Just bought a parakeet

Question
Hi, I just bought a blue parakeet for my 5 year old boy.  I was wondering if you think it would be a good idea to get another parakeet to keep this one company.  I don't know if we intend to take the bird out of the cage too much, so I thought that having a friend bird in the cage would be nice.  Also, is it okay if the bird stays mostly in the cage or would that make the bird unhappy?

Thanks,
Kate

Answer
Hi, Kate,

It depends on what you want out of a pet bird/why you purchased the bird to begin with.  Is this bird tame?  Most people purchase birds so they can interact with the bird on a daily basis, i.e., allow the bird to sit on their fingers, bird goes with them around the house, bird plays outside its cage, etc., etc.  Similar to having a pet dog or cat.  A single bird doesn't need to have a companion bird in order to be happy/have company.....their humans are their companions/keep them company.

If you bought this bird for your son as a pet, your son is the bird's companion and vice versa (although at 5 years of age, your son might be a bit young for a pet parrot).  If you purchase a second bird, the 2 birds will most likely bond and they would not have a need to be companions for your son.  Then what you will have is just birds in a cage that you can look at occasionally.  Often times, this results in birds that are not tame, thus, not handleable.  This is because birds prefer other birds to huans.  In addition, if you have a male and female, chances are at some point, they will pair-bond and mate, producing offspring.

If your desires for this bird are for s/he to remain in its cage all the time, then you need to provide the bird with a large cage...the larger the better.  Whether this bird would be unhappy caged all the time depends on the personality of the individual bird.  Some birds hate being caged all the time and become cage bound.  Untame birds usually prefer to remain in their cages or flying freely in the home with no human interaction.  In cases like this, the bird requires a large cage.  When a bird is allowed to be outside its cage a lot during the day, a smaller sized cage is OK.

I recommend you decide exactly what you want out of a pet bird and go from there.

Chrys