Hello from Alberta Canada, Need help please

[Jellybeen]

I will start off with a brief history of what's going on. I dated a girl for five years, her mother had a Senegal parrot. She passed away and asked my girlfriend to take care of him so he was part of the family. He did not like me at all for five years he would never let me touch him. About four years ago I fell in love with a Black Caped Lory in a pet store. We figured we had one bird another one was just a bit of extra work so we got JellyBeen. She is MY bird and is very close to me. About three weeks ago my girlfriend an I separated. She does not have many assets or the ability to house our little ones properly, so I was forced to re-home them or keep them. Like I said before they are my kids so I can not abandon them. Taz over the course of two weeks finally grew very close to me. He now lets me do almost anything my ex would do with him and is very affectionate to me. THE PROBLEM lies in that those two an not be within 3 feet of each other without going at it. Taz has caused severe bleeding several times to my JellyBeen and I am at my wits end on how to get them to bond. I have a very bad back and it is sevearly hard to take care of these two on my own primarily because they can not be with me at the same time without attacking one another. Taz is about 5 years older than JellyBeen. JellyBeen LOVES to play and that is all she is trying to do with him I think, however he is not playing and when confronted by her will attack her fiercely. BOTTOM LINE I need these birds to get along when they are side by side. I need to be able to take them both out at the same time and have them either play with each other in a safe manner or just leave one another alone. I need advice on how to make this a reality. Please if you have any in-depth ideas for me I would be very grateful.

[liz]

Both are claiming you as their human. I am still having problems with this. Rambo and Myrtle will play together but Myrtle will not share me. I have to protect Rambo to give him attention.

I really don't know what to tell you except that I know what you are going through. The other humans have more info than I do.

[Wolf]

This is a difficult situation and to be honest with you, you can not make someone like any other person and it does not matter that both of these people are birds. They are self aware and intelligent too. I would love to be able to tell you that you can get them to get along, but there is no way that I can, You might be able to get them to get along in enough time, but they may never get along.

[Pajarita]

Yep, that's basically the gist of it. Parrots are highly intelligent animals that live in societies that allow them to be independent thinkers so there is no telling them what to do, they decide on their own and who they like and who then don't is part of it.

But there are ways you can encourage them to get along and, basically, it's nothing but inuring them to each other's company. Put the cages side by side but not touching so they start getting used to seeing one another closely without been able to touch. Interact with each of them separately and away from the other bird (as in another room) in order to avoid exacerbating jealousy. When you 'carry' the bird to the other room, use a stick, don't let the bird climb to your shoulder (you can let it on your shoulder once the other one cannot see). Follow a strict routine every day but switch the order of who gets fed first so, for example, feed the Senegal first in the am and the lorry first in the pm. Make sure you are keeping them to a strict solar schedule and that you don't free-feed protein so the aggression of an overly hormonal bird is not making things worse. Do this for a couple of months and, once you see that things are beginning to settle into a routine for both of them, start letting them out together at noon (this is their natural resting period and when they are calmest) but don't use your hand to take them out of their cages or interact with them in any way. Simply open the cages doors and give each a nut in the shell (like an almond, for example) to distract them from concentrating on the other bird while they open it and eat it. Start doing it for only five minutes (by the clock!) and don't rush things. Slowly does it with parrots... trying to rush things because we 'think' it'll be OK tends to backfire on us. Once you see that they ignore each other for about an entire week of coming out together, stretch it to ten minutes. See what I mean? It's a matter of eliminating the natural competition they would have for your attention while getting them used to each other in a neutral way.

[Wolf]

I was a little rush for time when I answered you but did not want to mislead you so I gave you the most honest answer that I could intending to come back and tell you how you could try to convince them to get along. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.