African Grey and new Parakeet

Question
Hello there, i am trying to gather as much infrmation as possible about allowing my 2 birds to bond.
I have a 5 month old african grey named Tokee who is very affectionate and though a bit reserved at tmes and fearful of children, he has never showed aggression towards my family members (my husband, myself and our children a 4 yr old and 2 yr old). After we got him about 3 1/2 months ago and weaned him to a 50% pellet 50% fruit and veggie diet we have been bird crazy and have recently purchased a parakeet from a pet shop, who we have called tiki. Although they arent too sure about the age, i suspect it is perhaps just 1 or 2 months old as he still has some feather pins on his head and cheeks. He seems fine behaviorly speaking he responds to the step up comand and dosent even really nip my small children who are so happy to have a bird they can handle without the pain of the larger talons of our grey.
Ok so my question... we want to allow our curious grey to preen the parakeet and the parakeet seems to be interested in this as well. I am concerned that he will perhaps not realize his strenght and hurt the poor little thing. we are getting them together little by little at a time and then separating them. we have given the separate cages but have them within plain sight our the other. I wonder how much time they should be given to become aclimated with the idea of their differences in size and learn to be big brother and little sister.

Answer
Even though your African grey may be very gentle with you and your family, he may ot be with anothe bird. And even a small nip (even if the grey is not trying to attack or seriously injure the other bird) could cause seriously injury to your budgie (causing permanent damage or death). Never, ever let your grey and your budgie play together- the risk is too great.

Also- about your budgie, if he still has pin feathers and is only a few weeks old, then he would still need to be hand-fed. What is more likely (if he is not being hand-fed and eats well on his own) is that he is actually an older bird who is going through a molt (at least 5 months old). Birds generally go through a molt once (sometimes twice) a year- starting from the age of about 5 to 6 months. Since they cannot reach the pin feathers on their head, single birds need to let these feather casings just come loose on their own. Or, you (the human companions) can help by pinching the tips of the pin feathers- if your bird enjoys you scratching his head.

I hope this helps.

-Maggie