Should I adopt a friend for my troubled nanday conure?

Greetings everyone! I got a nanday conure, Jade, when I was 12. She was a happy bird for years, but when she was about 6 she was attacked by a foster cat and lost an eye. Not long after, I went to college, and she stayed with my parents. While I was away, she feather plucked. My parents gave her attention every day, but not nearly as much as she received when I lived at home.

Jade is 16 now, and recently came to live with me again because I am finally in a permanent living situation where we can provide for a bird long term (my partner and I own our home and plan to stay put for decades). Jade is much happier now that we are reunited, but she still has some behavior problems from her trauma and years of loneliness: she still occasionally pulls out a feather, and is generally fearful (she will come out of her cage once or twice a day, but asks to be put back once she's had a quick splash in the sink). She likes to kiss, be pet, and cuddle through the bars of her cage, but is too nervous to enjoy cuddling while she is out!

Anyhow, my partner and I have been thinking about adopting a second, older bird so Jade can have a friend and feel like she is part of a flock. My parents used to babysit their neighbors sunday conure and they had a lot of fun talking to each other and squawking through the bars of their cages. (We never had them out together.) On sunny days, they'd even squawk at each other from across the houses!

That's my long-winded back story. Here are my questions:

If I do adopt another bird and house them in separate cages (but in the same room), is it possible Jade could teach a new bird to feather pluck, just by the other bird seeing her do it?

If they aren't housed in the same cage, is it OK to have a flock of mixed-sized birds living in the same room?

I have been talking to a few different people from Craigslist who are rehoming parrots, and we were considering adopting a yellow crown amazon from an older couple, her original owner, who are trying to find a new home for their bird due to health problems.

Anyhow, any advice on how conures get along with other birds would be appreciated!

It's unlikely for one bird to teach another bird to pluck. Possible, but highly unlikely. I've heard that the biggest chance of teaching other birds to pluck is when the parent(s) plucks the chicks, which then passes the behavior down... but this isn't confirmed.

I've never dealt with pluckers before, but used to have two birds that mutilated themselves and one that over-preened her mate at one point in time. None of the other birds that were housed with them picked it up, nor did the two chicks that came with the pair.

Many owners, myself included, have mixed flocks of different species. The closer the two species are in size, the better chance you may have of being able to allow the two to interact with less injuries. That is, you wouldn't want to house a budgie with an amazon or a macaw with a quaker. Sure, it can be done, but the much larger bird could seriously hurt the smaller bird. Two birds of the same size could still seriously hurt each other, but the chances are a bit lower.


If you don't have any plans on the two birds interacting, it would be fine to keep them "together" in the same home, separate cages!


I have had some success keeping birds of different sizes together. The first being Noel (conure - RIP) and Casey. I *did not* want the two birds to interact, as I knew that Noel could seriously injure Casey, but Casey had other plans. She was able to become friends with Noel and provide a kind of companionship that I was never able to. They'd eat together, Casey would eat food that Noel held in his foot, they'd sleep together, and occasionally, Casey would preen Noel.



I was able to keep budgies, tiels and bourkes together and was able to later incorporate Noel into this, but only because his eyesight was getting worse and he was slowing down even further.




Prior to incorporating Noel into the flock group, he was being housed alone. Sometimes, the male budgie (of a group of 5, and he being the only male) would fly into Noel's cage and take a break in there (I assume from the terrorizing girls!).


I later had a female budgie (not from the group of 5) take to Charlie (mitred conuer). She loved going into his cage, playing with his toys, heating his food, drinking from his water, etc. However, this infuriated Charlie and he would chase her throughout the entire cage. She could fly from spot to spot no problems, but Charlie was reduced to climbing after her. I later rehomed her for her own safety!

Prior to adopting Charlie, he lived with a lilac crowned amazon, bossed around another lilac crown zon and a blue front hybrid. In the home there were also 3 green cheek conures, two rosellas, a ruby macaw and a miligold(?) macaw.




On the flip side of things, before I could get Noel used to living in a flock situation, I had the little birds in a flight cage and Noel had his own area. On a Sunday no less, when there are no a-vets available, I was out of the house, and many of the little birds escaped from the cage and wondered around. One of them got into Noel's area, and Noel, not happy with a tiny intruder (he was fine with Casey, and had been for a few years), removed the upper break from my older female bourke. Unfortunately, she passed away the next day.

Charlie, while in his foster home, decided to bully the blind ruby macaw, since he could 'boss around' the zons. He got the short end of the stick, and half of his lower beak was destroyed. Two surgeries later, and he requires beak trims for the rest of his life.




Short answer is yes, but at the same time, please be cautious of their behaviors towards each other. Accidents can, and do, happen. I'm not trying to scare you away from getting the amazon, just trying to make sure you are aware of the potential dangers of keeping different sized birds together!

Thank you both for the quick replies!

Amazons are appealing to me because I'd like a medium sized bird that is cuddly and talkative but hopefully less neurotic than, say, an African Gray. I am committed to my scrappy little nanday and love her unconditionally, but I am looking for something a bit of variety as our flock grows.

Of course different birds of different sizes can stay in the same room My grandmother has had conures- macaws, amazons, african greys,and umbrela cockatoos in the same room. Now, if the birds are out together, one may pluck the other. Lol We have a nanday Jake, at my grandmothers, who is 31 or 32 years now and he was abused and plucked himself so bad his feathers will never regrow, well, we bought him a friend, Jasper and put them in the sam cage after being side by side for a month and the next morning Jake had plucked poor little Jasper bald! If you really want a a friend for your birdie make sure your bird likes the new bird, if not it could make matters worse and make him feel jealous or replaced. So if you're getting a friend- make sure it will be an actual friend

I have 4 different types of birds. Each bird has their own cage but they are all in the same room. I let only the parrots out but each one seperatly they do however keep each other company with their chirping and whisteling. Eventually I will try letting them out together in a seperate area away from their cages I would not however take the chance of housing them in the same cage

as a general rule of thumb, house gcc with gcc, bigger conures with bigger conures, amazons with amazons..
i have 3 gcc, all house seperately but i let them choose which one of the conure cages to sleep in.
i have two teils that are bonded and house together. and then i have a big cage for my zebra finches and a small one for my parakeet.
if i were you, i would look towards getting cockateils for a friend.
they seem to love ANY kind of animal, not picky at all! and fairly inexpensive.
If you get that amazon, there could be behavioral differences between the two birds. So expect to house them separately.
But you never know, birds are like people. You can never guess how they will be because they are all so different.
People warned me DO NOT get another gcc, they might never like each other, and they might never see interest in me, but sure as hell, when I got Button (one year old gcc) a twelve week old gcc friend, they bonded like crazy and both still love me.
but then I adopted two teils, a parakeet, and an 8 year old gcc..
the tiels dont like the stress of other birds, the parakeet puts himself in danger constantly trying to get into other birds cages, and the new gcc is mean to the other conures.
you never really know what you are going to have happen!
my advice would be get a nanday, jenday, sun conure, mitred conure, or cockatiels.

Hi all! I am still researching what type of second bird to add to our home. My vet recommends another older conure but my partner is worried they will squawk all day and wants a quieter bird. Jade only screams when something scares her but she does she squawk often she is excited (when it is breakfast, when new people meet her, when I get home from work). Does the squawking get amped up there are more conures?

LakeDesire said:

Hi all! I am still researching what type of second bird to add to our home. My vet recommends another older conure but my partner is worried they will squawk all day and wants a quieter bird. Jade only screams when something scares her but she does she squawk often she is excited (when it is breakfast, when new people meet her, when I get home from work). Does the squawking get amped up there are more conures?

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If you dont want a Bird that squawks loudly then an Amazon is defo not the Bird for you..

Listen to this!! This is Codie my Zon screaming.. sometimes this can go on for an hour at a time LOL

http://www.parrotforums.com/amazons/20712-my-amazon-codie-being-very-loud.html

Lol! That is good to know!

LakeDesire said:

Lol! That is good to know!

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LOL.. I am used to it now, but my Daughter is thinking of investing in a pair of Earplus

I am used to Jade's squawking too! But sometimes friends andused family act like she is so annoying so I worry about times TWO being a bother to all who aren't me.

I played your video for Jade and she had no interest!

We are weighing the pros and cons of an amazon vs another conure. Selfishly, we want something different for variety. The intelligence and talking ability of amazons is appealing to us--and after having a feather plucker, the low risk of amazons feather plucking is appealing! But that isn't necessarily what is best for Jade, as if we ever accidentally had them both out at the same time, an amazon could hurt Jade, and poor Jade has been through a lot.

We might go look at a sun conure tomorrow that is on Craigslist that is 12, which is the closet age I can find to Jade in the area (she is 16). It would be nice if they could physically interact, at least supervised since I don't trust Jade not to feather pluck her friends. But besides the squawk factor, I'm worried a second bird would out live her and be lonely when she dies. The vet also mentioned you don't want to house two conures of the opposite sex together in the same cage because they might try to have babies (although she might have just meant two nandays).