introducing a second parrot.

[spring]

I have a 3 year old female eclectus and would like to bring a young Hawk head
parrot into our family. Does anyone have advice or breed specific info that
can help my decision?

 

[Stacye and Tiki]

From everything I've read. There are several possible outcomes to adding a new member to your flock, not all of them good. Especially if there is just one bird currently in the home. It was outlined like this.

1. The bird you currently have and the new one get along famously and also continue to have the same kind of loving relationship with you that the first one always did. Everyone is happy.

2. They hate each other and have to be kept seperated or they fight. Noone is happy.

3. The birds LOVE each other and find no further use for you at all except food and water. They become unresponsive or even aggressive toward you. Birds are happy, person is not.

Many people have several birds living with them and everyone gets along just fine and they still love their people but the chance is there that it will effect the relationship with you in a bad way. Not saying don't do it. Just saying consider the possible outcomes. This is why Tiki will probably stay a one bird flock for a long long time.

Hope this helps some. I don't know much about specific species and how they interact with other birds but this is a general idea of the things that can happen when you add another bird.

 

[Spiritbird]

An Opinion: The best companion parrot is a single parrot in the home. I think if a person wants 2 parrots they should at least be the same species. You can end up having a wondeful addition to the flock or all h... could break out. Either way it is a risk some of us do take. I am Rosie's mate and no other shall come between. Really, it is a personal decision after doing your research. Good luck.

 

[antoinette]

Great advise from SB and Stacye.
I am a guardian to an Afrian Grey, her mate. Never had more than one bird at time.
Do a load of researching, browse through many different posts.
Whatever you decide, members will assist you wherever possible.
Good luck with decision.
Great day

 

[Riley's mom]

I have several birds in my house. 3 macaws, 2 greys, 1 amazon, 1 severe mini macaw, several smaller ones. They all have stands, all are integrated into the family and none of them are allowed to be on stands with another. They all get a massive amount of love and attention from everyone in our home. All are healthy and happy. They talk back and forth to each other.

 

[TexDot33]

Multi-parrot families are COMPLETELY POSSIBLE - I have two conures (probably the easiest to integrate into a flock) and I know a gentleman who has a RFM, a Red-Lored 'Zon, a CAG and three conures and they are one big happy family ... and Riley's Mom has her flock so it's is POSSIBLE without issue, infact it's pretty easy.

There is a lot more to this tough than to just introduce the two birds together and letting things happen from there ... it will take work, and how it HAS TO START is with YOU! YOU MUST BE SEEN AS THE LEADER OF THE FLOCK in the eyes of all of the members of your flock. So that means not showing favoritism (parrots are smart, they know what they can get away with and what they can't - they are always testing) and being a strong leader ... it's not THEIR FLOCK it's YOURS.

Now, you're choice of a second bird intrigues me greatly ... A hawk head huh, along with your FSIE, why not just bring in a Scarlet Macaw and complete the Holy Hell Trinity of stubborn birds? Hawk Heads are NOTORIOUSLY strong headed and they NEED A VERY STRONG HANDLER, otherwise they become nasty birds very, very quickly. This is a sad situation because when someone spends that much money on a HH they expect them to come trained, and they don't ...

A rare breed indeed the HH, tell me, why a Hawkhead, this isn't an everyday bird that someone says, "Hey, I think I want one of those ... " They are great and awesome to look at and hold, but, man, they can be a handful.

 

[wentcountry]

I have African Grey, Blue and Gold,2 sun conures, 2 quaker and 2 Eclectus and they all live happy together, but let me add this tho the female is a very dominant bird and she pretty much stays to her self and only has any thing to do with her partner and can be aggressive with the other birds and they know to stay away from her when she is out, so this is something you might want to due little checking into and reading up on, it took me along time for all mine to get along, now they all live happy together and some times you will see them all playing and eating together and then they have there days like kids do if you know what I mean.

 

[parrotqueen]

Tex is completely right, Hawkheads are indeed GORGEOUS birds, but very bossy and stubborn much like your typical teenager. Once they finally know who the flock leader really is, they are more like big conures; Playful and full of (cute) attitude. They are very intellegent as well, thus requiring lots of destructible toys.

 

[guyguerra]

" it took me along time for all mine to get along, now they all live happy together and some times you will see them all playing and eating together and then they have there days like kids do if you know what I mean.

"
I have 2 conures and a Quaker that can all be in the same cage happily, though the smaller conure was picked on by the Quaker for a couple of months. They are mostly over that now and are a very happy group, all three snuggle together to sleep at night. My question is about our latest bird, a rose breasted cockatoo. She's a baby, and won't stand up to the others. If they even get close, where they can hop to the cockatoos cage, they attack her, and she goes crashing to the floor to get away from them. What did you do to get yours to eventually get along?

 

[mtdoramike]

I recently adopted a 3 year old male Eclectus to add to our family. We currently have a Senegal parrot that we have had for about 9 months. Both Mac the Eclectus and Tki the Senegal seem to get along to a point. But Mac will still try and chase Tiki and try and hit her with his beak if she gets too close. So They have to be supervised. I also tried housing them in the same room, but in different cages, but they seemed to be quite noisy. They both were used to having their own rooms before. So once I moved their cages in different rooms, but within eye sight of each other, they weren't nearly as noisy as before. It seems they prefer it that way.

 

[mtdoramike]

Oh, might I add here that be prepared to do extra work. I mean it's like double the daily work, from cleaning their cages to fixing their meals to splitting your time between the two. Also be prepared for jealousy, which you will surely encounter and don't be surprised if your Eclectus gets a little aggressive with you once she realizes that her new playmate ain't going home.