My Parrotlets Behavior

Question
Hello, I hope you can help me with my dilemna.
I own a 4 month old female parrotlet who I unfortunately have spoiled to death. A few days ago I purchased a 2 month old male to be a companion for her and another little treasure for myself. I absolutely love these birds. Only problem is my female is not accepting of this new addition when Im around. But I have snuck up on them a few times and seen her perched side by side with the male as if being comforted and seen her lightly nibbling through his feathers. But once she sees me she chases him off the perches and chases him around. How can I help eliminate her acting out against the new bird and accepting its presence and place in our home?

Answer
Hi Adelaide,

You are running in to a problem that is very common in folks who find they have fallen in love with a particular type of bird. I call it "the want mores". It isnt a bad problem to have if you have the time, energy, and love to give but there are a few things you need to think about.

It sounds like you are really enjoying the companionship of your young female bird and getting to spend quite a bit of quality time with her. Is that close bond with her something you want to continue and to also develop with your new bird? Or would you be happy to have a pair of birds who get are bonded to each other and will MAYBE tolerate you?

If you want to keep being the best friend of these little green people, you will need to make sure each has their own cage. You can keep the cages near but not right next to each other. A single bird is most likely going to bond to the human in their life because they are very social creatures. But, given the chance a bird is naturally going to choose another bird of it's own kind over a human if they spend all their time together. I would say that will be even more the case with a male and a female. It's not a slight against you but they way nature intended.

Some folks are able to keep birds paired up and still have those birds enjoy the company of their humans but more often than not, the human gets left out and sometimes even is seen as an intruder by both birds.

I also think it is a good policy that when trying to pair up birds, you never introduce one in to the cage of another. That is already the first birds established territory and adding someone new can cause big problems. I always suggest that for someone that does want to cage birds together that you buy a new cage to introduce them to at the same time.

My suggestion for you if you want to keep both birds and have them get a long but still be very bonded to you is this; buy another cage and keep both cages where they can chatter at each other but have some space in between. Take them out each day for some individual quality time and also try to make time where you can have them out together. This should settle any quabbles between them.

Hope this has been of some help to you!