how do I introduce new male sun conure to female sun conure

[john94]

I have a 10+ year old female sun conure. Later on today I am getting a 2 year old male sun conure(hopefully). Apparently the male is very territorial and my female sun conure tango has never been around other birds before except our blue headed pionus and they fight.. tango is very bonded with me but not aggressive at all. so anyways I'm excited for the new bird and am hoping they will get along very well and maybe have babies how do I introduce these 2 birds to eachother?

[liz]

IN SEPERATE CAGES.

After quarentine you can put their cages in the same room but not together. If he is territorial you must protect your girl. If they communicate nicely you can move the cages closer. If you can eventually get them side by side without her being afraid they you can supervise play time.

Make sure you watch her reaction very carefully. If she shows fear ... forget it.

[Michael]

Here's what I did:

http://trainedparrot.com/index.php?bid= ... +to+Truman
http://trainedparrot.com/Target
http://trainedparrot.com/index.php?bid= ... +Conflicts
http://trainedparrot.com/index.php?bid= ... +to+Parrot
http://trainedparrot.com/index.php?bid= ... d+Together

They still hate each other's guts and can't be trusted in the same cage together. However, it's gotten them used to each other enough that they can enjoy a feast together.

[RWfishead]

Hey John, welcome to this forum. The issue is conures tend to mate for life . Your 10 yr old hen, have you had it as a pet a long time? Hand raised ? It's bonded to you and thinks it's a person not a conure.If you want breeder birds then buy parent raised babies that are not pets and raise them together without human interaction.If by some chance this situation works and you have babies you'll most likely need to pull them early and hand feed, because hand raised parents don't make good parents.You might need to pull the eggs and incubate if they don't sit , not uncommon.What ever you do don't intro the birds by putting one in the others territory(putting one in the others cage). Invest in the breeder flight that you are going to keep them in along with the nest box.Change as few things as possible over the coming years. In the future i recommend not buying a bird as a companion bird for another bird, most pets don't think they're a bird.If you want to breed ,the wilder the better.Pet birds can breed but tend to have issues, especially with human intervention.If they fight when you intro them you'll have to use your judgement in weither to separate them before one gets hurt, it's OK if a few feathers fly at first but if one ever completely dominates the other then it over, there's nothing you can do to make it work out in the future.Don't ever try to put those birds back together, one will kill the other.Good Luck if your thinking of breeding you'll need it.PS i've got to go, i have 12 amazons that need an injection, all breeders birds who hate people, Oh yeah have to clean the heater tonight before i turn it on,then have to get the receipt from where i bought 50 lbs of pellets that turned out to be full of bugs,of course i'll have to pay freight both ways, of course day after tomorrow i need to take the plastic down off the aviary because it 'll be back up into the 70's, but that'll be after my wife goes to the vet's to get another 100 cc;s of Batril. Did i mention i cut the grass at the vet's too keep my bill down. God knows how many coolers full of fish and shrimp i carry there every year.

[Zanizaila]

Any bird, even hand-raised ones, can learn to be birds again. But it doesn't just happen like that, it would take a lot of work and dedication (which is what parrot ownership is all about anyway), and knowledge.
As an example, from the Cockatoo rescue and sanctuary, who did not believe their hand raised "pet" Umbrella toos could ever be happy in an aviary:

We have several “pet” Umbrella’s that were obtained years ago prior to opening the Cockatoo Rescue and Sanctuary. We will use one of them, named Monkey as an example. Handfed from day one, Monkey is a typical female Umbrella, snuggly, loving, babyish and a bottomless pit for attention, a Velcro bird. She would sleep under a blanket while we watch TV. I never thought that she would enjoy living in a flock, she is too needy. A few years ago, we ended up placing our Cockatoo pets into the colonies while we did some house painting. The first few days the birds pouted. It was similar to little kids the first day of kindergarten. Mom don’t leave me! Then after a few days… they started having so much fun… they did not want to leave. The same thing these pets did.

Monkey, like the other pets, now prefer living in the colonies. Occasionally, we will bring them in for dinner and a movie. The birds make it clear that they would rather be out in the flock, their new family. We have observed this over and over again,… given the choice, the birds prefer their own species to humans. Human arrogance makes some people believe that birds would prefer living with us.

So... maybe I'm being naive, but any bird can, with time and the right way, learn to become a bird again. HOWEVER, I am NOT saying, "build them an aviary and throw them in together and see what happens", definitely not.
If one of them is bonded to humans and the other territorial, I would definitely have them in separate cages for months, carefully evaluating their behavior, let them out together under strict supervision after perhaps a couple of months, and then move slowly forward.

Then there are birds who just don't work well together, who just can't stand each other, just as some people are not meant to live together. That happens even in the situations like the one mentioned above, with the cockatoos in huge outdoor aviaries.

Too bad there is not a lot of info about this, since the overall view on how to keep parrots is to keep them as separate, isolated "pets" in small cages (1-2 meters wide is still tiny, even for smaller parrots), to be kept only for human enjoyment. So either you find no info about keeping parrots in pairs at all, or it's strictly about breeding situations... believe me, I had a hard time when I tried to find info about the topic before I got my cockatoo a friend.

About the conure fighting the pionus - there may be a huge difference with one of the same kind.
Earlier this year, I was looking at a friend for my Meyers, something so distant from the Poicephalus (but stills so similar), as a Caique. This Caique was one year old, and had been bought as a friend for the lady's CAG.
That of course didn't work at all, I suppose the Caique viewed the CAG as a big "cow" or something that she could have fun with, and she loved tormenting and scaring the grey.

Then, I came over with my Meyers, Saga, to see if they liked each other.
The owner of the Caique was shocked. The bird froze in her cage and wouldn't leave it for the first two hours, she was just staring at Saga. They weren't anywhere near the same species, but the same size and shape, so this Caique saw Saga as something completely different than the big grey. After a few hours, the Caique tried to preen Saga, and it might had gone well, had I decided to take her.
However, I didn't, purely because I believe in the long run, the two species are too different.
But my point is, if your conure is fighting the pionus, it doesn't mean she will fight another conure.
My macaw hates small birds with a passion, and would kill Saga if he had the chance. But he LOVES other big birds, especially other macaws.

About breeding them - even if you do get them to like each other, please don't. There are already over 2 000 000 (no, I did not write too many 0's) birds being bred every year, in the US alone. Countless are waiting for homes in rescues, and even more are being denied a place in a rescue because there are just too many. We don't need to breed any more, if you can have more birds, then rescue some, don't create more lives into an alread overpopulated and cruel world.

[RWfishead]

Well there you go,,, all you need is a male and a female.

[Naurthon]

How two conures introduce themselves:

Hey baby! Your perch or mine?
Is that a foot toy under your wing, or are you just happy to see me?
Would you like to come up to my cage and see my foraging toys?
You and me, we could make beautiful raucous squawks together!
Ya wanna...cracker?
Hey, how are ya? Step up! Gimme a kiss! GOOD BOY!!!

[Shelby]

Well there you go,,, all you need is a male and a female.

Not true. You need a HEALTHY male and a HEALTHY female who get along, see each other as their mate, and have compatible genetics.

Please don't breed birds "just for fun" or the 'cute babies". As someone else already mentioned, there are already TOO MANY birds being bred every year. And breeding is a lot of work.

Not all birds instinctively know how to care for the chicks. Sometimes the parents don't want the babies and they try to kill them. In these cases, YOU will have to handfeed the babies at least every 2 hours. Are you prepared to get up every 2 hours to handfeed baby birds, EVEN at night? Handfeeding is risky and it is easy to choke them, feed them too much, or not enough. Will you be able to quit your job in order to stay home to feed the babies? And what about egg-binding? (When the hen forms an egg and is unable to lay it.) And vet bills? And the cost of the handfeeding formula? And the high-protein, high-calcium foods the parents will need to lay healthy eggs?

Don't forget that mated birds don't just lay eggs a few times - they lay a clutch (or sometimes more) every year! There's also the risk of chronic egg-laying, which endangers the life of the hen. Actually, any egg-laying endangers the life of the hen. It places a huge strain on her body.

What will you do with the babies? Surely you don't want 30 conures! How will you find them all suitable, loving homes while they are still young enough to be easily tamed and trained by their new owners?

Think about this!

[john94]

Thanks for all the answers! I've thought about it a lot and I know if it does happen what I'm getting into. If my birds want to mate I'll let them but I'll certainly not try to turn them into breeding birds. It's up to them. I don't have a job or go to school atm. I'm 18 so I'm searching for a job till I can get my self into some sort of school. So if there is chicks I'll have time to take care of them and I'm a night owl anyways so I can deal with taking care of them at night.

[liz]

How two conures introduce themselves:

Hey baby! Your perch or mine?
Is that a foot toy under your wing, or are you just happy to see me?
Would you like to come up to my cage and see my foraging toys?
You and me, we could make beautiful raucous squawks together!
Ya wanna...cracker?
Hey, how are ya? Step up! Gimme a kiss! GOOD BOY!!!

LOL
The stuff you come up with. What is your IQ?