Tips for owning multiple large birds?

[fayah]

So I am currently scheduled to get two additions to my house: an umbrella cockatoo and a few weeks later, a congo african grey. The umbrella cockatoo is rehomed from a family that unfortunately cannot take care of her anymore. On the other hand, the congo african grey is a baby I chose from meticulously looking through reputable breeders and finding one with good practices I trust.

I am very dedicated to taking care of both. I have had experience with many birds before, but the last permanent bird I had was 6+ years ago. I've done a lot of fostering in the meantime and I am very comfortable with large birds. However on the other hand I know they are very demanding and I am always worried if I can be the best home for them. Especially when I can't spend time with both together as I am going to definitely isolate the two for a good month or two while the baby gets a routine vet visit + etc.

I work part-time (my work is pretty flexible, sometimes I work full-time hours which is what I'm doing now while I still have an empty next so I can save up funds for the future) and can usually schedule my shifts at night or overnight so I won't be away from the birds too much. I also have family at home who I plan to teach to handle/socialize my birds, help clean cages, etc, but they won't be doing much of the caretaking as they get too intimidated by bigger birds.

So yeah, I feel like I sliiightly may have bit off more than I can chew, but on the other hand I really love both birds and have been preparing meticulously for this. Money, how to manage care, etc. is not really a problem for me as I have a lot of experience/planning put into that. I'm just more concerned about socializing both birds well.

Any tips for how to divide time well between two needy birds? Or deal with possible jealousy/etc?

 

[itzjbean]

Hello and welcome to the forums! There's lots of people here with experience with multiple large birds.

I myself only have two small cockatiels, but I highly recommend you check out Gotcha The Cockatoo's Youtube channel. He's a rescue Moluccan cockatoo who was abused and neglected and his new owner has completely changed his behavor. He's now a very loving, active, cudldly companion. She also has an African Grey named Lefty. She also has a one-year old baby, would be overwhelming for most people but she manages to do it by being very careful with their interactions and taking lots of preventative measures.

For instance, the cockatoo and her African grey just don't get along. Some birds just don't jive well, but that's okay. She is always there when they are out of the cage and they are always kept apart from each other. The baby is kept away from both birds but she manages to get them used to each other by utilizing baby gates to separate them. There are TONS of videos on the channel, and Gotcha is super comical to watch. I hope you take a look at those videos and hopefully it will help you with taking on the Umbrella with your Grey. Since your Grey is a baby, it may be a lot easier to get them to tolerate/like each other. Good luck!!

 

[fayah]

Thank you! I checked out the video, it gives me hope that it is possible to manage two birds AND a baby, wow.

I guess I'm also curious on a few other things and may try to ask around here/message the youtuber. Like is it better to prepare meals/cage set ups/treats for both birds at once or stagger it? like feed one bird earlier and take the other bird out while distracted / vice versa. Or will the later feeding bird just get angry/jealous if he sees the other bird getting fed first (though I guess this won't matter in the beginning as I will keep them in separate rooms)

Also taking two birds outside the house on a leash sounds inadvisable as both hands will probably be busy with each leash? I really like going outside with my parrots but taking two at once sounds a bit hectic and I worry they'll get up to mischief if I don't give my full attention to both...200% attention. Has anyone gone out with multiple large birds?

I guess a lot of things are just very individual bird dependent. Sometimes I just wanna slap myself for falling in love with larger birds haha