Bonding Big birds and little birds?

Hello!

For the last few months I've been looking into buying another parrot and I wanted some advice on how to bond them.

I have a Nanday conure, he is extremely sweet and he enjoys being around other birds. I want to buy a blue and gold macaw, I've done a lot of research on buying one, lifespan, personality, how to take care of, ect. I'm pretty set on buying one. I was going back and forth between an African grey and a macaw, and the reason I decided on a macaw is because they don't produce as much dander (I'm semi allergic) and a friend of my mom's owns a cockatoo, macaw, and African grey said that the African grey is a bit jealous.

Back to the original subject, I want to know how to bond them and get the best result. I've seen a lot of people that have macaws (or other big birds) with conures or cockatiels. I know that anything can happen as far as my nanday getting hurt, and I understand that they might not act well together. But, I'm still going to try my best to make them bond well.

Any tips on bonding them or introducing them would be extremely helpful. Thank you!

P.S. Would getting a baby macaw work better than an adult? So they could "grow up together" in a way. Thanks again!

There is a lot to cover here and I don't have much time but I just want to point one thing out quick; in terms of jealousy, Macaw's rank pretty high, in my experience usually much higher than African Greys. If that is a concern I would suggest you still have a lot of research ahead of you.


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You are likely to hear both sides and down the center on this subject. That due to the fact that nearly anything is possible and there within is the problem in providing you an black and white answer.

Having said that, the likelihood in this joining ending badly is very high. The size difference alone could even by accident be deadly for the smaller Parrot.

Commonly, individuals with various sizes of birds /Parrots end-up having different times in which each size group is out a different times.

I am guessing in all your research that you are fully aware that Big Parrot's come with very big costs to house, feed, provided toys, demand for your time, and FYI: Avian Vet costs. It is very possible to be looking a hundreds and in some cases thousand dollars a year to care for a big Parrot.

My choice would be an older Parrot that you have some kind of feeling for their personality.

I have rosellas and macaw at the same time. I would NEVER have them mix, as one small nip from a macaw can and probably will have fatal consequenses to such a small bird. When I only had Sugar, I would rarely have Cornelia out (my late rosella), but only because Sugar will only fly, when I ask him to. Now when I have a fully flighted macaw in the house, I will never have Daddy flying in the same room.

Having said that, if you are going to have a conure and a macaw together, I would get a baby macaw. If you are good at diciplining your bird, the macaw will hopefully grow up knowing the conure is off limits. I would not recommend you to try to make them bond, it's just too dangerous for the conure.

As for jealousy the macaws are next to the large cockatoos the birds that have the most possesive behaviour. If I have cuddle time with one of my macaws and either a dog or a cat infringes on that, the macaw will bite the s#*% out them.

Everyone has made wonderful points. Personally, I don't think birds of extreme size differences should ever mix. All it takes is an accidental bite, landing, etc. for something bad to happen. In fact, one of the vet pages I follow posted this image of an alexandrine who had been bitten by an amazon parrot:



Alexandrines and amazons are relatively close is size for the most part, and the amazon STILL managed to do incredibly serious damage to its beak. Can you imagine the damage a nanday conure would sustain from a macaw if something were to go down? I don't even want to think about it. People do allow their bigs and littles to mix, but I'm personally of the opinion that you're better off safe than sorry. It is in no way crucial for your two birds to bond.

I have both a Macaw and a Conure at the same time and while they are bonding they're not allowed to play together. They may be out at the same time (the Macaw can't fly) but they don't share play stands, food bowls, perches or anything else. Down the road I may have to have separate times for them but for now I can get by.

I keep a sharp eye on them for the very reason that one nip from Romeo and my lil' buddy Stephen is gone. Romeo was a happenstance rescue and I wouldn't undo it but I wouldn't recommend doing it on purpose now that I've gone down this very road.

Let's say that I have some regrets. I think a better option would be another Conure... they can play together and be buds. And you don't get the Macaw shriek that makes your ears buzz to boot!

Im glad this question was asked and that I stopped to read because I'm in somewhat of a similar sitation. We have a young Sun Conure (around 6 mos old) and our U2 is just starting to wean at the aviary and I had wondered if they'd be able to be friends since they're meeting at such a young sge.
Bambam is 4 mos old and just learned to fly last week. When we were visiting he took flight in the aviary parents visiting area and landed on the temp cage of an Amazon. Before I could get to go him the Amazon got to the top and bit his foot. I was trying to get Bambam down before the Amazon could hurt him and Bambam accidentally bit me in the process. I know when he felt my hand he prob thought it was the Amazon after him and he was just trying to get away. Luckily Bambam is ok, no injury but that really caused me to wonder if Spezi (our SC) could be out of his cage when Bambam came home and was out of his? Will I always have to rotate their out-of-cage time?
I didn't mean to hi-jack your question but like you I have concerns about their "friendship" and felt we both had the same general concern. Forgive me if I overstepped here by asking
A question in follow-up.

MrsBigE said:

Im glad this question was asked and that I stopped to read because I'm in somewhat of a similar sitation. We have a young Sun Conure (around 6 mos old) and our U2 is just starting to wean at the aviary and I had wondered if they'd be able to be friends since they're meeting at such a young sge.
Bambam is 4 mos old and just learned to fly last week. When we were visiting he took flight in the aviary parents visiting area and landed on the temp cage of an Amazon. Before I could get to go him the Amazon got to the top and bit his foot. I was trying to get Bambam down before the Amazon could hurt him and Bambam accidentally bit me in the process. I know when he felt my hand he prob thought it was the Amazon after him and he was just trying to get away. Luckily Bambam is ok, no injury but that really caused me to wonder if Spezi (our SC) could be out of his cage when Bambam came home and was out of his? Will I always have to rotate their out-of-cage time?
I didn't mean to hi-jack your question but like you I have concerns about their "friendship" and felt we both had the same general concern. Forgive me if I overstepped here by asking
A question in follow-up.

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I would be really worried, but not to say it couldn't happen. The fact they both are young, should be to your advantage.

If I were to try, I would probably have them in cages next to each other, but still a few inches apart, so no one could injure the other through the bars. I would look at the way they interact (if they do). Is it calm or agitated? If calm I might allow the SC to play on the U2's cage and see if they actually want to interact. If I step by step could see, that there was no aggression, I would probably have the U2 in a harness and the SC free and have the U2 on your arm, where you can see every thing. Basically baby steps, where no one can get hurt.

If it goes well, great. First hurdle passed. Then when puberty hits, you need to do it all again. If BamBam is male, I would actually not let them be together after puberty. The large too males are known for lunging badly, if something upsets them. Breeders see this in a lot of breeding pairs, where the male will hurt the female, if she doesn't comply with his wishes.