My male indian Ringneck having mixture of behavior issues

[Jenna]

Hi, My male Indian Ringneck has been having issues between trying to constantly be around my Quaker (the two of them are close w/ eachother), i have to be in a different room from her cage for him to stay with me or anyone else, and when it comes to my boyfriend lately who he originally was quite fond of, he now lures him into a false sense of security, being sweet and giving kisses and then immeidately biting him after the fact, and it could be related to him getting closer to my quaker, him and my quaker are in seperate cages, but they are currently stacked cages, and all he does now is tun along the bottom for her, so im setting them up with non stacked cages to seperate them more in hopes that it settles things down. Otherwise im not sure what to do.

[Pajarita]

Hi, Jenna and friends, welcome to the forum. First of all, let me tell you that I completely understand your desire to keep the birds tightly bonded to you instead of each other but I am afraid it's too late. The deed is done as proven by your IRN's behavior. And I would recommend you don't try to separate them because by doing that, you will only make things worse for you and your boyfriend. With parrots, you can't impose your will on them, they simply do not have the 'obedience' and 'subservience' genes in them (they don't live in hierarchical societies like dogs do). And you can't trick them, either. They will KNOW that it's you who is preventing them from being together and they will deeply resent you for it. Parrots are not only highly intelligent, their brain -which is up to 5 times larger than other birds' brains- are 'wired' like primates and are able to draw conclusions from different experiences. Basically, they can put two and two together even if the 'twos' are not identical or even related. And they have loooong memories, too.

And I'll tell you something else, personally, I would be ECSTATIC if this had happened to two of my birds. Nothing -and I do mean NOTHING- can compare to the happiness they get from having a bond with another bird. For them, this bond is not a luxury or an extra bonus, it's a NEED. Let them be happy even if it takes a bit out of their love for you. They will still love you.

[Jenna]

I am estatic that they have this bond, ive never really tried to stop them from being close.. nothing i want more than the happiness of my feather babies, my boyfriend loves them. And they were all sweet on him when they first met. Is there anything i can do to make this bond easier for my boyfriend..? He doesnt wanna lose the bond he had with blueberry before.. but he doesnt wanna be but everytime... is it the kidna thing hes have to grin and bear through to prove hes notba threat..? How can i proceed. We did seperate their cages, since they were stacked ones, so he could see gemma better and his mood seems to have improved with that, he hasnt been running looking for her on the bottom of his cage, more himself if that makes sense i think he was in part upset he couldnt see her underneath him. What can i do to help this situation for the future?

[Pajarita]

In my personal experience, if the birds are fed right (too much protein causes aggression, and you have two species that require a low protein diet), kept at a strict solar schedule and have access to each other at will, they will not attack the human because it becomes a beloved member of the flock. My birds live either cage-free or only go into their cage to sleep - the rest of the time, they have the freedom to go and do whatever they want. Putting their cages side-by-side does 'make things better for them' but they also need physical access to each other because (and this is one of what I call my 'off-the-wall' theories -beliefs that have no scientific proof for the simple reason that there aren't any studies on the subject), in the wild, parrots that love each other are ALWAYS kissing, preening, cuddling, etc with each other. I believe that parrots (and other highly social animals like apes ans elephants, for example) actually physically NEED the PDAs. Why? Because Mother Nature is a multitasker and it's VERY seldom that an action is not 'backed' by several purposes. PDAs raise endorphins which, in turn, make the brain produce dopamine (both help relieve pain, reduce stress and anxiety and improve sense of well-being) and my theory is that parrots need a higher level of them than other animals. And parrots in captivity are usually very deficient in them because they normally have no mate, no companion and no flock. If you add to that deficiency the fact that captivity stresses them out something terrible and gives them chronic anxiety (bad diet, bad light, lack of exercise, etc) it's a wonder the poor things are sweet-tempered at all!

Mind you, it's not you or anything you do or don't do, the truth is that we do not do parrots any favors by making them our pets. As much as we love them, we give them a real bad life...

So, what I suggest is that you allow them to be together (not in a cage but free-flying) during the day and, if they get along really well, allow them to share the cage - but don't do it until you see both of them sharing PDAs.