To pair up or not? Need opinions

[IcyWolf]

We have been talking about getting our little black capped conure, Billie, a partner for a little while now. We just can't decide if we should or not. I noticed an ad for a female BCC awhile back and mentioned it to my other half, he asked if she was still for sale and I pulled up the ad and low and behold, she belongs to a breeder that lives near me, is on my facebook, and is now a forum member as well

Billie seems to enjoy interacting with our other birds, although they don't seem to share the same enthusiasm he does. Ziggy is pretty antisocial and will quickly chase him off her cage when he lands too close, he has managed to get pretty close to a few of the budgies but they usually fly off if he tries to actually make any contact with them. He hasn't' shown any aggression to any of the other birds and will fly over to our vanity mirror and just hang there for hours if we let him, the entire time saying "pretty bird" and "I love you" to his reflection. I'm still leery about whether or not he would hit it off with this female. She is a breeder and not tame(from my understanding) so I would hate to get her and then be searching for yet another conure to pair her up with if they don't get along, especially because black caps aren't too common around here from what I've seen.

In your experience, are conures generally easy to pair up or should I just forget this whole idea and leave him a single man? He is about 4.5 years old and I can tell that his hormones have been kicking in lately, he's been a little noisier and a lot nippier, I currently have a nice chunk taken out of my knuckle from him the other day. I spend a lot of time just watching our budgies and the amazons and they seem so happy to have a partner to preen their feathers and cuddle with, I can't help but feel he might be happier if he had that too. I just don't know what we should do, all of our other birds were already paired up when we got them, and ziggy is so antisocial I wouldn't even try to introduce her to another alex, but Billie just seems like he really wants to interact with another bird, I almost feel bad for him being all by his lonesome in that big cage.

Any suggestions/opinions would be greatly appreciated, we're completely on the fence about this one, not sure which way to go.

 

[cockatielfan17]

i think u should but maybe when his phase is over cause it wouldnt be fair to him to be the only lonely one i think u should go for it

 

[MikeyTN]

Birds are fine being alone as long as they get the attention they need. There's no need to pair them up. I've thought about finding my macaw a girl friend, but that would just make things worse as he is being hateful towards me because of his bond with one of the dogs. With a mate, I'll never get to touch him again. I'm hoping to get the bird room done by tomorrow so we'll see how he does. IF you really want to go for it, since she's a friend of yours, why don't you ask her if you can borrow her to see how they do first before deciding on purchasing her?

 

[roxynoodle]

I think borrowing her would be a good idea, if that's possible.

 

[IcyWolf]

I don't really think borrowing her is a possibility, although that would probably be the easiest way to see if they hit it off. She is waiting to find out if she can get a male to pair up with her, in which case, she will not be selling her. So we are just going to leave it up to fate I guess. If she gets her male than we won't get her, if she doesn't, then I think we will. I have an extra cage, it's actually our black caps old one so it's plenty big enough for her, and none of our birds are ever locked in their cages so she would be allowed out as well. I was thinking if we get her, I would set her up in her own cage near his and just let them both out and see how they get along. Obviously if there is any sort of confrontation I would intervene but he really seems to want to interact with the other birds. It's so cute watching him try to inch his way closer to a little budgie, only to have them look at him and fly off. I just imagine them screaming, "Godzilla!" lol.