Introducing new female to my male

[smurphy]

Hi All,

I have an 11yo male (Archie) who I hand reared and is quite bonded to me. Recently we adopted a 3yo hand reared female (Alex) from a home where she was mostly caged 24/7, though next to other birds - IRNs.
She has done her quarantine time here and their cages are now next to each other and they're coming out for free time together.

Overal the introduction is, I think, going well. It's been a week now and they are sharing the living room play gym without drama.
She is VERY keen on Archie and spends most of her time trying to court him, though he's not that interested and ignores her.

My question is, what are the changes he will eventually accept her as a mate? Being hand reared and mostly an only bird all his life (he lived next to my boss' male alexandrine for a bit) without any interaction with females, is he doomed in terms of socialisation skills?

We didn't adopt her with the intention of breeding or anything like that, but it would be great if they eventually got loved up for the companionship while we're at work for eg.
It's only just going into Winter here so not exactly breeding season, but with her being so keen and him ignoring her and being bonded to me, I'm not sure if it's something that could even happen?

Any tips to help would be greatly appreciated

 

[SailBoat]

There are any number of possible out-comes. Some you may be happy with others, no-so-much.

If you have no interest have a mating pair, you should have considered another male. but you have a male and female now. So, you will need to set them up separately, i.e. they own cages with distance between them.

At this point, you will just have to watch what happens. As stated above, there are any number of possibilities.

 

[smurphy]

Thanks for the reply.

Archie lived next to another male Alex for a while and they never interacted at all. If anything, Archie was quite intimidated by him so we thought a female might suit him better.

Whatever the outcome, we are happy. What I meant was that we didn't adopt a female for the sole purpose of breeding. Just that we thought a female would give us more chance of them bonding and enjoying each others company. We were happy to have another parrot in the family anyway, so there won't be an outcome we aren't happy with.

As I mentioned, they do have separate cages which are now set up next to each other.

I more just wasn't sure whether the fact he was bonded to me completely rules out the idea he will then bond with another bird. But further research suggests Alex's don't mate for life so I guess it's possible he may find his instincts and begin to show interest in her.

Thanks again