JamesC
Active member
- Sep 3, 2011
- 591
- 41
- Parrots
- Blue Crown Conures: Tootsie and Rosco.
Senegal Parrot: Sidney.
Feathers of the past:
Budgies: Sunshine, Digit, Kiwi, and Yahto.
Senegal Parrot: Kelly.
"Fly free, little ones. Love and miss you."
Greetings everyone.
I am a long time Blue Crown companion having had my girl (though most likely boy) for about 13 years and I knew her when my brother's family cared for her before me. My guesstimate is that she is at least 25 years old now and could be older. She was wearing a band when I got her and I traced the number on it to an import station in Florida. She is very attached to me and never wanted to interact with other birds in my flock. Last year, I lost my other two birds due to tumors and a respiratory problem that no vet could figure out and Tootsie has been an only bird since then. I was actively looking to adopt another so she would not be alone when I'm not home. To complicate things I became unemployed and ended up moving twice before life stabilized again. A month ago I decided that it was time to bring another into the flock and I started searching for an adoption again. Enter Rosa.
Rosa is another Blue Crown without much of a known history that I adopted from a local rescue organization. I'm thinking that she is between 5 and 10 years old but that is more of a guess than anything based upon hard information. She is not afraid of me though is hand shy. But in the week since I brought her into my life she has already made strides towards accepting contact. She will accept scritches on the head and has discovered that they are quite enjoyable. Until she realizes that I'm touching her and she should be afraid of hands again. Her "You are touching me!" reaction is quite amusing. With time and attention I think she is going to work out just fine and be a happy bird with me.
I'm living in a small place but will be moving into something better at the end of the year so Rosa is not able to be in another room for a quarantine period like I normally would do. She is across the room from Tootsie about 10 feet apart for now. And she is VERY interested in Tootsie judging by the number of times I've had to retrieve her off the floor after she tries to bridge the distance between them. For her part, Tootsie is generally UNinterested and would rather climb down from her cage and cuddle with me. Eventually I would like for these two to be buddies if they are agreeable about it but I'm cautious about the introduction because Tootsie never seemed to want contact with other birds. The fact that they are both Blue Crowns didn't really enter into my decision to bring in Rosa but I am now hopeful that Tootsie will be more accepting of another of her own kind.
Tootsie and I always "bow" to each other when I come home as our greeting and it is a good way for her to dissipate some of her noise and excitement. I noticed that occasionally her and Rosa will start bowing at each other across the room and I'm guardedly taking that as a positive sign. I thought that I was fairly well versed in the body language of these birds but now that I have two of them for the first time I'm seeing some body language that I don't yet know how to interpret. The health and well being of both of these birds is uppermost in my mind but especially Tootsie since she is getting over the hill and is becoming slower and more grumpy.
So I'm curious as to what other Blue Crown companions have seen from their birds during an introduction and what I should look for as a sign of impending trouble.
Thank you very much and have a great weekend.
I am a long time Blue Crown companion having had my girl (though most likely boy) for about 13 years and I knew her when my brother's family cared for her before me. My guesstimate is that she is at least 25 years old now and could be older. She was wearing a band when I got her and I traced the number on it to an import station in Florida. She is very attached to me and never wanted to interact with other birds in my flock. Last year, I lost my other two birds due to tumors and a respiratory problem that no vet could figure out and Tootsie has been an only bird since then. I was actively looking to adopt another so she would not be alone when I'm not home. To complicate things I became unemployed and ended up moving twice before life stabilized again. A month ago I decided that it was time to bring another into the flock and I started searching for an adoption again. Enter Rosa.
Rosa is another Blue Crown without much of a known history that I adopted from a local rescue organization. I'm thinking that she is between 5 and 10 years old but that is more of a guess than anything based upon hard information. She is not afraid of me though is hand shy. But in the week since I brought her into my life she has already made strides towards accepting contact. She will accept scritches on the head and has discovered that they are quite enjoyable. Until she realizes that I'm touching her and she should be afraid of hands again. Her "You are touching me!" reaction is quite amusing. With time and attention I think she is going to work out just fine and be a happy bird with me.
I'm living in a small place but will be moving into something better at the end of the year so Rosa is not able to be in another room for a quarantine period like I normally would do. She is across the room from Tootsie about 10 feet apart for now. And she is VERY interested in Tootsie judging by the number of times I've had to retrieve her off the floor after she tries to bridge the distance between them. For her part, Tootsie is generally UNinterested and would rather climb down from her cage and cuddle with me. Eventually I would like for these two to be buddies if they are agreeable about it but I'm cautious about the introduction because Tootsie never seemed to want contact with other birds. The fact that they are both Blue Crowns didn't really enter into my decision to bring in Rosa but I am now hopeful that Tootsie will be more accepting of another of her own kind.
Tootsie and I always "bow" to each other when I come home as our greeting and it is a good way for her to dissipate some of her noise and excitement. I noticed that occasionally her and Rosa will start bowing at each other across the room and I'm guardedly taking that as a positive sign. I thought that I was fairly well versed in the body language of these birds but now that I have two of them for the first time I'm seeing some body language that I don't yet know how to interpret. The health and well being of both of these birds is uppermost in my mind but especially Tootsie since she is getting over the hill and is becoming slower and more grumpy.
So I'm curious as to what other Blue Crown companions have seen from their birds during an introduction and what I should look for as a sign of impending trouble.
Thank you very much and have a great weekend.
