Teaching trust?! HELP!!

[CarmenSwayze]

I've got a green cheek conure, Carmen who is roughly a year old and a really loveable girl who always wants to be out her cage. 2 days ago we got a Hahns Macaw from a fairly strange man and situation. Swayze is also a year old - apparently. He loves coming out his cage but doesn't really want to come near my boyfriend or I so it's luck of the draw if we can pick him up and get him back into the cage. I know he's got to learn to trust us first but any suggestions on how to go about teach trust would be so helpful. Sadly, his previous owner only fed him seeds, smooth peanut butter and satsumas in two days, he will eat from my fingers and is eating sweet corn and Harrison's high pellets but is shying away from his food bowl. Both Carmen and swayzes cages are next to each other with a suitable gap in between them. They are incredibly curious about each other but I'm very wary of introducing them too early as one bite from him could be so detrimental to her! How long do I wait and what's best when first introducing them?? I really hope we can all bond and be a happy family!! Thanks in advance for any suggestions you can make!!

 

[JJones1719]

Keeping their cages close together is a good idea, in time they will get used to eachother. I currently own a 6 year old Male Eclectus (Guapo) and 5 year old Green Wing Macaw (Neleno). I moved slowly to let them get used to eachother. I too placed their cages across the room from eachother so they could check eachother out. Then while holding both of them, I would see how they would react to eachother. To my surprise it seems like Guapo rules the roost. Neleno looks up to Guapo and it is so funny for this huge Macaw learning from a 1/3 size Guapo.
I have to be careful to allow them to play together as it would be death to my Guapo if Neleno even playing would use his huge beak at Guapo.
There are no issues to allow them to be out of the cage at the same time but due to the size difference, I would never allow physical interaction with them. Both my boys love talking to eachother, showering together, eating together in their cages. Best of luck.

 

[CarmenSwayze]

Thanks for your story .. That's given me a lot of hope!!

 

[Pajarita]

Be careful though - I have all kinds of species living together wth no problems but I've had to take all the GCCs (4 of them) out of the birdroom as they don't seem to realize they are little compared to the other birds and they would fearlessly face a much bigger bird so two of them ended up with the tip of their top beak bitten off (their beaks seem soft compared to other parrots). No biggie, there wasn't any blood and they are growing back but a clear sign that they don't do well with larger birds...