my parakeet needs afriend?

Question
Hi,
My parakeet has a cage, but I took the roof of, he can fly through the house if he wants too, but he barely does. He always wants to go back to his cage and sit in front of his mirror. He now will sit on my finger, but doesn't hand feet. I wonder if I should get him a friend, and if I do, how do I get them introduced, especially when the cage is always open? One more question, i give him fresh fruit, but he never eats it, only his seeds, any suggestions?
Thank you,
Anita

Answer
Hi, Anita.  Thanks for posting!

Allowing your bird to free-fly through your home is unsanitary and is very dangerous for your bird, as there are many, many things that aren't safe for your bird in your home.  It's best to keep wing flight feathers clipped so the bird stays close to its cage.  He likes the mirror because to your bird, the image in the mirror is a real bird.  Birds prefer other birds to humans and this is why your bird likes his mirror.  

If you want a tame bird that you can handle, I advise you to remove the mirror and not purchase a friend for your bird.  Otherwise, since birds prefer other birds to humans, you will likely loose your keet friend to the birdie in the mirror and/or the new friend you would buy.  In other words, if you want a tame pet bird, remove the mirror and do not buy another bird.  

Keets don't really like fruit.  They prefer things like cooked brown rice, vegetables, corn bread, whole grain/multi grain dry, sugarless cereals, greens (but not iceburg lettuce), etc.  As long as seed is available in the cage at the same time as other foods, your bird will always choose the seed.  Remove the seed when you offer other foods, then put the seed back in the cage when you remove whatever the bird has/hasn't eaten in a couple of hours (of the other foods).  You should also introduce pelleted food to your birds diet.  Birds will not eat foods they don't recognize as food, so just keep offering humans foods every day.  Your bird will eventually try the food.  Seed to a bird is like candy to a kid...it's tastes really good so they like it, but it isn't nutritious for them (and it has too much fat, too).

Chrys