Lovebirds missing her tail!

Question
Hi. I have a few questions concerning lovebirds. First some background: I bought one peach-faced lovebird about a month ago. I bought only one so that he (pretty sure its a he but haven't had him tested) would bond with me. Now that he is pretty much used to me, I've decided that I want to buy him a friend.

My first question is regarding a lovebird that I found at a pet store today. She (again, assuming) is a beautiful peach-faced lovebird, very healthy looking. Her feathers are in excellent condition and she is very active. My concern is that it appears that she is missing her tail! She has the top blue feathers but that's it. Since she was at a generic pet store, the employees there had no idea why this could be. Is there a legitimate reason? Could she have lost her tail feathers in a fight, leaving the rest of her untouched? Or could she possibly have been born like this? Will it grow back? Since she otherwise looks healthy, would it be ok to buy this bird?

My second question is that I was also interested in getting one or two parakeets in the future. I have read both that lovebirds hate parakeets and I've seen videos of lovebirds preening and playing with parakeets. So my question is, since right now I only have one lovebird, would it be better to introduce a new lovebird or a new parakeet first? I am not intending on keeping them in the same cage, but I would like to be able to have both lovebirds and parakeets out of the cage at the same time.

One final question: I have a rather small cage (13x15x18) cage for my current lovebird. There aren't too many toys in his cage so he has plenty of room to flap his wings. I take him out for several hours at a time, and any time I'm home I leave the cage door open so he can come and go as he pleases. He actually really likes his cage and flies back to it often. I'm wondering, though, if I get another lovebird, would this cage be large enough for them for a few months? I spend a lot of time at home and they could spend several hours each day out of their cage. In August I will be moving into a new apartment and I am planning on building a very large cage, but for the time being, would this work?

Answer
Hello Amanda and thank you for your questions, Take the current lovie into a vet right away I'm not sure what this could be but a vet check is in order to be sure its nothing serius there are some ilnesses out there that cause birds to loose feathers and you wouldnt want to bring more birds into a home with a sick bird. Nope the cage is too small I cant see a lovebird living in anything smaller then 18x18x18 this is a minimum...lovebirds are so active and require plenty of intresting toys to amusse themselfs along with several perches of diferent diamiters and three dishes one food pellets one for water and one for fresh foods this takes up room. Two lovies wolud be fine in a 18x18x18 cage but a 20x20x20 mcage is better still...Check out petcetera they have awsome cages with connected stands at good prices of the sizes I've mentioned if you dont have a petcetera near you try every petstore in the area you want to find a cage of the proepr size. Budgies as there known here(There are several different breeds of parrakeets budgies are only one of them!) Shouldnt be allowed out with lovebirds if you can see how lovebirds get when they are mad at each other you'd know why...they bite th other birds neck/legs/feet until the bird falls off its perch....chases the oher bird away from dishes not allowing it to eat with the others and worst case the lovebird has a much large stronger beak adn can kill the budgie with a bite to the back of the neck quite easily...allow them out in different rooms or different times but never allow the budgies to light atop the lovebirds cage as the lovies defed there cage pretty fericly and can snap the budgies toes or legs through the bars. Also beaware that if your current lovebird is loving and friendly buying another friendly lovebird doenst mean yours will stay nice and cuddeley they do honestly perfer the otherbirds company to yours but if you work during teh day its nice to have two of each type of bird so they keep each other company. If you need any further help feel free to eamil me again, Best of luck with whatever you choose.