Rena.

[Pajarita]

I would put the cages closer and allow them both out of cage time at noon (they are calmest then) and not allow either one on me. This is not easy to do with a GCC but even if it's for only a few minutes at a time, it helps. I would open their cages without asking them to step up or anything and, when they do, just give them each a nut to munch on.

[seagoatdeb]

How I have approached having my pois get along is to have many play areas, and have them spend time out of the cage far from each other but so they can see each other. It helps with the jealousy factor.

[marie83]

Thanks everyone, your thoughts on this help.
I'm in no rush to get them properly acquainted but I do need to bring the noise level down. A neighbour has said something to us about it so I've had to ask her nicely for her patience. She never used to hear Ollie & Harlie much at all.

I have problems with keeping them off of me, they only want to be on a person at the moment. I think the only way of getting them to start thinking of each other as friends is to leave them unsupervised. That would be possible in the spare room where they sleep at night. However the way Ollie is trying to bite Rena on occasions I am reluctant to try it.

I've moved their daytime cages closer together, hopefully that will go some way towards helping. Both birds are getting increasingly noisy though, Rena in particular. ..She is very loud and shrill. I believe she may have got that from other species, she makes a lot of grey and quaker type noises plus a few others I've never heard before.

[Wolf]

That is what I was mostly trying to help with, the noise level. That is why, I was asking about what they could see and when it became obvious to me that they were able to see each other , that this was not the issue and that perhaps the distance might hold the answer.

[Pajarita]

Yes, letting both of them out and putting them in separate perches works for other species but not f or GCCs because they will ALWAYS either fly to your shoulder or scream for you. I would try the letting them both out in the spare room without you been in the picture. I would leave the door open the merest crack so I could watch them and see what they do -maybe put something like a curtain or something like that covering the crack so you can just peep through a very small space, otherwise, they will fly to it and spoil the whole thing. Or, maybe you can get some kind of a curtain that has holes big enough for you to see through but not big enough for them to get through -that would be the best option, I think, because they will both see you but neither will be able to get to you. Because, in my opinion, the only reason why Ollie is behaving that way is because he doesn't want her to become between the two of you so, if you are not there, most likely, it will be OK.

[marie83]

Good idea but there is no way I could spy because the door opens the wrong way so... only way I could do it is by being in the room first and then getting my bf to bring them in. Even then I'm not really sure how I could hide. I've got a couple of ideas but I need to wait til I'm home to see if it's workable.

[liz]

I was called an over protective Mom. It has carried over to my feathered babies. They have the whole room to fly and play but I put a screen door on that room so I could see if one squacked.

I take parenting my birds to the extreme. I bought an older house and plan to die here so I am not worried about resale. My daughter will get it when I am gone. My pets take priority and get better care than I give myself.

[Wolf]

Perhaps temporarily hanging up a sheer curtain in the doorway would be enough.

[Pajarita]

Or one of those mosquito things that are sold for doors that go to the outside - the ones that have the opening down the middle and have the magnet thingies so it closes by itself after you go through them. They should allow you to see in and them out without them been able to get on you because the whole idea is for them not to have you as the bone of contention and to have to rely on each other for company, know what I mean?

[Wolf]

The magnetic screen that Pajarita mentioned works very well with my birds. I use one to keep my birds out of the kitchen, which is also where the cats hang out the most. Now if I could just get the cats to stop playing on the screen it might last more than 3 to 4 months.