[SHARE] how do u decide to get a second parrot

[seagoatdeb]

Just a little story, about parrot dynamics together. When Gaugan my 17 year old soon to be 18 year old Red Belly female, was brought over to see my daughters aproxamately 14 year old female rescue Senegal. The Senegal, was weak from being fed an inappropriate diet and no room to move in and had very sore feet from having only hardwood perches. She was terrified of my daughters Meyers and Conure. She would dance back and forth in a neurotic way when she was scared. When she saw Gaugan, she was afraid but Gaugan gave her some eye blinking signals, some fluffy feathers and calmed her right down. I really think that was Gaugan feeling compassion for the terrified parrot. The look on Gaugans face just told me that. My Meyers Sunny, was too afraid to go near the Senegal and her dancing looked scary to him, but is always happy to flock with the Meyers and Conure.

To this day they still keep seperate and dont flock together, but Gaugan and the Senegal have no problem when they are out together. They give each other lots of space. The Senegal will not accept a treat unless every other parrot accepts their treat first. That says a lot right there about her. Gaugan can sometimes get mad if she does not get her treat first or in the manner she is used to eating it and will drop it to the floor. Gaugan is always the dominate parrot when they are all together and they have all learned to give her the space she needs. Gaugan makes the rules, and they all abide by them or she puts them in there place. She never hurts one of them though, although she can throw a scare into them. My daughters Meyers is a large parrot and he was sure he would put Gaugan in her place and after several squabbles he defers to her. They weigh exactly the same, both Gaugan and My daughters Meyers are large for their species.

Gaugan is the same with humans, she establishes the rules and as long as the humans go by her rules she will be gentle and nice to them. In Gaugans eyes I can do no wrong though and she accepts my authority most of the time and never bites me, although she will do posturing to show me she is not happy....lol.... She can be stubborn about anything made out of wood though and will work out ways to get to a certain picture frame, or bookcase, no matter how hard I try to block it off. I often have to move furniture and paintings around.

I am still learning about Sunny, he is 10 months old now and wants to do anything he sees another parrot do. He is a very high energy inpulsive parrot, and if he is prevented from where he has wanted to go (for expample Gaugan is blocking the way) he gets very hyper and just flys, and flys and flys. Eventually, I coax Gaugan out of the way, with playing and attention and Sunny is now happy and will fly over to where Gaugan had been, or just past where she had been. Gaugan is happy to have the attention, so it is working out this way right now, but as Sunny gets older the dynamics will keep changing. Sunny is a very non agressive even tempered parrot so that works well with Gaugan who is a moody parrot. They seem like a very good fits together they will flock fairly close together at times. Sunny may get more aggressive, when he hits mating hormones, but because Gaugan is a bigger Poi, I am hoping they will still get along well.

So just editing and adding this here but the most amazing thing happened!!!!! Gaugan who has remained aloof from all other parrots for 17 years since she was seperated from her sibling has started to preen Sunny. I am just so amazed, and it is so heatwarminng to see, and is so enriching to both thier lives. I actually have tears rolling down my cheeks.

[pukeko]

Also note beak sizes, as jardines have beaks that are quite a bit bigger than pois like sennies or meyers, which I get the impression is more important for pairs than flocks for if/when they don't get along. Jardines aren't really shaped the same as other pois - perhaps more like a small, big-headed cape than like a senegal parrot with its small, slender beak.

My stories are more about other animals, but I did have seven months of parrot cohabitation with my maroon belly and green cheeked conures, which was really only the very beginning of any sort of relationship. My remaining bird is continuing to pretty steadily change his behavior as he becomes more confident and trusting and healthy nearly a year out, and that process is unlikely to ever end. But their responses to each other were kind of delightful with how closely they aligned to what I knew of their personalities (15 years knowledge, 3 months in quarantine for the 7 year old) as my older bird was gentle to a fault and permitted me to gently introduce shared spaces and times on me and around the house. I increased my attention to her during the whole process, which I think helped. It is easier to put up with a new stranger in the home if you are getting even more play and dozy preening than before they came . Luckily, she wasn't jealous of him getting attention, just nervy about herself getting enough, and his tolerance was miniscule compared to hers after years without harmless contact. It also helped that they quite naturally divided me up - she wanted to cuddle my hand, while he wanted to cuddle my face. He was attention starved and was happy to take any non-scary physical contact with either of us, however he could, for a little while. They were also really interested in each other's large trees, him more than her, so both were set up for multiple meals/diverting foods at least 1' apart so that they could visit and spend some time close to each other but thoroughly occupied with their own activities, which stopped him from attempting to cuddle up to her while her proximity tolerance increased. They were happy to share one shoulder and a shower perch by the time she got sick - still activities which were not started by either of them and which kept them occupied, but I think he would have won her over eventually if she had ever let him preen her and realised how much better another beak is than human fingers. I was lucky with them meshing so well (found him after four years of looking for an older small conure, aiming for 10+ years), and I wish we had all had more time together.

[Pajarita]

I agree, Pukeko, they would have bonded in time. Sometimes, it's love at first sight but, sometimes, it takes a long time. But, even when they don't actually bond, accepting another bird is better than been alone and that can be achieved with lots of work and time even if, initially, there are problems. I have managed to get Zoey Senegal to accept Sweetpea Senegal (to the point that they even share a cage) and Isis Redbelly (with whom she used to pick fights all the time), and I am now working on getting her to accept Cody GCC which she used to attack every chance she got (so far, so good, three mornings now when I have had them out together and they have even been both on me for short periods of time without a single fight).