introducing a new lovebird to my current one

Question


I am having difficulty with my new lovebird, Penny. In January 2006, I adopted Peetri, a young untame, parent raised lovebird. The truth was I knew nothing about him, except i couldnt stand to see him in such a tiny cage in a dirty place. I dont even know if hes a male, but have seen some behavior that makes me assume he is. Anyways, Peetri didn't like human contact, and had a bad habit of biting. After his vet visit and 1st molting season, we became closer and his out of the cage time increased and I let him play with my  hair. He did bite really hard, but it has stopped now, and is nothing but little love nibbles on the ear or cheek. He kisses me, and we are really close although he still doesnt like to be held or scratched.

I would see him chatter at himself in the mirror and answer calls to other birds outside. It made me very sad, and appeared to me that he was lonely. I work and go to school, but spend every minute i can with my little bird. Peetri is everything to me, so I decided to get him another lovebird for when I go off to college. I dont want to give him up, but don't want him to be alone either. So i adopted Penny 3 days ago, and she was found in a tree with a wristband. She doesnt bite, and loves people. She likes to be scratched. She has a wider pelvic region and is a bit bigger, so Im assuming shes a female.

I brought her home, and Peetri was thrilled. He went up to her cage and she just attacked him. He flew away but came by again, and she did the same.
They are in seperate cages, and Penny had been plucking her feathers out before I had gotten her. She was on medication b/c she pulled her feathers out ( the guess was boredom and loneliness) and I was thinking maybe that had an impact on Peetri. Her vet visit is in 2 days, but now Im wondering if it was a bad idea.

I dont want to take her back, and I dont want to give Peetri up. He was just moved to a new, bigger cage, and is a little upset. I dont know what to do! Please give me advice on slowly introducing the birds to eachother  

Answer
Hi, Lauren.  Thanks for posting.

You have a couple things going on here.  Your new lovebird needs time to adjust to his/her new surroundings and to you!  Depending on the bird's individual personality, this could take a week, 2 weeks, a couple of days, a month.  You should have quarantined the new bird for 30 days before introducing him to your other bird, but since they've been exposed to each other now.......

There's 2 ways you can handle this situation.  If you're gone a lot, I recommend you can get another cage and place the 2 birds side-by-side in separate cages to let them get used to each other through the cage wire.  In doing this, you don't have to supervise them all the time.  The second choice is to put them together in the same cage like you've done, but this might result in injury to one or the other birds if they aren't compatible.  Sometimes, it takes some time for 2 birds to get used to each other, depending on their individual personalities.  Then, when they seem to be getting along fairly well, and the new bird is more used to his/her new surroundings, and you're home, gradually introduce them to each other by letting them out of their cages to interact with each other on top of the cage(s) under your supervision.  All parrots who live in the same cage have their little squabbles/fights/arguments, but since these 2 birds don't know each other yet, and you don't know the new bird very well yet, they need to be supervised when they are together to ensure nothing drastic happens.  Eventually, they'll get along together...I can't predict how long this process might take.

The best pet parrot is a single parrot in the home.  Birds prefer other birds to humans.  It probably wasn't the best idea to buy a second lovebird, since they will most likely become friends with each other and not require much of your attention.

Parrots become territorial of their cages.  This might be why the lovebird attacked the other lovebird when s/he landed on it's cage.  When putting 2 birds together, it's usually best to put them in a neutral cage...one that doesn't belong to either.

Lovebirds have to be DNA sexed in order to determine sex.  If you're interested in this, look up on the internet a parrot DNA sexing lab called Avian Biotech.  It costs $20 per test that you can do yourself at home.  They'll send you free test kits with instructions on how to do it.

Chrys