opinion on conures behavior

[alliah]

I have heard that conures get really mean and don't want to play with humans any more if there is a second bird? does it happen often? does it only happen if they are mates?

 

[Peeko]

I cant speak from experience for conures, but we had a pair of parakeets, cockatiels, and lovebirds and none of them wanted anything to do with humans, only each other. I had a female dove who loved me, but once I got her a mate, she only attacked me when I went near her.

 

[Megapixel]

I have heard that conures get really mean and don't want to play with humans any more if there is a second bird? does it happen often? does it only happen if they are mates?

Are you asking about when the second bird is just another bird in the home or do you mean when the birds are housed in the same cage?

 

[alliah]

did it happen only when you got them a mate?

 

[alliah]

getting another bird housed in the same cage.

 

[Dinosrawr]

That's a very difficult and situational question to answer. In some cases, yes, this done happen. In others, no. It all depends on how the bird bonds and with whom. If a bird decides to see someone or some bird as a mate, they become very, very protective and territorial over them. If they see them as a flock mate, then it's more like they're buddies.

There are many cases when the opposite of what you suggest happens, where the birds hate each other because one of them has chosen you as their mate. I don't believe this behaviour is always preventable, but you can at least work towards trying to prevent it through proper socialization and not allowing one bird too much time with one person or bird. Though, I do imagine it is much more difficult with birds that are naturally monogamous. Birds that are promiscuous (it sounds funny, but it's the proper term) will not choose one mate. Instead, they love everyone and do not discriminate, though they may occasionally choose a favourite for a short period of time.

My GCC, Avery, will randomly show protective "mate" behaviour over me. When she's with me, she may lunge at my boyfriend or friends when they get too close and get full of attitude with them (it's really quite funny!). But I don't encourage this behaviour with her, and I also don't let her on my shoulder when others are around as a general rule with her, as she shows it more the "closer" she is to me. When she does do this, I actually put her down and have that person use some target training or bribe her with a banana or sunflower seed to step up on them and get close to them. It doesn't always work, but I am at least showing her that being aggressive to people around me doesn't give her power over whom I choose to be with.

 

[Peeko]

There's no guarantee that any birds will get along and accept each other as cagemates, especially if you're introducing a new bird to a cage that your current bird already perceives as its territory, there's potential for bloody fighting. When I introduced my doves, they fought. It took separate cages for three months before they would accept each other's company, but now they became inseparable and lived in the same cage.
Our cockatiels were confirmed male/female but our parakeets and lovebirds were not DNA sexed and it was so long ago that I don't remember what color the parakeets' ceres were (which is how you tell a parakeet's gender for most color morphs). Either way, each pair was completely bonded to each other. For all we knew, the lovebirds and parakeets were same gender, so "mates" may not make a difference. I do know that my cousin had two male cockatiels that were bonded to each other instead of people, and a friend had two male parakeets that were also bonded to each other instead of people, but had been bonded to people before being introduced to each other.

 

[MonicaMc]

It's never been the case with me. If I had a tame bird(s) and got more birds, the tame one(s) would remain so.

Casey was my first cockatiel 12 years ago (and 4 months). She was hand raised from day one of hatching so she's pretty tame and friendly! Since having her, I have been given another 7 cockatiels, all adults. Casey still remains as sweet as ever! And demanding of her scritches!

Noel was my first conure. He was really never tame, per-say and he wasn't very big on human interaction, but we did have a special understanding of each other. I learned how to interact with him and how to move him to places he enjoyed.

When I got a second conure, Charlie, Noel's behavior never changed. Noel and Charlie never did get along and there were times that Noel tried to mimic Charlie's behavior (i.e. taking a bath), but Noel's behavior never changed towards me.

Noel passed away a few years after getting Charlie, so Charlie was an only bird for a few years. I now have another conure, Jayde. Charlie's behavior has not changed towards me since I've gotten Jayde, in fact it might have improved a little! LOL They don't really get along at all (they can both be on me with some amount of squabbling, or they can both be on a cage top and not fight, but otherwise they do not interact at all) so again, have had no issues.