Trial parrot

Rana · Aug 13, 2013

Hi Guys! I havent posted in a while - sorry about that! how have you all been??
anyway i have a bit of a question and would love your advice,
we got ourselves a "trial GCC"....
on a random trip to the breeder, we ended up bringing home a new baby...isn't that how it goes for us suckers

Now i didn't plan for this, this little baby was alone in a cage on the ground and i want over to pet him and he loved the scratches, wherever i could reach him! the head, his belly, an comfortably dozed off as i was with him.
the breeder asked me in surprise if the bird was allowing me to touch him, and i said yes, to which he replied - please take him home, he bites everyone so viscously, i cant sell him to anyone. My other half protested very heavily as we allready have 2 demons at home, but i can be pursuasive, and he let me have my way, on the condition that we could house the new Gcc with Pip (our other Gcc).
the breeder told us to take him home, see how we get on for a few weeks, and if we decided to keep him he just wanted the price of what he paid for him himself. (30 €, which is a joke).
It's a healthy bird (had all sorts of vet checks) very young, (early this year) and he seems to LOVE pippen, which is allready a plus since i hope to house them together so we can keep him. Pippen on the other hand is mortified of him and flutters off whenever he comes near...

I've had them out and about together a few times, supervised and that went well (appart from pip flying off when he's near) but when bath time came around the two of them happily shared the sink for some splashy water fun! - that's also good right?

I have carefully supervised them while i tried having them in the same cage for 5 minutes and then sepperated them again, i was thinking the quickest and least upsetting way to move forward is to have them together every evening for a few minutes in the same cage and increase the time a little every night. is this a good idea? what would you guys do?

I'd love to keep this little baby! i kinda feel like he chose me, but i really need him and pippen to be able to share a cage or my wiser, less impulsive half will bring him back to the breeder...

would love to hear!!
thanks guys

Much love, Rana

weco · Aug 13, 2013

Hmmmm, sounds like you might be wanting this 'trial parrot' for all the wrong reasons.....

Setting up two parrots together should be on the birds' terms and not because of your "I'd love to keep this little baby!" Just because they're 'birds of a feather' doesn't mean they are 'two peas in a pod!'

How would you feel if someone took you & put you in a room with someone else & said "make it work" it's the same way with birds...it doesn't always work ! ! !

Good luck.....

Pajarita · Aug 13, 2013

I answered the same post in another forum. You can't force bonding. They either like each other or they don't. In my personal experience (not much, I only have four GCCs), males don't like each other much while hens seem to be more tolerant but even if you have a male and female or two females there, you can't put a baby bird with an adult. Supervision doesn't work, by the time you reach the cage, the little one could have lost an eye, got a wing or a leg broken or be missing a toe.

I also do not approve of 'trials' with companion animals. You either make the commitment or you don't. They are not furniture.

Rana · Aug 16, 2013

Pajarita, I am well aware they are not furniture. but i'll try not to take offense to that statement. I asure you all my birds are getting the absolute best care that can be given to them.

Some details that may soften your opinion about this particular case is that my older GCC is in no way an agressive or dominant bird. in the flock he is infact the most submissive one and does not come across as a threat to any other of the birds. he is very wel socialised, and the same goes for the new bird. So far all their interaction has been very positive and there are absolutely no signs of agression between them, infact they now bathe together, eat together and even come cuddle in bed with all of us together.

Also they spend the majority of the day out of their cage and none of them are clipped.
the last two evenings they have happily shared the cage and preened eachother untill i put them appart for bed time.
I understand your concerns but not every case is the same, and I do know enough about parrots and their behavior not to be rash or irresponsible. I was merely looking for advice regarding aproaches, and perhaps people here have experienced the same and dealt with it in different ways.

I agree that parrots either like eachother or not, but parrots can be tought to tollerate eachother, by simple possitive reinforcement and correct judgement of their bodylanguage - and infact i think they should. not just to make the owners life easier but the birds life as well, and not keep them in solitude and the grounds of "well they just don't like eachother". they actually seem to be getting quite close now and i would not have known if i would not have tried.

In any case, we would have kept the bird regardless, if you care to read older posts about my hahns macaw, you would understand why. But i'm glad we decided to house them together, aproached it right, and with a very succesful progression.

henpecked · Aug 16, 2013

Thanks for giving the little fella a chance at a good home. Sounds like his chances weren't very good where he was at. Pippen must be a special bird to allow a "newbie" . Good job socializing him. Hope it works out for every one, including the hubby.

brianlinkles · Aug 16, 2013

First I want to say that we have to be careful of how we approach each other on this forum. This is one of the friendliest forums I have ever participated in. However, when we come on here and post snarky comments it doesn't do anyone any good. Not sure why the furniture comment was made, this is not the feeling that I got when I read Rana's post. I think that there absolutely can be times when we try to see if a certain rehome is a good fit. I think we must make sure our current flock and our new rehome is a good fit, sometimes there is baggage that make it impossible. This said, this is a young bird and it should be smoother going. The only thing that makes me a bit worried is that there was not a period of separation of the birds before bringing them together. I think that you should be cautious of introducing new birds until they are fully vetted. I never strictly go by what the breeder says about vetting. Not that I don't trust my breeder, it's just that even after vetting the bird comes into contact with other birds that could potentially get the bird sick. (I'm a worrier though!)

Karigan · Aug 16, 2013

Hopefully they bond for you! Have you given any thought to a breeding cage in case they don't? They're basically a bigger cage with a divider in the middle, you can even add a layer of plexiglass between them so that they can't nip each other. It really isn't that much more work than cleaning a normal cage, and they have some in conure sizes.

kiwiS · Aug 16, 2013

brianlinkles said:
First I want to say that we have to be careful of how we approach each other on this forum. This is one of the friendliest forums I have ever participated in. However, when we come on here and post snarky comments it doesn't do anyone any good. Not sure why the furniture comment was made, this is not the feeling that I got when I read Rana's post. I think that there absolutely can be times when we try to see if a certain rehome is a good fit. I think we must make sure our current flock and our new rehome is a good fit, sometimes there is baggage that make it impossible. This said, this is a young bird and it should be smoother going. The only thing that makes me a bit worried is that there was not a period of separation of the birds before bringing them together. I think that you should be cautious of introducing new birds until they are fully vetted. I never strictly go by what the breeder says about vetting. Not that I don't trust my breeder, it's just that even after vetting the bird comes into contact with other birds that could potentially get the bird sick. (I'm a worrier though!)

Yes I agree..I didn't get the feeling of Rana treating her 'trial' bird as anything less than someone she felt a connection with and wanted to see if it could work out . After all we all do that with humans as well...sometimes you just need to give it a try to see if it works out.

Mayden · Aug 16, 2013

I agree about the trial thing, I see no point in committing to a companion animal that will just not gel with the household and are better off elsewhere where they are more suited. I think it's unfair on both the pet and the household to 'force' things to work.

At the same time, I was very anxious reading you had them caged together so quickly, one wrong move from either and it could be so disastrous. We had Charlie 'trialed' in a travel cage for a week or two to see how he and Merlin responded, when it was positive (and so, we agreed to keep him), we sorted out proper caging for him. We knew we wern't going to be able to cage them together (straight away at least!) and I think I'd consider that you can't make them be friends overnight? Our two are still caged separately but we're working on the bonding

If there's any way you could get a temporary cage for your new guy whilst you work on the bonding, I think that would be best, but keep it up, preening and play is good!

Agapornis · Aug 16, 2013

I was worried about introducing a new GCC to my 1st GCC. I had a beautiful big flight cage that I wanted both to live in, but I knew I had to make sure Fiji would allow it. In the beginning, Fiji was in the big cage and Sundance was in the smaller cage, right next to Fiji's. After their initial introduction, where they puffed up and attacked each other like fighting roosters, they settled down and after a few days got used to each other. I still waited a few weeks before I put them in the same cage. However, I would let them play on top of the big cage, with the doors opened...and they would both go in to play, eat or drink, and no one seemed to be upset about it...so I knew they would do fine living together! Now, they love each other and are BFFs.

Don't give up, even if you have to keep them in separate cages for awhile!

Rana · Aug 19, 2013

Hi all, thanks for the advcie and feedback! much appreciated

I just wanted to update you all on how the little one is getting on.
We named him Digit, and I've started trick training him. Step up, turn around, and touch are pieces of cake, he is so smart and picks things up even faster than my macaw. Whenever no one is home he still has his own cage near the other two, but as soon as we are home they are all out and about together. At night the two little ones happily shack up together in the same cage, share baths and food and are increasingly comfortable around eachother.
He loves exploring and he is even coaxing Pip to be a bit braver and fly/land on different surfaces. they have a strong flock mentality going on and one wont go anywhere without the other and occasionally they will fly through the rooms in a play-chase and come cuddle with the humans afterwards.
It's really quite cute to see

I'm still not comfortable leaving them in the same cage alone and it will be some time before i do. I may also look into Karigan's suggestion of breeder cages just in case.
On the Subject of "trials" i'd rather not even go into it, it was a bit of a poor phrasing on my part. but i do understand both views. i do think it's important to see if a certain pet is a good fit for your family and your family is a good fit for them, on the other hand it can be quite upsetting for a bird to move houses to frequently. then again, bonding generally takes a bit longer than a week or two - it took nearly a solid year before my macaw even showed any interest in bonding at all.

SoCalWendy · Aug 19, 2013

Rana said:
Hi Guys! I havent posted in a while - sorry about that! how have you all been??
anyway i have a bit of a question and would love your advice,
we got ourselves a "trial GCC"....
on a random trip to the breeder, we ended up bringing home a new baby...isn't that how it goes for us suckers

Now i didn't plan for this, this little baby was alone in a cage on the ground and i want over to pet him and he loved the scratches, wherever i could reach him! the head, his belly, an comfortably dozed off as i was with him.
the breeder asked me in surprise if the bird was allowing me to touch him, and i said yes, to which he replied - please take him home, he bites everyone so viscously, i cant sell him to anyone. My other half protested very heavily as we allready have 2 demons at home, but i can be pursuasive, and he let me have my way, on the condition that we could house the new Gcc with Pip (our other Gcc).
the breeder told us to take him home, see how we get on for a few weeks, and if we decided to keep him he just wanted the price of what he paid for him himself. (30 €, which is a joke).
It's a healthy bird (had all sorts of vet checks) very young, (early this year) and he seems to LOVE pippen, which is allready a plus since i hope to house them together so we can keep him. Pippen on the other hand is mortified of him and flutters off whenever he comes near...

I've had them out and about together a few times, supervised and that went well (appart from pip flying off when he's near) but when bath time came around the two of them happily shared the sink for some splashy water fun! - that's also good right?

I have carefully supervised them while i tried having them in the same cage for 5 minutes and then sepperated them again, i was thinking the quickest and least upsetting way to move forward is to have them together every evening for a few minutes in the same cage and increase the time a little every night. is this a good idea? what would you guys do?

I'd love to keep this little baby! i kinda feel like he chose me, but i really need him and pippen to be able to share a cage or my wiser, less impulsive half will bring him back to the breeder...

would love to hear!!
thanks guys

Much love, Rana

I agree with the other posters, you can not force a bond.

Yesterday, both my birds ended up on the floor, rolling around in a ball fighting. They tolerate each others presence when they are no less then 5 feet away from each other. How they both got on the floor I had no idea, I was in the kitchen and heard the commotion. I will never allow them to be free at the same time without constant supervision. It definitely was an accident that could have been avoided. Both birds were not hurt from what I could tell other then my Senegal has a puncture wound on her foot. Both are acting fine, eating and drinking okay too. It was the scariest moment as I was trying to get them apart.

Rana · Aug 20, 2013

Hi Wendy, I'm sure t hat must have been upsetting for you as well as for the birds!
My guys arn't allowed out unsupervised either. I wouldn't risk it. I am quite lucky that it is working out as well as it is with the GCC's but i'm very wary. the new guy is deffinitely the more dominant one, not agressive, but not a push over either and i want to monitor that for a while. that's why i still keep them appart for the majority of the time.
It's like i mentioned before, i agree you can't force bonding, but you should deffinitely try and encourage them to tollerate eachother with positive reinforcement, and who knows, they might bond afterall.

SoCalWendy · Aug 21, 2013

Hi Rana,

Yeah I was pretty upset. It didn't want to hurt either of them, or myself to get hurt trying to get them apart. My Senegal got a pretty bad bite on her foot, but she is okay. Kiwi my parrotlet is definitely the aggressor, hands-down. Today she bit my husband twice and drew blood. She is molting and is extremely moody right now. She is like a mean green biting machine. Rio is molting too, but no where neat as moody as kiwi. Both are 6 months old.

I encourage that they tolerate each others presence, but honestly I don't feel I could ever really trust either of them to really become friends. Im even starting to rethink allowing Kiwi's flight feathers to grow in. Even though kiwi is the instigator, I know that she doesn't have the bite force Rio has. Rio could take her out in a second.

Who knows in your case it just might work out. I hope it does

faeryphoebe1 · Aug 21, 2013

My GCC detests my 8 month old Sun, so I can definitively relate to Wendy. Ever since Sunny came home this past February, Trixie has made it clear that she's jealous of him and will attack without provocation. She'll fly to him to bite him and with his much larger beak he could do some serious damage! So, my hand between them gets the brunt of her vicious bites. They are never together without supervision.

However, yours are the same species and it sounds as if they are off to a good start. Just in case, though...it would be beneficial for all birds involved if you to take that final step and completely commit to keeping him, whether they can co-habitate or not. Best of luck with everything. He sounds adorable!

Rana · Aug 23, 2013

here's the new guy and the old guy hanging out together:

JerseyWendy · Aug 23, 2013

What a SWEET, sweet picture!!!!

Rana · Aug 23, 2013

Digit is doing so well, i'm so proud of him! he learns commands so quickly and he and pip are getting on better and better every day. they even started mimicking eachothers calls - i'm absolutely delighted!

Trial parrot

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