2 Parrotlets Play time

[fashionfobie]

I am a bit new to the forum. If this was addressed somewhere already please point me in that direction.

Otherwise please share your experiences.

We have two parrotlets. They joined us about 1 month ago today. We got two because we have read they can get very bonded to single people, so we both wanted one to focus our attention on.

This already seems to be the case. Neptune is accepting ample tickles from me now. He also follows me around in the house and seems to be developing genuine interest in me. Picard bites me, but he loves my partner and flies to his beard. Eric officially has a beard bird now. I think this has been one of my partner's life dreams.

Since we were getting two and we wanted boys, to forgo the heartache of egg binding, we worked with a breeder. Both boys are from the same breeder, but they are not related. The breeder did allow the young boys to play and interact together before they came to us.

They have their own cage and spend a good part of their day with their person or in their own space. We have tried to let them play together in the common space. However this quickly turned into wiggles dance central. After the many regurgitation sessions they seemed to lose all of the progress that we have made bonding to them, the human-parrot bond. Picard ended up biting Eric very hard.

I am worried that this play sessions was the start of the two birds only wanting each other. Should we let them interact together? Will this harm the human-person relationship? We don't want to encourage wiggles dancing or breeding behaviours. Am I being overly worried? These little ones haven't gone through maturity yet. Is it better to let them play now so they don't get too feisty with one another later?

Thank you very much for sharing your experiences with multiple parrotlet homes.
~Natalie

 

[fashionfobie]

I can't find the edit button .. I mean 'human-parrot relationship' - clearly

 

[Karnkate]

I don’t think so. Mali instantly took care of Baby Joseph when I brought the fledgling home and he still follows people around like a chick following the thing it imprinted itself on.
Joseph follows Mali around because to him, Mali is a cool big bro with premium beak scritches that no hooman finger can provide. However, he’ll fly to me the moment I give him the signal or show him the walnut.
I just got yet another parrotlet and all 3 of them still love me and my family while enjoying each other’s company as well.

 

[GracefulWolf]

Parrots can absolutely bond to the point where they're not interested in humans. It's a good concern. I've seen it happen many times before. And with parrotlets, you have the added worry of them hurting each other when puberty hits. It's common for them to suddenly fight and seriously injure each other after getting along for a long time. In the long term, it doesn't make a difference letting them play together now or not. Puberty hormones are the biggest determination. But if you've seen them bonding closely and quickly in such a short period of time, I would always keep them separated.

My two boys have separate cages and separate out of cage play times. Milo will be turning 2 shortly and then Luka will be turning 2 a few months later. I've had them since they were each 9 weeks old. I've had no issues keeping bonds with each of them. Before them, I had one parrotlet for years. Much easier handling one but two is so much fun

 

[Karnkate]

Parrots can absolutely bond to the point where they're not interested in humans. It's a good concern. I've seen it happen many times before. And with parrotlets, you have the added worry of them hurting each other when puberty hits. It's common for them to suddenly fight and seriously injure each other after getting along for a long time. In the long term, it doesn't make a difference letting them play together now or not. Puberty hormones are the biggest determination. But if you've seen them bonding closely and quickly in such a short period of time, I would always keep them separated.

My two boys have separate cages and separate out of cage play times. Milo will be turning 2 shortly and then Luka will be turning 2 a few months later. I've had them since they were each 9 weeks old. I've had no issues keeping bonds with each of them. Before them, I had one parrotlet for years. Much easier handling one but two is so much fun

When is the puberty age for the p’lets?

 

[fashionfobie]

My understanding is that it starts around 10 months of age, but will depend on each individual. These are my first parrotlets so someone else should feel free to chime in