What Species do your Pi's Get Along With?

[Nostromo]

Hello,

We are working with a rescue on adopting a second parrot. Our sweet 14 year old girl lived with two sun conures in her home before coming to us 6 years ago, but I have no idea how well everybody got along in that house. I suspect the care she got there was not perfect. She has met our family friend's amazon. They bird sat for us and she and the amazon tolerated each other just fine but didn't interact much. She's also met another friend's very curious african grey who paced along trying to say hello and she was having none of it, but she was not aggressive and didn't mind if he hung out near her.

In your experience, what are the species more likely to be compatible with our Pi? The second bird would be primarily a companion for me, not for her, so I have no expectation that they'll be soul mates, and of course in different cages, but I want to mindful of things like dust for her sensitive respiratory system, likelihood that they're similar enough species to know how to communicate effectively, and increase the odds that they will tolerate each other and ideally be good flockmates. Both my birds will be fully flighted and need to be out together. I believe the rescue will have us foster any new bird for a couple weeks to make sure everybody is getting along before the adoption is finalized.

I'm thinking I'll look especially closely at any amazons they have for adoption, since they're closely related to Pi's. They also have a female Senegal and a couple smaller cockatoos. Does adopting a male make the likelihood they'll get along with our female Pi higher?

 

[Dartman]

Do not get a tiny fast flying bird. It gets them upset that they can fly and maneuver way better than they can and eventually they'll decide to eliminate the tiny little threat and if they catch them the least that happens is they get bit badly and something broken. Nerd at first was curious about the tiny baby house finch we raised and she of course loved the giant bird. She started flying and getting attention and his attitude changed. He went from letting her sleep beside him outside his cage to actively trying to kill her piece by piece. She lost several toes and got her foot broken when he managed to catch her before we realized neither could be trusted around the other. She would try to attack him or get close to him too so she usually stayed in my room and he got covered when we wanted to bring her out. He was depressed and she didn't care. Eventually she got a chill that eventually took her out and he had the house and me to himself and was happy again.

 

[Nostromo]

Yikes! That's so scary. I am leaning towards a medium-sized species. Maybe not exactly our Pi's size, since she's kind of an in-between size between parakeet and medium parrot. @Dartman, do you have any species at home that your Pi does get along with?

 

[Dartman]

I don't let him hang out with either extra bird seeing how the others are a bit wild and we don't need any fights. Pippen is kind of interested in him and so is Puff but they are both Conures, Pippen a yellow sided GC and Puff a psychotic Jenday.
Dobby used to be able to land on top of Pippens cage and we kept telling him she'll bite your feet. One night we heard a screech and he came flying back to sister holding his foot and crying while he nibbled it. It had the tiniest little pink spot and was fine but his feelings were sure hurt. He's basically a very gentle and outgoing boy so I don't think it occurred to him that another bird would actually BITE him.
Lurch would have shredded Pippen if she did that and he was a Maxi as well so every bird is different but best to watch and supervise till you know where everyone is at with each other, and bigger almost always wins.

 

[Fuzzy]

Difficult to say. Kobe and Ollie (Orange-winged Amazon) loved each other:



Yet Kobe dislikes JoeJoe (also Orange-winged Amazon but more confident in himself than Ollie was) and my other Amazons. Ollie was an extremely gentle gentleman. Orange-wings are usually the more gentle of Amazons. I adore them which is why I gave JoeJoe a home after we lost our beautiful Ollie to PDD/AG.

 

[Dartman]

Well you have to admit though that Ollie slowly wore Kobe down till they became best buds, from get away from me you green oaf. Ollie was so happy to have a great friend when it worked out.

 

[momazon]

Do not get a tiny fast flying bird. It gets them upset that they can fly and maneuver way better than they can and eventually they'll decide to eliminate the tiny little threat and if they catch them the least that happens is they get bit badly and something broken. Nerd at first was curious about the tiny baby house finch we raised and she of course loved the giant bird. She started flying and getting attention and his attitude changed. He went from letting her sleep beside him outside his cage to actively trying to kill her piece by piece. She lost several toes and got her foot broken when he managed to catch her before we realized neither could be trusted around the other. She would try to attack him or get close to him too so she usually stayed in my room and he got covered when we wanted to bring her out. He was depressed and she didn't care. Eventually she got a chill that eventually took her out and he had the house and me to himself and was happy again.

I agree about this.

 

[momazon]

We already had a YNA, the one in my profile pic. She was about six and was still not very aggressive. We got Dobby as a baby and hand raised him for my daughter, whose caique had just died. We doted on Dobby, but the zon never got jealous. She always wants distance between her and other birds. dobby would get in the mood for a rumble and would buzz over her head. The zon has scoliosis and restricted heart development, so she doesn't fly easily. She would duck and dodge little Mr Booger. She never went after him but he sure loved to steal her food and poop in her water. He had no respect for his elders! Seriously, I think if your birds know they'll get shoulder time and special treats, they are less inclined to be hostile to anyone.

Even now, when I grow dill and bring it in, the zon says, "Dobby, Dobby, let's eat!" That used to be our recall phrase. He loved chewing on dill from the garden. He does leave an impression, no doubt at all.

 

[Dartman]

I'll have to try Dill but as you know the lil Beaver loves to chew anything, food or not.

 

[Nostromo]

So we ended up taking in a 3 year old male eclectus. So far our Pi and him have gotten along remarkably well. At one point I made the mistake of putting the ekkie on our pi's perch since our pi had flown to the ekkie's perch, and our pi flew over to show him that was her perch and she could be scary if she wanted. Our ekkie just looked confused and backed away. Our pi was easy enough to wrestle off the perch and put in her cage with some deeply beloved nutriberries as a treat. Otherwise they've been hanging out on their cages at the same time only a couple feet away. I notice they tend to preen at the same times, eat at the same times, nap at the same times. My hope is they're developing a bit of a flock mentality, which I can imagine would be beneficial for them both. I'm honestly shocked it's gone so well so far. Our pi had one outraged alarm call when she first saw the new cage and bird but since then seems to have taken it in stride!