TrueBlue
Strolling the yard
- Joined
- 11/12/20
- Messages
- 140
...my first lovie doesn't get along at all. I just wanted to share my experience with adding another bird for companionship. Both are not dna sexed. Both are bonded to me. Both are velcro birds.
I took it slow. During quarantine, the baby was upstairs and the other downstairs. I would whistle to get them going and talking to each other from afar. Or so I thought. Looking back, I think only my baby was trying to talk to my first lovie. My first lovie was probably just calling out to me the whole time. Once quarantine was done, I brought their cages into the same space upstairs, but still kept them far apart. And it was much of the same. Lots of noise from them both. I think the baby was interested, but my first lovie still wasn't. After about a week, I brought my first lovie out of his cage to meet the baby (still in the cage). My first lovie was NOT interested...at all. He would turn and walk away as if to say, I don't know what you are and I don't care, goodbye.
Again, after about a week of that, I brought them both out to eat together. Doesn't food unite us all? The answer is...umm...no. My first lovie would lunge and want to beak fight with the baby. So it began. I see it as pure jealousy by my first lovie. He would follow the baby wherever he went to stake his territory...even though I changed everything out from their cages to the toys to the playstand. So nothing was really my first lovie's things (his usual toys were still downstairs for one-on-one play time). But the jealousy was obvious. When the baby would perch on me, you could see the rage in my first lovie's eyes...lol. But yes, any attention for the baby was not appreciated by my first lovie. So now, if I want them both out at the same time, they need to be under strict adult supervision. And it sometimes means me getting my hands in between to separate them, especially when eating together. Yes, I do get bit by one or by both. My baby is the more passive of the two and normally just flies away. But lately, the baby has taken the offensive, even doing some fly-by attacks on my first lovie. Not often, but it happens.
So this is the chance I took with getting another lovie, and I knew it might not work out, but I was ok with it either way from the beginning. It's still much of the same now. Lots of noise from them calling out to me during the day and them pretty much just ignoring each other. But at least they are there together while I'm busy working.
And like others have already said, there is just no guarantee that another bird will turn into that BFF you want for your bird. I'll still work on getting them to co-exist semi-peacefully outside of the cage, but it will probably be a very slow process.
I took it slow. During quarantine, the baby was upstairs and the other downstairs. I would whistle to get them going and talking to each other from afar. Or so I thought. Looking back, I think only my baby was trying to talk to my first lovie. My first lovie was probably just calling out to me the whole time. Once quarantine was done, I brought their cages into the same space upstairs, but still kept them far apart. And it was much of the same. Lots of noise from them both. I think the baby was interested, but my first lovie still wasn't. After about a week, I brought my first lovie out of his cage to meet the baby (still in the cage). My first lovie was NOT interested...at all. He would turn and walk away as if to say, I don't know what you are and I don't care, goodbye.
Again, after about a week of that, I brought them both out to eat together. Doesn't food unite us all? The answer is...umm...no. My first lovie would lunge and want to beak fight with the baby. So it began. I see it as pure jealousy by my first lovie. He would follow the baby wherever he went to stake his territory...even though I changed everything out from their cages to the toys to the playstand. So nothing was really my first lovie's things (his usual toys were still downstairs for one-on-one play time). But the jealousy was obvious. When the baby would perch on me, you could see the rage in my first lovie's eyes...lol. But yes, any attention for the baby was not appreciated by my first lovie. So now, if I want them both out at the same time, they need to be under strict adult supervision. And it sometimes means me getting my hands in between to separate them, especially when eating together. Yes, I do get bit by one or by both. My baby is the more passive of the two and normally just flies away. But lately, the baby has taken the offensive, even doing some fly-by attacks on my first lovie. Not often, but it happens.
So this is the chance I took with getting another lovie, and I knew it might not work out, but I was ok with it either way from the beginning. It's still much of the same now. Lots of noise from them calling out to me during the day and them pretty much just ignoring each other. But at least they are there together while I'm busy working.
And like others have already said, there is just no guarantee that another bird will turn into that BFF you want for your bird. I'll still work on getting them to co-exist semi-peacefully outside of the cage, but it will probably be a very slow process.