Question for those who own 3 birds...

[Nakiska]

Birds are such interesting pets. I am back up to 6 again.

My experience went a bit like this.

I decided one day out of the blue I HAD to have a bird...NOW! I knew exactly what I wanted and drove to the first pet store I came across walked in and low and behold they had my Lutino Cockatiel. I didn't even question anything...I just bought "Him" who turned out to be a her. Chiquita...bless her heart.

One day hubby and I stopped in a different store to buy Chiquita some new toys and we ended up coming home with "Chicken Little" our baby pied male.

They didn't bond but were kind to each other.

Then again we were at the pet store to get supplies and this little green cheek conure, Franklin stole our hearts and well...once again, we left the pet store with ANOTHER bird, cage accessories...etc.

We all lived in harmony, Chicken Little learned a lot of words, our conure Franklin was learning to talk from Chicken as well. Conures I will say have VERY different personalities from tiels...they are the opposite end of the spectrum...especially those little green cheeks!

THEN one day my daughter was talking to a friend and I heard her say..."No, my Mom doesn't need anymore birds" And boom! I was interested? What do you mean I don't need any more birds? What's going on?

And a few hours later a couple badly abused, neglected and terrified tiels were delivered to my front door, huge cage an all. I named them Charlie and Sweet pea.

That was a bit of a game changer for our flock when Chicken met Charlie...Chicken wanted nothing to do with anyone or anything BUT Charlie! Charlie started beating up his sister...terrible bad because I assume the feeling was mutual between him Chicken. Charlie learned his vocabulary from Chicken, eventually I let Charlie and Chicken cage together and that lasted a little while when one day I came home to find a TON of feathers on the cage bottom...Poor Chicken had been beat up pretty bad by Charlie!

So I separated them for Chickens safety and the screaming for hours from BOTH of them was unbelievable. Both of them quit talking all together for weeks and I was sad because their talking is such a joy to me!

Everything eventually worked out and we found balance where Chicken lived upstairs and Charlie lived down stairs and eventually they started talking again.

Franklin, our Green Cheek...he does not prefer the company of ANY birds...ever. He came out of the cage door attacking our tiels at just a few months old!

We worked with him, redirecting his bad behavior toward them and now he can be out for play time with the tiels without too much issue. If he is bad, then I just put him away.

THEN we left a concert and I found a bunch of feathers in a parking lot and then I found the source of the feathers...a badly injured pigeon....Belle...yes...we still have him 6 years later! Hahaha!

AND then I accidentally came across an ad for a Sun Conure...eldery woman was desperate to rehome him...and well...that's how we got Sunny...he is a sweet sweet boy and wants to be friends with the other birds, but NONE of them will have anything to do with him at all!

And finally...a friend contacted me about "Rescuing" a parrot...turned out to be a yellow naped amazon...DeRita (you can find my posts about her in the amazon forum)

I lost Chicken Little in 2013 and Chiquita I lost in June of 2015. Miss them both so much!

Anyway, besides the amount of work cleaning and feeding all these guys...our "turn out" time is rather structured as not all birds can be out at the same time. Makes for a challenge having enough time for everyone.

I can have the tiels out with Franklin...Sunny won't leave me (unless hubby walks in the door), so he can be out with anyone who will remain OFF me. Belle (our pigeon) can ONLY be out ALONE.

Franklin can have "mommy" shoulder time...as long as no one else is out with me. Same with DeRita.

It's been a very interesting adventure to say the least!

I NEVER thought I'd go from wanting A bird to having 6 VERY different birds all at the same time!

It's hard to say how your tiel will react to another tiel in the home. It may be a match made in heaven, it may be a total disaster...and a green cheek conure well...they are a challenge all on their own! LOLOL!!

I personally wouldn't change a thing...the way my flock enriches my life is explainable.

I will mention though, that my most challenging birds to date are definitely my conures...both of them. They truly think they are BIG birds trapped in a tiny body!

Good luck to you when you do decide to add more birds to your home. It's an experience like no other...usually in a good way. ;-)

Keep us posted!

Toni

 

[Tropical]

Nakiska,

Wow!! What a story, it's like reading about a soap opera starring birds lol

I must admit though, since I am so unfamiliar with GCCs I think I'll be in for an interesting ride if I get one to say the least I know cockatiels VERY well and that is pretty much the only type of bird I am familiar with other than the pet chickens I used to own as a child when I lived in Budapest, Hungary hehe.

 

[TacoNTiki]

I forgot to say, I don't know if I'm too concerned about having to split my attention between 2 birds because my tiel's idea have having a good time is hanging out, sleeping and preening on my leg as I work all day on the computer. He actually never prefers to sit on my shoulder, he ALWAYS climbs down onto his special spot on my leg... which is such a pain because I am stuck sitting in exact same position forever and legs my always fall asleep! lol
... so I'm hoping if I got a GCC he could play and hang out on my shoulders or play on my desk while my tieel does his usually thing on my leg... this way I would technically be spending time with both?

Actually Taco used to be on my shoulder or under my chin all the time, without moving. Now because tiki is also on me and tiki likes to inch closer and closer to Taco, Taco is always active climbing all over me to get away from tiki. It must be a funny thing to watch... Two birds climbing all over their human.

 

[Tropical]

I forgot to say, I don't know if I'm too concerned about having to split my attention between 2 birds because my tiel's idea have having a good time is hanging out, sleeping and preening on my leg as I work all day on the computer. He actually never prefers to sit on my shoulder, he ALWAYS climbs down onto his special spot on my leg... which is such a pain because I am stuck sitting in exact same position forever and legs my always fall asleep! lol
... so I'm hoping if I got a GCC he could play and hang out on my shoulders or play on my desk while my tieel does his usually thing on my leg... this way I would technically be spending time with both?

Actually Taco used to be on my shoulder or under my chin all the time, without moving. Now because tiki is also on me and tiki likes to inch closer and closer to Taco, Taco is always active climbing all over me to get away from tiki. It must be a funny thing to watch... Two birds climbing all over their human.

LOL I bet is it indeed yet another reason I don't think I could ever own 3 birds as I don't know ho I would deal with THREE birds sitting on me hehe.
I wonder though, for those who own many birds don't the other birds usually scream and scream (flock call) if you take just one bird on your shoulder and the others are sitting on top of the cage?
... and my tiel is TERRIFIED all night long being by himself (he really is), so I plan to put the GCC and tiel cage only one inch apart (far enough so the GCC cannot bite my tiel's toes off) so that they can clearly see other other all night long... I'm hoping this will give my tiel some peace of mind, hopefully? At least then he won't be by himself.
He was whistling at all the other birds yesterday at that woman's bird shop (he seems so happy near other birds, poor thing) and they had a massive blue/yellow Macaw there... made my tiel look microscopic lol. Birds with huge beaks kind of scare me, I wouldn't dare touch it. I should have taken a picture, darn!!!

 

[Flboy]

Did you see the GCC presently in the adoption forum? May be your match!
http://www.parrotforums.com/adoptions-re-homing/57813-rehome-turquoise-green-cheek-conure-vegas.html

 

[Tropical]

Did you see the GCC presently in the adoption forum? May be your match!
http://www.parrotforums.com/adoptions-re-homing/57813-rehome-turquoise-green-cheek-conure-vegas.html

Thanks for sharing the link with me, very cute GCC indeed
... but I was really hoping to get a baby GCC so that it's raised with my tiel as I'm very nervous about a GCC possibly injuring my tiel one day and I would feel a lot more comfortable raising a baby GCC. I also still haven't been able to make up mind whether to get another tiel for my tiel or get a GCC which I would LOVE to have. I also must wait until I have moved out of the house I'm currently living in and into the new one until I can get a second bird unfortunately Hoping to get this done early next year which is right around the corner

 

[4dugnlee]

My opinion...I wouldn't get another tiel for your current tiel, unless you want another tiel for you. A GCC can keep your tiel company while you are away and they are in their cages. Even if they don't "play" together or bond, they will still keep each other company. Mine talk and mimic each other all the time, even though none of them "play" together. My Sassy even started saying everything Peanut says, and even does it in Pea's voice. But, I can't (or haven't yet) have Sassy out while the others are out. Again, just my opinion...

 

[Tropical]

My opinion...I wouldn't get another tiel for your current tiel, unless you want another tiel for you. A GCC can keep your tiel company while you are away and they are in their cages. Even if they don't "play" together or bond, they will still keep each other company. Mine talk and mimic each other all the time, even though none of them "play" together. My Sassy even started saying everything Peanut says, and even does it in Pea's voice. But, I can't (or haven't yet) have Sassy out while the others are out. Again, just my opinion...

Thanks for your advice. The ONLY 2 reasons I would ever get another tiel would indeed be for my tiel because I feel so sorry for him and because I might be too scared to get a GCC worried about it injuring my tiel... I know I am 100% getting a second bird (either a tiel or GCC). I also cannot whistle very well... and I feel bad he doesn't get to sing enough and looks extremely bored and sleeps all day (not because he is sick but because he is bored)... he's not a big singer in general though unless he's around other birds or if I am vacuuming he loves to sit on my shoulder as I vacuum and sing.. I'm happy to read what you are saying that the GCC would be able to keep each other company even if they don't "love" each other. I would LOVE to have a GCC though... I think I'm going to end up getting a GCC
I do recall my cockatiel would always sing to this ringneck that was in another cage across the room when my tiel was being babysat. How would the GCC whistle back to my tiel I wonder, if at all?

 

[PickleMeDickles]

I could NOT handle 9 sun conures.

I could handle multiple birds but you are so right about Suns. I have two (by accident, had no idea what they were, long story) and it is a nightmare. We had a small party last night and you can imagine how it went. Didn't much matter what I did with my Suns, THEY wanted to be part of the party, so it went "human word" "SQUAWK" "human word" "SCREECH" "human word" "OKAY OKAY". It was ridiculous.

All of my friends have now officially certified me as insane. (Not to mention that 4 of our guests were under 7, I have a crazy nippy dog who howls when isolated, sheep that won't shut up, a neurotic border collie and a velcro chihuahua to go with the velcro birds. Thank God the horses were good. The bug has passed on so we are over that.) My Suns are SO attached to me that I just have to deal with it and look up at the sky every so often and give a wink to the big guy upstairs who wanted to throw a small (massive) wrench into my life.

My GCC I could definitely handle multiples. Not sure about other species as these birds are the three who (literally) chose me.

What ever your choice is, good luck!

 

[Tropical]

I could NOT handle 9 sun conures.

I could handle multiple birds but you are so right about Suns. I have two (by accident, had no idea what they were, long story) and it is a nightmare. We had a small party last night and you can imagine how it went. Didn't much matter what I did with my Suns, THEY wanted to be part of the party, so it went "human word" "SQUAWK" "human word" "SCREECH" "human word" "OKAY OKAY". It was ridiculous.

All of my friends have now officially certified me as insane. (Not to mention that 4 of our guests were under 7, I have a crazy nippy dog who howls when isolated, sheep that won't shut up, a neurotic border collie and a velcro chihuahua to go with the velcro birds. Thank God the horses were good. The bug has passed on so we are over that.) My Suns are SO attached to me that I just have to deal with it and look up at the sky every so often and give a wink to the big guy upstairs who wanted to throw a small (massive) wrench into my life.

My GCC I could definitely handle multiples. Not sure about other species as these birds are the three who (literally) chose me.

What ever your choice is, good luck!

Wow, lol. I have a feeling if you can deal with ALL that then I can handle owning a GCC and a tiel

 

[4dugnlee]

I could NOT handle 9 sun conures.

I could handle multiple birds but you are so right about Suns. I have two (by accident, had no idea what they were, long story) and it is a nightmare. We had a small party last night and you can imagine how it went. Didn't much matter what I did with my Suns, THEY wanted to be part of the party, so it went "human word" "SQUAWK" "human word" "SCREECH" "human word" "OKAY OKAY". It was ridiculous.

All of my friends have now officially certified me as insane. (Not to mention that 4 of our guests were under 7, I have a crazy nippy dog who howls when isolated, sheep that won't shut up, a neurotic border collie and a velcro chihuahua to go with the velcro birds. Thank God the horses were good. The bug has passed on so we are over that.) My Suns are SO attached to me that I just have to deal with it and look up at the sky every so often and give a wink to the big guy upstairs who wanted to throw a small (massive) wrench into my life.

My GCC I could definitely handle multiples. Not sure about other species as these birds are the three who (literally) chose me.

What ever your choice is, good luck!

Wow, lol. I have a feeling if you can deal with ALL that then I can handle owning a GCC and a tiel

WOW! LOL! I agree...I don't think I could handle another sun. I love my little Cisco dearly, but his screech is the most annoying of all my fids..to me anyway. (and I did know what they sounded like when I got him...but I had always wanted a sunnie...and hubby said "if that's what you want...")

I have no doubt you can handle a GCC and a Tiel. It sounds to me like you wouldn't be really happy if you got another tiel and you would wonder "what if..", and that you really want to get a GCC. Realistically if you got a tiel and weren't happy, you would ultimately end up with a GCC too. Three birds will be more to handle than two no matter what. Unless you KNOW you want three, I'd go with the GCC next...you can always add a tiel later if you want. (and that way of thinking is how MBS begins...:32

 

[Tropical]

I could handle multiple birds but you are so right about Suns. I have two (by accident, had no idea what they were, long story) and it is a nightmare. We had a small party last night and you can imagine how it went. Didn't much matter what I did with my Suns, THEY wanted to be part of the party, so it went "human word" "SQUAWK" "human word" "SCREECH" "human word" "OKAY OKAY". It was ridiculous.

All of my friends have now officially certified me as insane. (Not to mention that 4 of our guests were under 7, I have a crazy nippy dog who howls when isolated, sheep that won't shut up, a neurotic border collie and a velcro chihuahua to go with the velcro birds. Thank God the horses were good. The bug has passed on so we are over that.) My Suns are SO attached to me that I just have to deal with it and look up at the sky every so often and give a wink to the big guy upstairs who wanted to throw a small (massive) wrench into my life.

My GCC I could definitely handle multiples. Not sure about other species as these birds are the three who (literally) chose me.

What ever your choice is, good luck!

WOW! LOL! I agree...I don't think I could handle another sun. I love my little Cisco dearly, but his screech is the most annoying of all my fids..to me anyway. (and I did know what they sounded like when I got him...but I had always wanted a sunnie...and hubby said "if that's what you want...")

Wow, lol. I have a feeling if you can deal with ALL that then I can handle owning a GCC and a tiel

I have no doubt you can handle a GCC and a Tiel. It sounds to me like you wouldn't be really happy if you got another tiel and you would wonder "what if..", and that you really want to get a GCC. Realistically if you got a tiel and weren't happy, you would ultimately end up with a GCC too. Three birds will be more to handle than two no matter what. Unless you KNOW you want three, I'd go with the GCC next...you can always add a tiel later if you want. (and that way of thinking is how MBS begins...:32

Thanks for the responses they are actually helpful in helping me make up my mind. You nailed it with your reply, I would definitely be wondering "what if I had gotten a GCC instead...". I didn't even know GCCs existed until after I got my tiel. I am dying to know what it would be like to own one. I would LOVE to own a GCC they seem like such playful awesome little birds and so very different from tiels people keep saying... not that I don't love my tiel but it would be very cool experience to own a little GCC so I am very much leaning towards that... I can also add another tiel later if need be... when I can handle 3 birds... right now 2 is the max at this time I could handle