Would Love Some Advice on Buying Another

[ibrevity]

First off, let me apologize for the length of this post.

To get started I currently only have one bird, a three-year old peach-faced lovebird named Elysium or "Lyssie". She is definitely female as she has laid infertile eggs once before. I will have had her for three years in November and she turns four in August. (Picture below is from four weeks ago but that's what she looks like in all her adorable glory. :21: Also my apologies for that picture being so dang big!)

As you can see Lyssie is my baby. I've rearranged by schedule for the past two and a half years to ensure that I always have four hours a day to see her. My entire family thinks I'm crazy, but I think she's a total doll. I keep her wings clipped (I live with other people and it's far safer for us both that way) and feed her a diet of mixed seeds, dried fruits and veggies, and pellets that I'm still trying to convince her to actually eat.

Now I'm telling you all this because recently I've started thinking about picking up a companion for her. I am utterly disinterested in breeding them (there's quite enough misplaced parrots in the US) and I would never home them together (more on that later). I mainly want to purchase another so that while I'm at school or out of the house she has something to interact with. Lyssie is almost entirely disinterested in any toys I've ever offered her and chirps to the radio instead, which I turn on whenever I leave. She's never had any trouble with plucking and was declared healthy at her last vet visit.

This may seem like an easy problem for some but I have a few hang-ups, the first being that Lyssie does not appear to like birds whatsoever. She has been around none since she was six months old, or at least none close up; but she does her alarm call whenever she sees wild birds outside and screeches/screams at them through the window if they don't immediately leave. In the summer they take great joy in driving the both of us crazy. I take Lyssie to my local parrot store to get her nails and wings clipped every time the need arises and she barely talks to the other birds unless she's yelling at them in the sort of 'shut up' manner she uses when she wants me to stop talking on the phone. Even when standing next to a cage with another lovebird she was more interested in chewing on my thumbnail than talking.

I'm afraid I'll buy another bird and Lyssie will hate it, and by extension be upset with me. If they don't get along I'd have to spend alone time with each, and I simply don't have the hours to do that most days. Mostly I feel like I want another lovebird because I love Lyssie so much and they're just so cute, and I also feel like that's very selfish because Lyssie and I have a good thing going. But am I taking away from her natural flock instincts by denying her another bird?

As you can tell it is a very complicated matter for me. Lyssie is my first bird and before I had her I had never been around a parrot for an extensive amount of time. I have no close friends with birds so I cannot ask them for advice and that is why I've come here.

Any advice would be most appreciated.

 

[thekarens]

Unfortunately there's no way to guarantee that they will get along so you have to assume they won't and go from there.

 

[Kalidasa]

First of all, super-cute pic of that lovely lovie! As the Karens stated above, there really isn't any guarantee if your bird will accept another. So if your aren't prepared to divide/add extra time to your bird schedule, you may want to reconsider.
With that said, I've always been a firm believer that birds benefit from the company of other birds, even if they don't get along. And there's no rule stating that you have to get a bird of the same species. I've had female lovies before, and they're pretty fierce lol! If she seems happy, and you're at capacity with time, you may want to consider keeping things as they are.