Hi everyone, I just wanted to introduce myself. I live in Georgia, 35 y.o., married, and work from home. I have a lifelong history with birds and have had linnies, zebra finches, and a Hahns macaw in the past.
I currently have a male parrotlet that I adopted a year ago from a family moving overseas. He is 3 years old and not your typical parrotlet: very cautious, insecure and prefers to be hands-off. His cage is next to my work desk and he tolerates my company from a distance but, no matter how slowly and gently I've worked with him, he remains fearful of hands. Despite being generally distrustful of people, I know he enjoyed the company of his flockmates (a dove and a lovebird) at his previous home-- all housed separately, of course. He's not aggressive in any way with my husband and me, just very fearful. Also he's not food-motivated or particularly responsive to my attention, so it makes it difficult to entice him to want to interact. It makes me sad that he doesn't seem to enjoy my company and is probably lonely for the presence of other birds. Because he's in my office, I spend about 8 hours a day with him on weekdays and 2 hours a day on weekends. If he was willing to be around the house with me, I'd have him out with me as much as he wished.
We are considering getting a second bird for a couple of reasons. Honestly we were hoping for a "family member" with our parrotlet but were surprised by his hands-off personality, and we'd love to find a bird who can enjoy interacting in all aspects of daily life: eating meals with us, harnessed walks outside, etc. I very much enjoyed my relationship with my Hahns macaw when I was a kid: she was a clown and was very loving to everyone in the family. Her noise level was admittedly a bit much for my liking, so I have been considering a quieter conure species (green-cheeked or black-capped) as our second bird.
I am interested in adopting an adult, and hoping for a bird that will enjoy supervised time out of his/her cage for the majority of the day. My only reservation is that I've heard GCC tend to be "one-person birds" and my husband and I are hoping for a fun-loving family member, which is why we're gravitating toward an adult bird-- so that we can have an accurate idea of his or her personality. We've also considered a cockatiel or a poicephalus (particularly a brown-headed parrot), but I may be allergic to 'tiels and unfortunately we can't find any pois to spend time with.
We love the playful, monkeying-around personality of conures. We're taking our time with adoption, because we want to stay patient for the right bird. I'm also trying to consider what's best for our parrotlet, and the possibility that housing 2 birds in the same room can be hit or miss.
I just wanted to say hi and thank you all for the resources offered on this forum while we consider our options.
I currently have a male parrotlet that I adopted a year ago from a family moving overseas. He is 3 years old and not your typical parrotlet: very cautious, insecure and prefers to be hands-off. His cage is next to my work desk and he tolerates my company from a distance but, no matter how slowly and gently I've worked with him, he remains fearful of hands. Despite being generally distrustful of people, I know he enjoyed the company of his flockmates (a dove and a lovebird) at his previous home-- all housed separately, of course. He's not aggressive in any way with my husband and me, just very fearful. Also he's not food-motivated or particularly responsive to my attention, so it makes it difficult to entice him to want to interact. It makes me sad that he doesn't seem to enjoy my company and is probably lonely for the presence of other birds. Because he's in my office, I spend about 8 hours a day with him on weekdays and 2 hours a day on weekends. If he was willing to be around the house with me, I'd have him out with me as much as he wished.
We are considering getting a second bird for a couple of reasons. Honestly we were hoping for a "family member" with our parrotlet but were surprised by his hands-off personality, and we'd love to find a bird who can enjoy interacting in all aspects of daily life: eating meals with us, harnessed walks outside, etc. I very much enjoyed my relationship with my Hahns macaw when I was a kid: she was a clown and was very loving to everyone in the family. Her noise level was admittedly a bit much for my liking, so I have been considering a quieter conure species (green-cheeked or black-capped) as our second bird.
I am interested in adopting an adult, and hoping for a bird that will enjoy supervised time out of his/her cage for the majority of the day. My only reservation is that I've heard GCC tend to be "one-person birds" and my husband and I are hoping for a fun-loving family member, which is why we're gravitating toward an adult bird-- so that we can have an accurate idea of his or her personality. We've also considered a cockatiel or a poicephalus (particularly a brown-headed parrot), but I may be allergic to 'tiels and unfortunately we can't find any pois to spend time with.
We love the playful, monkeying-around personality of conures. We're taking our time with adoption, because we want to stay patient for the right bird. I'm also trying to consider what's best for our parrotlet, and the possibility that housing 2 birds in the same room can be hit or miss.
I just wanted to say hi and thank you all for the resources offered on this forum while we consider our options.
I got a bit scared reading about how GCC may claim one family member as their "mate" and act jealous/possessive against other family members. This is definitely something my husband and I don't want. I've always worked with my birds to avoid triggering hormonal issues: provide adequate sleep, remove nesting triggers from the cage, and restrict scritches to the head, and I haven't had issues so far. I should mention that although my husband is very open to our pets, I'm the one who pushed to get our parrotlet and who also wants another bird. So I'm definitely hoping for a bird with a low risk of drama. We had enough issues with my dog accepting him after we started dating many years back. 
