your bird to masturbate on your hand to give her some relief. Personally, I don't see anything wrong with it. I mean, it must be hell to be super-duper randy all the time and get no relief whatsoever so, in truth, I see what you are doing as a kindness to her. But, the point is, this kindness is unnecessary because only birds that are overly-hormonal and alone get to that point. Birds that are kept in tune with the seasons (and this is where the solar schedule and low protein diet come in) only produce sexual hormones during breeding season so they never get to this point even if they don't have a mate (which doesn't mean they still don't need it, mind you!).

Preventing babies is the easiest thing when you keep their endocrine system working well because you only have to watch for eggs during breeding season (which is over this time of the year, everybody is molting now -well, birds that are in tune with the seasons are, that is). So, when breeding season starts (sometime in March), you increase protein in their diet, give them a bit of extra calcium and a nest. You check the nest every morning and, if you find an egg, quickly switch it with a fake one (http://dummyeggs.com/) and voila! Birds are happy because they have each other and are now fulfilling their prime directive in life (procreation) and you are happy because birds are happy and you are not producing any babies (and I agree with you 100%, I think that breeding parrots for human pets should be a cardinal sin punishable with everlasting hell).

[1976pianoman]

Thank you. And thanks to everyone else too.