Second bird

[Midnight]

Hello
I've got a gold cap, Jade, she's a little over a year old and we are planning to get a second bird. I have asked a similar question in the past but we do want to get a buddy for her as soon as possible. I've heard that once people get two birds they begin to bond with each other and don't really want to spend as much time with humans anymore. Right now we are on vacation and Jade with with the breeder and they have a 3 month old sun conure that Jade loves. They are already sharing a cage there so they will probably share a cage when back too. I know birds can fight but one of the reasons we are getting another bird is to keep Jade company. She's just too social for us not to give her a friend. I'm at school for 8+ hours a day, my mom works at home but she can't be with Jade as much as Jade deserves either. Jade also doesn't even play with her toys when we aren't there. For most of the time when I look through the window she is just standing on the perch waiting for us. I've heard that when birds bond too close you can separate them for a while in two separate cages but does that work well? Also during training, I want to train them one by one but I don't really have another room that I can go to. Will one get really distracted by the other? Jade has been with us for over four months already so she does know the house, the people, and some tricks already but we are gone for 2 months to visit family and she might not remember too much. Would that be like bringing two new birds in anyways? Sorry for the long paragraph lol but I think my main question is will it be difficult to have a close bond with both birds and train them well?

Thanks so much

[Wolf]

I really don't know of an easy answer for your questions. To begin with let me point out that your Kakariki is an adult bird while the sun conure is not. This and the fact that kakariki's are fairly accepting of other bird species contributes to their being able to occupy the same cage at this point in time. I would not expect this relationship to continue once the sun conure reaches puberty as sun conures are a much more aggressive species of parrot than the kakariki.

All of your remaining questions actually have more to do with the individual birds and the nature of their bonding with each other if they do indeed bond once the sun conure passes through puberty and reaches maturity. So it is not really possible to give you a good answer at this time.

There are others here that are more experienced than I am and they may be able to provide you with a more detailed answer than that which I can. They may also disagree with my opinion or they may just expand upon what I have already said.

[Midnight]

I really don't know of an easy answer for your questions. To begin with let me point out that your Kakariki is an adult bird while the sun conure is not. This and the fact that kakariki's are fairly accepting of other bird species contributes to their being able to occupy the same cage at this point in time. I would not expect this relationship to continue once the sun conure reaches puberty as sun conures are a much more aggressive species of parrot than the kakariki.

All of your remaining questions actually have more to do with the individual birds and the nature of their bonding with each other if they do indeed bond once the sun conure passes through puberty and reaches maturity. So it is not really possible to give you a good answer at this time.

There are others here that are more experienced than I am and they may be able to provide you with a more detailed answer than that which I can. They may also disagree with my opinion or they may just expand upon what I have already said.

Thanks for replying Correct me if I'm wrong but I do not think kakakiri is the same as a gold cap at all. This look a little similar but gold caps are conures and they are around the same size as a sun and have pretty similar personalities as well. Is a little over a year considered mature? I wasn't sure but I've heard most are like around 2 or 3? I will keep the maturity in mind thanks

[liz]

Rambo had been with me a long time when I decided he needed a friend. Rambo was very social and spent his days interacting with people and other critters. Since everything else was in twos I found him another bird, Myrtle. She interacted with him before me. He taught her many things and she taught him to play with toys. She was only 1 when I got her.

Both are very bonded to me. They have a strange friendship between them. If they are in different rooms one will call "hello" until it gets an answer from the other.
Rambo made yummy noises when he ate but with Myrtle they make little cute sounds while eating together. They also do a "da da" back and forth when in the same room.

It all sounds good except for when I have to separate a ball of green feathers rolling across the floor. Either one can start it and it scares me but neither one has ever been hurt. All I can do is grab from both sides and pull them apart. I thought it was Myrtle's jelousy but I am catching Rambo stretching his neck to be big bird and going after Myrtle. When I get them apart Rambo is calm while Myrtle is still excited.

What is really bad is that my kids are the same way. What have I done wrong.

My two can never be separated but will never actually be together.

[Wolf]

As far as I am aware of most conures do not mature until they are somewhere between 1 and 2 years of age with most of them maturing around the age of 2 years. But a Kakariki is not a conure and passes through puberty and matures during their first year of life although it is not recommended to allow them to breed until after they are a full year of age. I believe that most Kakariki's mature at about 8 months of age.

I also apologise for the mix up about your bird. You are correct that a Gold capped is a conure. I had just been reading a post concerning kakariki's and it was apparently still on my mind. Thank you for bring my mistake to my attention.

It is quite possible that a gold capped and a sun conure will get along and bond with each other, but you may still have to watch them closely as the older bird approaches puberty as juvenile birds and adult birds tend to go their separate ways until after they are both adults. It is the bonding that happens after puberty that will decide if they can continue to share a cage. It is a different type of bond than the juvenile bonding and it is also longer lasting.

[Pajarita]

Well, like Wolf said, it can work out and then it might not. Nobody can tell. The easiest 'match' is to get another bird of the same species, opposite gender and in the same age range - this doesn't mean that they both need to be exactly the same age but they both need to be babies, juveniles or fully mature adults. In this case, you have a baby and a juvenile of different species and you don't know the gender of the second one (has Jade been DNA'd a female?).

The one thing I can tell you is that, when I read your posting, I was horrified about the fact that your bird was put in a cage with another bird that has not been quarantined or vetted! And, no, the fact that this guy is the one that bred your bird or that he told you all his birds are healthy mean absolutely nothing! It was not only a HUGE but also a completely unnecessary risk.