Companionship?

The african grey I rescued about two years ago is making great progress, but still doesn't really like spending time with people or playing with toys, which leads to her being pretty bored.
I spoke to my vet about it, and he suggested getting her another bird as a cage mate, as well as several other things. I'm hoping to get another grey, but I was wondering how well they might get along with other species? I'd want something in the same general size as her, just so no one gets hurt, but I dont really know what other species might make a good friend for her.

Moustache parakeets have always been a dream bird of mine, would they be a viable companion for greys? What about a ringneck?

The general consensus here is never buy a bird for another bird, only buy another bird for yourself.

It's a real crap shoot as to weather 2 birds will get along with each other or not.

I have matched up cockatiels and amazon parrots and have no experience matching African grey parrots.

You might try taking your grey to meet other birds and see how he reacts but don't let them get too close to each other. you don't want them to catch anything from each other.

I should probably have clarified, the bird's definitely for both of us. I do want another bird for myself, I'd just also like it to be one that could get along with her.
Each bird's an individual 'n I know they won't definitely get along, I'm just worried about the pairing being safe if they DO get along.
Having her meet other birds might be difficult since while she's perfectly comfortable with the rest of my flock (though can't spend much time with them for various reasons), she's pretty difficult to handle even now because of the home I got her from.

That's great your seeing progress and as you well know greys are very intelligent but most are also very independent. I also second what Texsize mentioned about getting another for a buddy. I think you may have better luck staying within the species rather than another but there are a lot of things to consider, time is the big one. What I've noticed with my birds and they are roughly 3 months apart in age is that after being raised together for nearly 3 years the grey"s maturation has been a much slower process and that the Conure , is leaps and bounds ahead. Yet still 3 months younger. Kona ( conure) wanted a friendship early, Apollo ( CAG) was to fearful and would have nothing to do with him. There has been a few scuffles and Kona always got the short end of the stick. Size matters! Keep in mind their both flighted and allowed full roam when I'm home. Fortunately there's never been anything more than a few scratches and the reason I'm sharing this is that as territorial as these birds can be I am seeing changes that are remarkable. As of late Apollo during breakfast or dinner ( I feed on perches not in their cages) will fly to Kona's cage to draw him away from his bowl to see what Kona has and fly's down to eat out of Kona's bowl . Then immediately Kona fly's to Apollo's bowl to see and eat what he has ( Both the same food). Their patience or tolerance for each other is changing as well ,there has been sharing of their trees and seed bowls that are attached .Kona will still try and shoo Apollo off with Get Down! Get Down! and then Apollo will put his head down and wait to see if Kona will go away . This leads to some beaking but no biting or lunging. Many evenings lately Kona will fly over to have snack at Apollo's bowl and Apollo sits up above preening or napping. Its really amazing to watch the development of two different species from a young age and what they bring to the table as both will mimic each other in many ways as well . So ... this example shows that with lots of time , patience , boundaries and training great things can happen. But these birds are young and hand raised . If you decide to adopt again wonderful! Please keep in mind that things happen much faster with an adult parrot and intent is 100%. They dont play , an injury or death could result .
If you decide on a baby or younger bird especially if its a smaller parrot dont allow any unsupervised time , if you leave the room one HAS to come with or in their cages. This really is the case for any new bird to the flock but many times a younger bird just doesn't yet understand the danger of walking over to make friends and then gets clobbered. Please dont forget about quarantine so everyone stays healthy. Hope this helps in some way .

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IMHO it is a fast way to either assure your existing Parrot will not get along with your new Parrot -or- they will get along, and you will be the third party 'out' in the cold!
I'm going to guess that your bring your Parrot into your home was not to be the third party.

Two years is barely a point that we hope our Amazons will begin interacting with us. But, we work with those Amazons that have no want to ever be around another Human.
Prior to getting another Parrot, I strongly believe in assure that I am working from the correct vantage point:
It is never the fault of the Parrot.
It is always the fault of the Human.
Change your vantage point will allow you to see what you need to change or doing wrong to improve your interaction with your Parrot or your Parrots interaction with the surroundings.

Smokey (TAG) was about 1.5 yrs old when Amy picked me to go home with. Amy was about 4 months old. Amy was housed in a HUGE cage with about 15 to 20 other Amazons. I got Smokey from a pet store where she was living in a very small cage by herself ( it was determined later on that Smokey was a wild caught grey) Since Amy had lived with other Amazons he was accustomed to other birds being around,where Smokes was a loner.

Amy wanted to be best friends with Smokey,but Smokes wanted NO PART of it!
When both birds were out,Smokey would sneak up on Amy and PULL on his tail,making Amy scream,then Smokey would run back to her house,LAUGHING all the way home! One other time Smokey and Amy went beak-to-beak making kissy sounds. I thought that Smokey finally accepted Amy as a friend. Then Amy let out a blood curling scream as Smokey ran off! It turned out Smokey had bitten Amy's TONGUE,requiring five stitches! That was the LAST time I let them get that close to each other. Smokey was just so jealous of Amy!

So...you never know if they will be friends,never mind get a long!


Jim

Thank you guys, I've decided its probably a good idea to hold off on this, at least for now