will my bird die

Question
Hi,I just got two Parakeets for valentines day and they wont bond with me.The bird owner my boyfriend got them from said that if he just got one the bird would die of lonelyness.I told my boyfriend that that was not true when he supprised me with him.But now that I have had them for a week now, I just want to keep one of them so I can bond with it because if I have both then they wont let me get near they practicly have a heart attack if I try to touch them.So I was wondering if I separated them and gave the other one back to the bird owner would the one I kept die?....

Answer
HI Carmen,

The person your boyfriend bought these birds from obviously doesn't know the first thing about birds. A bird will not die of lonielness any more than any other animal. (And people keep other flock/pack oriented animals by themselves all the time... just take dogs for example). The important thing is that if you keep a bird by themselves, you must provide them with attention and out-of-cage time daily. (For at least an hour or two... at the very least). The single bird needs to feel like his human companions are his flock. (Just like with a dog, his human owners become apart of his/her "pack"). My recommendation would be NOT to give this man back either of these birds. This is also why I always discourage getting animals as gifts (unless the recepient hand picks their new pet)- many of these "gifts" end up being tossed from home to home.

Although it is easier to tame birds by themselves, what you are experiencing might be more due to their age and previous experiences (or lack of) with humans. Do you know how old the birds are?? If they are over 6 to 12 months, it will be much, much harder to tame them than it would be if you got a 2 or 3 month old.

Also, Seperating the birds will not make them tame. It will still take a LOT of work and time. Keep in mind that you've only given these birds 4 or 5 days to become tame (assuming you got them on Valentine's day). It can take weeks to months to tame a bird, even if they are kept by themselves. It usually takes at least 2 weeks for birds to start to settle down and adjust to their new environment. Instead of thinking of splitting these buddies up, you should slow down and be more patient with them. Or, find them a caring, knowledgable bird home and then get a hand-raised or hand-fed baby parakeet instead.

I suggest this, because I'd hate for these two bonded birds to be split up for you to only find out that the one you kept really just isn't a "people bird" after all. If the birds are older, you might be better off to keep them together (they will be happier together, since no human could possibly provide a bird with the amount/kind of companionship that another bird could). You would still be able to enjoy their playful antics and song/chatter, even if you can't even get them to really bond with you.

To make it easier to tame them, you might also want to consider seperating them into different cages and try taming them both. This will also provide insentive for them to come out of their cages. (They will learn that if they come out of the cage, they get to have play time with their birdie buddy). Once both birds have learned the step-up command, and will come out of the cage on your finger... then you should be able to put them back together. You just need to make sure to handle them daily (indivdually) to reinforce your bond with them.

I hope this helps somewhat.

I'm also going to give you some links to check out so that you can get some more information on caring and taming your birds:

http://budgies.ubergoth.net/contents/

www.forthebirdsDVM.com

http://www.birdsnways.com/wisdom/ww24evi.htm

I hope this helps. :)

-Maggie