difference in temperment of lovebirds

Question
Hello i happen to stumble upon your column searching through various sites on lovebird advice. My question pertains to lovebirds the 3 species peach-faced, masked, and fishers. Of the 3 species which is the least aggressive in housing with another species? I happen to have a rather large parakeet (and when i say large shes quite big for a normal not an exhibition/english i had her checked by a vet) Shes a female budgie that is rather bossy but is in need of company shes a bit older in age but craving attention i haven't been able to give to her. She has had other budgies live with her to no avail i.e. shes winds up harrasing them by playing with them to rough because of her size. I'm wondering about housing a lovebird with her? I thought cockatiel but i don't want a bird that big i heard peach-faces were very aggressive, the masked less so and the fishers less of all and slightly smaller than the other two species correct me if i'm wrong? In any event i'm lookin to purchase the new bird beginning of the new year so any advice would be appreicated Maggie thank you.

Sincerely, Tom ( Oh and if you could please reply to my email asap tomtalker2000@yahoo.com i would appreciate as i don't have much time before i decide what i'm going to do i have a breeder waiting in the wings pardon the pun. Thanks.

Answer
Hi Tom,

Lovebirds (no matter what kind of lovebird) should never be housed with other species of birds. Lovebirds are prone to becoming very territorial and aggressive and could easily hurt a budgie (even if she is large)... in fact, some lovebirds if not properly introduced will violently hurt each other. I've witnessed this first had... there were three Fisher lovebirds who came into a pet store from the same breeder and so were all put in the same cage together. They seemed fine for 5 or 10 minutes, so they were left together over the night. In the morning, it was discovered that two of the lovebirds attached the third and nearly killed it. It had to have a leg removed and required intensive vet care to save its life.

The best bet is to get another female English Budgie (females tend to be more dominate than males) if you want a bird that is similar in size, but could still stand up to your female (without being overly dominate/aggressive).

You will also want to make sure that you properly quarantine any new bird, so here is some information on how/why to do that:

http://www.parrothouse.com/quarantine.html

I hope this heps.

-Maggie