CAG and Male Eclectus as Buddies?

[nsmall]

Hello!

Like Milo, I'm the earliest stages of thinking about an Eclectus and would love your input on this specific question: Are a male Eclectus and a Congo African Grey generally a good combination of birds? Here's some background...

I have a Congo African Grey named Wa'allah (Arabic for "I swear!") who will be one year old this fall. We bought Wa'allah when he (? not sexed) was a few months old, and he is sweet, loving, and mild-mannered (sometimes even rather quiet!). He's relatively content, never aggressive, and not too skittish (we've owned one Grey previously and long-term fostered another and so are comparing Wa'allah to them). Overall, he's a fantastic family member...except that he is becoming a one-person bird (bonding to me). I have him interacting with the kids on a daily basis, and he'll let my husband handle him, but it's more along the lines of tolerance, whereas I get all the scratches and cuddling and kisses. Wa'allah also spends 3-4 days per week alone when I'm at work. I leave on music and he has lots of toys, but I know he must get lonely.

So an interest in a friend for Wa'allah as well as a more social bird for the family has me thinking about a male Eclectus. I've found loads of great info on diet, temperament, etc. I've also searched for several hours online about my specific question and find contradictory advice. Some say yes, they're a generally good match due to size and intelligence, but then others say no way (that Greys are too aggressive and dangerous for an Ekky). I don't want to get another Grey because I don't want a pair bonding/mating situation and because I feel like we got really lucky with Wa'allah's calm temperament. I also think the male Eclectus are gorgeous, and from what I understand, they are interesting birds (between the clowning and the Eclectus "freeze" reaction).

I see that several members here and on other forums have Greys and Ekkies in the same household. Obviously, a lot depends on the individual birds, but in general, are these two breeds good for being friends?

Thanks for sharing any thoughts!
Nancy

PS: Should I cross-post this under "African Grey Alley"? Being new, I'm not sure if/how much members jump around?

 

[Mystics Mom]

my male ekies and african grey get along greatthey play on the same play areas and go in the outdoor aviarys together but have their own cage..i think it would be a great mix....but always be prepaired just in case they dont like each other

 

[newf]

My male ekkie and our two Greys don't get along at all. They tolerate each other on when they are on their own cages, but you will never see them together on a perch or during play time on the floor. They will make it very clear that they don't want to be around each other. Luna doesn't like either of them at all. She tolerates my Murlin, but that is it. If left alone, there would be dire things that would happen. So we monitor all the birds when they are out so we don't have another situation that happened a few months ago.

 

[nsmall]

A good example of the opposing perspectives. Thank you both for responding! I'm guessing that it will really be up to the particular birds then, no way to really know...

nancy

 

[carlottalyn]

My two guys tolerate each other, but aren't especially fond of each other. I think that Dex (CAG) is actually more interested in being friendly than Riley (Ekkie) is, it's interesting watching them interact. The only time we've really had problems were when they both wanted to be on the same side of their large Atom, or if they were both on a rope highway that I had up. I ended up taking that rope down...it was causing too many problems with them.

Anyway, overall I'd say that we have a good match between them...I do wish that they were friendlier towards each other, but I know that we're lucky that they're not more agressive.

 

[jmfleish]

My greys and Ekkies mostly tolerated each other and once they actually liked each other until Tuchis decided he wasn't going to share a regurgitated almond...he always was a snot though!

I don't think you're ever going to know for sure. Have you thought about getting another grey? I think that's probably the way I'd go...

 

[Milo]

Today at work a woman brought in a male Eclectus and a female TAG who were bonded, it was super cute! She said they did pretty much everything except try to mate... although I do find myself wondering what those chicks would look like

 

[Grammy]

Baby and Paco can share space with absolutely no problem. They just completely pretend that the other one doesn't exist. They do sometimes answer the other one saying "Gimme a kiss" with a big wet smack sound, or say "hello" in response to the other's "hello" but I think that's a Pavlovian response that they can't help! I know this is stupid thing to say, but visually they are stunning together.

Really, though it's like try to find a brunette friend for your blonde child based on the behavior of two other blonde and brunette children: they're way too individual and there are too many variables to make a prediction possible. I know that's stunningly unhelpful - sorry.

 

[nsmall]

Thank you for all these great responses! It sounds like "tolerating" is the major theme so far, with the exception of that bonded pair Milo saw (wish I could have seen that, too!). I'll keep pondering this buddy idea--thankfully, I'm in no hurry.

Jen--I hesitate to consider another CAG for two reasons...(1) is that I don't want them to end up a breeding pair (and the sex of the bird won't be possible to determine if/when we buy one...we're in Qatar, and while the birds are supposedly captive bred (closed banded), there's not a whole lot of English going on...it's a difficult situation to say the least... and (2) the three CAGs we've had in our home for extended periods (including Wa'allah now) have all been one-person birds. One of the main thoughts in getting a second fid is having a more social family bird (and I had read in several places that male Eclectus had a better tendency in general for being social).

I would love to hear more from Ekkie owners. Learning about how they interact (or not! with other breeds is fascinating all around.

nancy

 

[jmfleish]

Well, male Ekkies do seem to not fall into the trap of liking just one family member a lot, so it that case, a male Ekkie would probably be a pretty good choice. The Ekkies and the greys are also similar in size, so that's a plus too.

My Taco never really cared for other birds, although he did have that short-lived preening agreement with Tuchis TAG...that was really cute while it lasted. Cooper seems to be enthralled by other species. He was absolutely smitten with my female Patagonian Conure but the feeling wasn't mutual. He's now very interested in Amarillo DYHA...we'll have to see how that develops...perhaps it was just a female thing and he really needs a Redhead, who knows!

 

[nsmall]

Thank you all for your replies! I've done more research on the grey forum about companions for greys--some of you are also over there. For now, we've decided to wait on another bird. Lots of rehomes happen where I live, and if a bird-in-need comes our way, then we'll have the space to be helpful...then we can decide whether to foster or adopt based on the individual bird.

I appreciate everyone's input!
nancy

 

[Birdiemarie]

Thanks for the update, Nancy. All the best to you.