lobster@physics (Orin A. Day) (04/27/91)
In article <24APR91.21382139@uc780.umd.edu> greg@uc780.umd.edu writes: >>Amid the discussions of what type of bird to start with, I'm curious >>what experiences people have had with adding that dreaded second bird >>to the household. >> >>I bought a baby hand raised Cockatiel two years ago, and it has bonded >>quite well. Even though it absolutely refuses to learn anything new :-), >>it has become quite protective of me, insists on lots of attention, and >>it NOT at all a friend of my computer (which gets too much attention in >>her eyes...) >>Clearly adding a second bird to the fray would be a fairly traumatic thing >>to do, but it would also give the tiel additional distraction during the >>day when I'm not home. (Not to mention I want to get a conure, of course >>:-). >> At my house a minor (in the global scheme) trauma was merely adding a second cockatiel to my previously one bird apartment - a male to (hopefully) mate with my female, also about two years old. My normally tame bird became wild when he was around, and the male, also pretty tame when alone, would fly around and refuse to be caged - in fact, he even landed on my shoulder JUST to bite my ear in an incredibly sucessful attempt to draw blood. However, I went away for a couple five day periods to follow the Duke Basketball team, and left both of the 'tiels loose. The male, who was used to being in a large (room sized) enclosure, calmed down a LOT, and within a few days after I got back they were both competing for my attention in a positive and affectionate manner. > >Conures and cockatiels can be a troublesome mix. The two species >are not natural neighbors / friends, and we have learned that as a general >rule conures and 'tiels should not be left alone together. Conures tend to >be territorial, and people are territory too. If your 'tiel is as fiercely >possessive as you indicate, it will take a lot of work and care to get them >to accept the other's existence - but don't expect them to become friends, >as you may be let down. This is very true - I have a good friend who also keeps birds (African Greys, Cockatiels, and a Sun Conure - now, sadly deceased) and the different species generally do NOT get along. When they used to go out of town they would put Pico (Spanish for "beak", the sun conure) in with the cockatiels, ususally three or four. If they put in more cockatiels they would gang up on him, and fewer cockatiels would probably have resulted in casualites as well. When they got back from their vacations the cockatiels would ususally be exhausted, but unharmed, from Pico harassing them. Right now my cockatiels are (I hope!) working on producing some eggs, and in the interim I have purchased a small 7 month old Quaker Parrot, William Penn. He's really warmed up to me in the 10 days I've had him, and it should be interesting to see how he gets along with the cockatiels. I probably won't allow any interaction (except visual and verbal), though if I did have them both loose the cockatiels could easily fly to safely as the Quaker is, and probably will remain, clipped. With his powerful beak (he can hold a 20 page manuscript or my eyeglasses aloft) I'm sure he could make short work of either cockatiel, and he's not too different physically from most conures. In fact, when I saw him caged next to a conure, that's what I thought he was - and I was pleased when I found out he wasn't, and didn't scream like them either, and he came home with me that day. It's always been an old addage that one bird is better than two, but I've already violated it - it's a natural thing for somebody who likes birds to want to get more. I'd count on having a lot of fun with a conure if you get one, but don't count on as much fun from your cockatiels if you do, and above all, as Greg intimated in his post, avoid tragedies. Orin Day (apology for rec.sport.basketball type .sig deleted) -- Orin Day 1-919-382-1919 Duke University Dept. of Physics lobster@phy.duke.edu (but Lobster-head at Duke Basketball, 1991 National Champs) "I'm sorry, but I can't stop smiling" -Coach K