Thinking about bringing home a new baby :)

[camelotshadow]

The cake seems to be OK on a playstand with other birds in the petshop.
I would not leave him alone with other birds or expect the same at home but it seems
this cake in his current situation is tolerant of other birds.
When he becomes bonded with one of you more this might change.
He might not like other birds around you or him but if you can provide a safe place forr him in the home & enough time & care for him then its up to you.
Sure it will be more work & harder with 2 bird areas but if you really feel for the cake & he has picked you then you have to really think about it & if you think you can make it work then go for it.

Gosh these cakes really seem to be Napoleonic!

Good Luck as you really seem to want to take the cake home. Let them have cake...

 

[Irishj9]

If you could let me know why (if so that is) you would STILL be against us bringing him home now given our specific situation, again and I would like to stress, with NO DANGER TO HIM OR MY CURRENT BIRDS, due to my housing situation, that would be awesome.
B

Because it is tantamount to animal cruelty to bring home a highly active and intelligent animal and keep it in solitary for most of its life. The fact that its previous owner did this, does not in any way excuse it.

It is not a dog. It is not conditioned and bred for human companionship over generations. It is essentially still a wild animal, with a wild bird's needs for its flock. That means 24/7/365.

I have two caique babies at home alone in their own cages. Separate cages because Boo-Boo can be a bully, and the adults are paired up and in breeding mode at present. They wont tolerate intruders. The babies can see and hear all the adults all day and have loads of room and toys. They have HUUUUUGE flights.

They play outside their flights with my partner for a couple of hours a day ( supervised) and I'm still guilty!. Why? Because its not good enough. Because I'm better than that.

I will find them partners early in the new year

 

[Barnaby Rose]

Because it is tantamount to animal cruelty to bring home a highly active and intelligent animal and keep it in solitary for most of its life. The fact that its previous owner did this, does not in any way excuse it.

It is not a dog. It is not conditioned and bred for human companionship over generations. It is essentially still a wild animal, with a wild bird's needs for its flock. That means 24/7/365.

I have two caique babies at home alone in their own cages. Separate cages because Boo-Boo can be a bully, and the adults are paired up and in breeding mode at present. They wont tolerate intruders. The babies can see and hear all the adults all day and have loads of room and toys. They have HUUUUUGE flights.

They play outside their flights with my partner for a couple of hours a day ( supervised) and I'm still guilty!. Why? Because its not good enough. Because I'm better than that.

I will find them partners early in the new year

So just to summarize, you are stating that in your opinion EVERY SINGLE Caique should be kept in a duo, NEVER alone, regardless of that specific bird, regardless of how it was raised or where it's comfort level is now, you are saying that because it is not a 'dog', and was not 'bred for human companionship', that there is NEVER a reason to keep a single Caique PERIOD. Am I hearing that correctly?

The reason I ask is because I was under the impression that bringing this little guy home, the right way, and putting in the extra time and work to keep him HOUSED by himself (that is very VERY different to in 'solitary'), would make ME part of his flock...? My wife and I for that matter in the best case scenario. So I am confused, are you literally saying that any person on the planet that has ANY other species of bird than a Caique (one that the other one excepts for that matter more specifically) is just WRONG for wanting to incorporate one into the flock? Even if that means keeping him caged alone and spending individual time with the little guy every day?

Not that it makes any difference, but I do know several people personally that make this kind of thing work just perfectly, what I am trying to accomplish here, and if anything I have MORE time on my hands than they do. (I own a construction company and make my own schedule).

Listen, I am by no means trying to down play your reasoning because as it happens, I agree with you. What I am trying to portray is that in the conditions that the little guy is living RIGHT NOW, he is thriving. Mine would be better, period. Who knows if or when he would find the 'perfect' home living situation, but I would be lying if I felt I couldn't provide for him efficiently fairly and safely. I was just looking for support and advice, even if I were wrong which would be more than okay to hear, I just want to make sure you understand exactly what I am saying which it seems you are not.

He would not be in 'solitary'. Living separate to the other birds is not solitary in my eyes, where he is to be kept would be in one of the busiest traffic-y 'fun' rooms of the house 'my sports cave', and I am in there more than I am not.
He would be in NO danger, and he would most definitely be a part of our family (flock), more so than he is RIGHT NOW, where he has been for the last year.

You are really telling me I am still wrong for wanting to give this guy a home..?

 

[camelotshadow]

I hope we hear from some single cake paronts with some advise.

Right now a cake needs a good home & who's to say another one will come along that has a cake that this cake likes?

@rockybird

 

[Barnaby Rose]

I hope we hear from some single cake paronts with some advise.

Right now a cake needs a good home & who's to say another one will come along that has a cake that this cake likes?

@rockybird

My thinking exactly. I hope so as well, there must be people that have single happy ones out there.

 

[camelotshadow]

Cakes seem to be finicky though so its good to be on guard.

Have you read the Good The Bad & the Ugly?

 

[Begone]

I know that both @rockybird (she has other birds too with her cake) and @WendyN has single Caique so I hope they will reply.

@Barnaby Rose Have you and your wife been visiting this Caique?
And if we are talking about a rescue then nothing else matters then to get the bird out of that home.

 

[camelotshadow]

My thinking exactly. I hope so as well, there must be people that have single happy ones out there.

You said you have been visiting Reggie a few weeks.
Your concern was mainly your current flock. You would be getting this bird for yourself not the flock. Seems it only gets out of cage about an hour a day at rescue but you said it hangs on a perch with other species with no problems. Anyway you have a active room for the cake & who knows
it may be OK with supervised outs on birdroom...You would have to go slow & use caution
but you have a quarantine to consider first.

If the cake has picked you & likes you & your wife & you are smitten then I don;t see any reason not to get the bird out of the rescue & into your home as long as you have the space & time & resources for care etc...

Its already been said they don't like strangers as an adult so he likes you & the chances that he finds another person he likes are not that good.

If you really want him then I'd say get him & don;t let him spend xmas alone in the shelter.

 

[WendyN]

Joey is an only caique fid who is soon to be 5 years old.

Not so solitairy:
While he good at playing and destroying toys on his own, he likes to be part of a flock. I have 2- 20+year old cockatiels in the same room. If he is downstairs, as soon as dusk comes he calls to them and anxiously wants to go back to his cage where they are.

Supervision:
I am ever-vigilant to keep him away from the tiels. He will climb down from his cage and walk to his next destination as he is very curious and fearless. So outside cage time, about 4 hours is always supervised.

Hormones:
Currently, his hormonal behaivoir is blossoming. He did display some of it over the years but now it is very pronounced. While I am his "mate", I also have to manage my behaivior when he does his stalking, eye pinning, rocking back and forth, and lunging to attack. .... No bluffing, he will attack.
I have learned to modify my behavior around him. So our relationship has changed from when he was younger, always evolving to find the right balanced and simpatico relationship.

Two caiques:
I do wish that from the start that I would found a caique partner for him.
But I was not a very mature and informed parront.
I love him so much but I often think my love is not enough to meet his needs as a complete parrot. Unlike cats and dogs, with centuries of domesticated engineering, parrots are still very close to their wild origins and rhythm.

Hope this helps. If all is well with your current relationship dynamics, your home life and ability to provide good/proper health care for your fids, adopting a caique will change everything most definitely and profoundly.

 

[WendyN]

sincerely, I believe that AA members who manage a "blended" flock hold the most valuable and credible feedback for you.
A parrot's inherent survival quest is to always seek their flock or "peeps".
even though Joey is a solitary (unique) caique, he is always wanting to be part of a bigger whole. Of that I am certain.

I wish you well in your decision making.

 

[camelotshadow]

He says the cake is out with other species & is very tolerant of them.
It could work out that Reggie could share the bird room but they would
have to be supervised out time.


There is quarantine first so there is time in the future for intros.

Really would be nice if the cake got a loving home for xmas.

 

[MNR]

Well, it seems like there are at least two separate concerns here:

1) You have an Eclectus and a TAG. Adding a caique or two would potentially disrupt them major way, even if they are not in the same room.

2) You are currently thinking about keeping ONE caique away from other birds.

I don’t know much about Eclectus or TAG, but my impression of them are calm (esp. eclectus), gentle and quiet (?). Neither of them are too hands-on (?). My caiques are loud, hyper, clingy, and very very DEMANDING. They have a lot of toys, several playstands throughout the house, and they have each other, but they’d rather be ONE ME me or getting into something else. My girls do not bother my Amazon (or cockatiel when I had him), but they could be very aggressive toward some humans! So, let me put it this way: I am thinking that your eclectus is like a very conservative, soft spoken, well-mannered lady, while my caiques are like rambunctious, ADHD, needy, clingy, bi-polar, unstable, LOUD teenagers. The teenagers would not care what the lady would think, but the lady could be horrified, and want her quiet peaceful existence back.

Caiques are quite loud, especially if they are unhappy. So even if the caique is in the other room, your Eclectus and Grey could be bothered. And honestly, I am not sure if it is a good idea to keep them in separate rooms. It may even frustrate them to hear them but not see them (this applies to all of them).

My cockatiel did not interact with Caiques or Amazon (I did not allow it ---- too dangerous), but he wanted to be in the same room as everyone else. He would complain if I did not move him (that means more noise!)

There are some caiques who are kept alone and do well. I started out with one caique(Loki), but I remember how she screeched a lot even though she was outside of her cage and had plenty of toys. The second caique (Puck) has a separation anxiety and she plucks when I have to be out of town (She used to pluck when Loki was out of her sight, too). My two caiques play together but they bicker a lot, and they have their own cages for their own safety (because they could be aggressive to each other, too). Still, they’d rather be ON ME all the time! (Yes, they are very cute, too).


I hope you give careful consideration and make a decision based on what’s best for all involved.

 

[WendyN]

...... Not to mention the hair surfing and trying to get a caique out of the beehive hairdo he created on my head....newbie lesson 101.

 

[Barnaby Rose]

He says the cake is out with other species & is very tolerant of them.
It could work out that Reggie could share the bird room but they would
have to be supervised out time.


There is quarantine first so there is time in the future for intros.

Really would be nice if the cake got a loving home for xmas.

If I could give him a home for the holidays it would make me extremely happy, yes. And yes.. there is no saying that he WONT get along with the gang.. but there is no saying he is, or could even be in the same room either that's the thing - Not that that makes or breaks my thinking in anyway regardless. I am more concerned with the outlined below... disrupting my current flock, and making any party involved unfairly unhappy. It is such a rough decision

 

[camelotshadow]

It's all up to you if your flock stays happy. If you think you still can give them enough time
then I don't think they will care there is a cake in the house or one on a cage i there room.

They still need enough time out & you time.

So you have to really decide whether you have the time for another bird & keep up a similar routine for your flock.

 

[Barnaby Rose]

Well, it seems like there are at least two separate concerns here:

1) You have an Eclectus and a TAG. Adding a caique or two would potentially disrupt them major way, even if they are not in the same room.

2) You are currently thinking about keeping ONE caique away from other birds.

I don’t know much about Eclectus or TAG, but my impression of them are calm (esp. eclectus), gentle and quiet (?). Neither of them are too hands-on (?). My caiques are loud, hyper, clingy, and very very DEMANDING. They have a lot of toys, several playstands throughout the house, and they have each other, but they’d rather be ONE ME me or getting into something else. My girls do not bother my Amazon (or cockatiel when I had him), but they could be very aggressive toward some humans! So, let me put it this way: I am thinking that your eclectus is like a very conservative, soft spoken, well-mannered lady, while my caiques are like rambunctious, ADHD, needy, clingy, bi-polar, unstable, LOUD teenagers. The teenagers would not care what the lady would think, but the lady could be horrified, and want her quiet peaceful existence back.

Caiques are quite loud, especially if they are unhappy. So even if the caique is in the other room, your Eclectus and Grey could be bothered. And honestly, I am not sure if it is a good idea to keep them in separate rooms. It may even frustrate them to hear them but not see them (this applies to all of them).

My cockatiel did not interact with Caiques or Amazon (I did not allow it ---- too dangerous), but he wanted to be in the same room as everyone else. He would complain if I did not move him (that means more noise!)

There are some caiques who are kept alone and do well. I started out with one caique(Loki), but I remember how she screeched a lot even though she was outside of her cage and had plenty of toys. The second caique (Puck) has a separation anxiety and she plucks when I have to be out of town (She used to pluck when Loki was out of her sight, too). My two caiques play together but they bicker a lot, and they have their own cages for their own safety (because they could be aggressive to each other, too). Still, they’d rather be ON ME all the time! (Yes, they are very cute, too).


I hope you give careful consideration and make a decision based on what’s best for all involved.

This is very helpful. Yes you are correct in your thinking regarding Emma.. she is very calm, very quiet (most of the time) and quite independent. Both of the birds however actually are quite 'hands on', they both love to cuddle, they both like our time individually and they both like their alone time.
However here is the thing... Before we made the decision to bring home Oliver, we did a lot of research, spent time with literally as many species as we could, and thought through almost every scenario we could have before settling on a TAG. we made the choice based primarily on the fact that he was supposed to be calm, quiet, independent and self aware, nice and stand-back-and-observe type of deal and etc.
He is literally and figuratively, the exact opposite of that.
He is Loud, rambunctious, needy and clingy, playful and cuddly, messy and curious, very naughty and silly and we love him to death. Needless to say, everything we had heard about a Timneh African Grey fell through the floor immediately, everything we had prepared for was shattered overnight and we were thrown into a situation very similar to what everybody is describing here today involving a Caique.
Anyway the point is, everything you just said concern wise with Emma, (completely justified by the way), we were VERY concerned with with Oliver, and she proved us very, very wrong. Don't get me wrong she is NOT amused when Ollie decides to fly over onto her perch, or hops down and walks over to her cage, and they are certainly not 'friends', but they tolerate each other very very well, his noise level does not seem to bother her in the slightest, and sometimes they even seem to compete in silly noises and whistles and etc. Now again, NOT expecting this to happen with Reggie by any means.. but Emma is actually less of a concern to ME anyway, more so oliver. He is the one that I see having a problem with another bird in the house, having just learned his 'place' , if that makes any sense at all.
Do you think that if I were to keep his cage in the bird room with the others, but build some sort of barrier around the perimeter or something stopping Emma and Oliver from literally getting to his cage.. and then planned on having his out of cage time in a different room altogether, that that would potentially solve his issues of being alone in the room while we were elsewhere?
I am honest to god not trying to be difficult, just trying to exhaust ANY opportunity to make this work before making the decision to give up on this little guy.. especially as many have said, we do not know if he will ever find a more perfect 'person', than me. Thanks so much again for taking the time to help me with this you guys, no clue what I would do without a forum like this!
B

 

[camelotshadow]

I think your birds are not going to care about another bird as long as they still get there time & attention. Like you said you never know how dynamics will play out.
You just have to be prepared to deal with situations as they arise. You can not foresee the future.

I think they will all want to investigate each other. Sometimes one like one & the other does not like them back. Some could ignore. I don;t know if barriers are possible.
Are you afraid one bird will land on a cage & get its foot bit? Certainly possible.
If its a flat top some plexi on top might help.

You just have to decide whether you have the extra time to deal with it.
Anything is possible when there is a strong will.

You seem to be trying to talk yourself out of it? It might not be easy esp at first but I think you should be able to figure something workable. You seem to have a few options.

 

[Barnaby Rose]

I think your birds are not going to care about another bird as long as they still get there time & attention. Like you said you never know how dynamics will play out.
You just have to be prepared to deal with situations as they arise. You can not foresee the future.

I think they will all want to investigate each other. Sometimes one like one & the other does not like them back. Some could ignore. I don;t know if barriers are possible.
Are you afraid one bird will land on a cage & get its foot bit? Certainly possible.
If its a flat top some plexi on top might help.

You just have to decide whether you have the extra time to deal with it.
Anything is possible when there is a strong will.

You seem to be trying to talk yourself out of it? It might not be easy esp at first but I think you should be able to figure something workable. You seem to have a few options.

Nooooooo not at all.... in fact quite the opposite, if anything I am trying to talk myself INTO it, with the support and advice of you guys on this website. I just want to do right by the little guy and I know I am going to regret it if I pass on him and then end up at ANY point in the future wanting to bring a Caique into the household later. He really is an awesome little bird

 

[camelotshadow]

Cake likes you/ You like Cake...
If you have to talk yourself into it then you are not sure.
Good to think things over but I think from what you have said you can do it!

 

[MNR]

I don't know how "out of cage time in a different room" will work. They are flock animals. It seems like they like to see each other even though they do not interact physically. Also, the Caique will most likely wants to spend a lot more time on you than others. It's like my Amazon is mostly happy to be in the same room. He snuggles some (and it is soooo sweeeet), but not the same extent as my caiques. When my caiques are out, every time I pass by, and if they can, they jump onto me. If they can actually sit still, I can get some work done, but no, they will be chasing something or another, or attack my cell phone (bloody finger in process) or being totally cute laying on their backs,or suddenly attack my head (or worse...... once Loki bit the bridge of my nose. It was sore for several hours).

Keep in mind that I have TWO caiques. One could be more problematic (caique getting bored), but caique or two could really stress your other birds.

Your home may not be the best home for him, even if he likes you and your wife. You can always help him by finding a suitable home for him (and you get to visit and play with him).