Lesser Jardine - need a companion.

[Blindchick]

My daughter has 10 month old lesser Jardine, but I take care of him during the day. She would like to get another Jardine, but since Pookie is her baby, she naturally wants to do the best for him. I am at home during the day with him, but there are times when I am out for more than a couple of hours. He has the company of our Indian Ringneck, Budgies and Finches.

Our question is a) Can you put two Jardines together in a cage and must they be of the opposite sex, or can we put two males together?

and b) She has had Pookie since he was about 6 weeks old, and has an amazing relationship with him, which she does not want to jeopardise. Would bringing another bird into the relationship cause Pookie to lose interest in her/their relationship.

c) What is the best way to introduce a new baby to Pookie?

[Wolf]

First of all has your bird been DNA tested to verify its sex? If not, how do you know that it is a male? If it were me I would get an age appropriate bird of the same species and of the opposite gender as this always provides the best results if you want them to share a small area such as a cage. The cage is a small area and the bird will consider it to be its nesting area and is prone to protect it from intruders bird or human. As far as introducing them it must be done carefully and slowly and this is only after the quarantine period of at least a month. No one can say for sure what bird will get along with and accept what bird because we have no idea as to how or why they chose one companion over another. Will it affect the bird/ human relationship? Yes, to some extent it will, but it does not have to destroy the relationship. I just provided my parrotlet a mate and she is just as loving as ever and I am beginning to see an improvement in our relationship.

[Pajarita]

Yep, what Wolf said. Opposite gender of same species is best but, sometimes, it also works with opposite gender of similar species. You can put them both in the same cage but ONLY if they are mate bonded and that's up to them 100%. And it's much easier to get them to bond if the other bird is of the same age. Well, it doesn't have to be necessarily exactly the same age (I have a pair where the female is 33 years old and the male is about 15) but, basically, it's not a good idea to put an adult with a baby or a juvenile. A bird that loves you will not stop loving you just because it has a mate... it might not pay as much attention to you as it did before but its life would be improved so greatly and find so much joy in having a mate of its own that this would neutralize whatever little jealousy pang one might feel.