17 year old Alexandrine, full of crazy. Combination of Alex +?

Hocico

New member
Aug 31, 2021
1
3
Parrots
Alexandrine
Pineapple Conure
Crimson Breasted Conure
Hello,

I have had my adopted my Alex boy Hocico for a year now, he was 16 when I adopted him (microchipped, vet files from 3 days old). He's beautiful, funny and smart. But there are a few issues...

- His last owner was male, and Hocico mostly spent time around gay men, so he goes into breeding/mating behaviour around men, immediately and intensely. Specifically my son.

- He spent a lot of time in pubs/bars I think, he has brand recognition for many troubling things and goes insane when he thinks someone is opening a beer (we never are but he has broken into cans of drink before....) or chips or god knows what. He's got junk food issues.

- He used to have a vocab of around 150 words, it's now about 5, can he relearn? He says "Hello" like a parrot, but then whispers "so pretty, so geoooorgeous" in a totally different voice. He's learning "kiss" and "scratch" sorta.

- His eyes don't pin as much as other Alexandrines, is that because he is older? I know behavior triggers it, but even when he's triggered, it's just not as drastic as other alexandrines I've owned and know. Age?

- He sees me as his "Mum" and listens to me, but has recently tried mating behaviour with my partner (female) and is getting increasingly anxious when she leaves the room. Unless my son is in the room, in which case...obviously he only has eyes for him! :rolleyes::LOL:
He also seems to always be in a mating behaviour period...constantly.His horrible cobra dance, flashing eyes, heart wings.....he must be so tired ha ha. He also does this thing where he sticks his tongue out the side of his beak and wiggles it, is that an Alexandrine thing? I can't find any mention of it. It's his cue for "give me a kiss".

- He is very sweet around other birds, he's a huge sook and was trying to make friends with our conures, but conures are cliquey and don't like the giant avocado with the huge beak. He watches over them and lets me know if they are in danger (according to him). So he sees them as his flock, and looks after them but they bite him. We don't let them mix obviously, their cages are just in the same room.

- I think he is lonely and would like to find him a friend. I've googled for a few species-appropriate friends for Alexandrines and obviously, Ringnecks come up, but in my experience, they are PROFOUNDLY loud. Derbyns and Plum heads etc are a bit rarer where I am. He's had "playdates" with a green fronted Amazon who he liked but she did not like him. He loves other birds.

- We are all in lockdown at the moment so he has a lot of engagement but as that ends, we will be out of the house more. I don't want his anxiety to increase, or his insanity.

- He ignores all toys and only bites his perch because he has no forward-thinking skills. He only bites the things he literally needs to rely on, BUT if his cage doesn't have toys and decoration he gets sad. But he will not play with them - ever. They look brand new after 8 months.

- He had his wings clipped by the previous owner all his life but can fly now (which is amazing since the neural pathways for flight were never developed in the critical stage, he's so smart). He flies around the room a lot and is always improving his aim and landing skills.

So - is another male Alex the right choice? I can't get him his preference of a human male to live in his cage, ha ha:LOL::LOL::LOL:. Will another Alex make him noiser?

There is so little info on Alexandrines with various combinations of other bird companions. I understand beak size/general size issues but what happens with other species? Eclectus, Hahns Macaw etc. I'm just reluctant to have another ringneck because of the horrifying noise and my lack of skills and time to train it away.

Please explain my crazy bird and what friend he needs to make him happy.


Screen Shot 2021-09-01 at 3.10.19 pm.png
 

wrench13

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Hi and welcome. Conventional wisdom is: Never get your parrot a "friend" unless you want the new one for you. A new parrot can go one of 3 ways 1) they get along great and still accept people into the mix 2) they accept each other to the exclusion of every one else and 3) one or both HATE the other and you have now 2 parrots requiring separate cages, out of cage time etc etc.

This question comes up regularly on the ParrotForums. There are of course other considerations, like now you have 2x the clean up, 2x the noise, 2x the vet bills and so one, but you already have multiple parrots, so an added one may not be that much of an increase of work and so forth. But really, you throw the dice on the points in the first paragraph.

Play - some parrots have never been exposed to toys and have no idea how to play with them. Parrot can learn by observing. Again a common issue on here. Lots of times, playing with a toy yourself and making ecstatic happy noises will cause the parrot to be interested and try playing with the toy too. Sounds crazy but I assure you it does work. Try different styles of toys too. My little Amazon Salty goes thru changes on the types of toys he likes, for a while it was popcicle stick toys and one day, nope not interested anymore. Currently he will only play with toys that have the little baskets on them. Try too the tubular stainless steel bells, that one seems to be a perennial favorite here. Not a day goes by that he doesn't try to kill it for awhile! Get a good one for that, cheap ones might not be stainless steel or have easily detached clappers. Keep in mind the famous parrot proclivity to hate change and being stubborn. Might take days/weeks/months/ before he decides to play with toys.

Thanks for the pics, he is very handsome!
 

Cstone01

New member
Jun 13, 2019
12
10
Our Alex does the weird tongue thing too! We rescued him when he was three or four years old, he doesn’t really do it anymore but when we first got him he did it a lot. Sometimes he would do it at a mirror like he was checking it out. I’m not sure if other species do it, I haven’t really seen it before. Obviously this is not what he’s doing but I always thought it kind of looked like he was eating his tongue is lure like some fish do. He is pretty good friends with our major Mitchell but obviously that isn’t a guarantee and they are a little bit of a odd pair. Lord derby’s are great birds, my mother had one when I was little. I think mustache parakeets are also getting easier to find than they used to be.
 

Niteldy

Active member
Oct 26, 2021
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Utah
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1 Alexandrine & 5 cockatiels
Hello,

I have had my adopted my Alex boy Hocico for a year now, he was 16 when I adopted him (microchipped, vet files from 3 days old). He's beautiful, funny and smart. But there are a few issues...

- His last owner was male, and Hocico mostly spent time around gay men, so he goes into breeding/mating behaviour around men, immediately and intensely. Specifically my son.

- He spent a lot of time in pubs/bars I think, he has brand recognition for many troubling things and goes insane when he thinks someone is opening a beer (we never are but he has broken into cans of drink before....) or chips or god knows what. He's got junk food issues.

- He used to have a vocab of around 150 words, it's now about 5, can he relearn? He says "Hello" like a parrot, but then whispers "so pretty, so geoooorgeous" in a totally different voice. He's learning "kiss" and "scratch" sorta.

- His eyes don't pin as much as other Alexandrines, is that because he is older? I know behavior triggers it, but even when he's triggered, it's just not as drastic as other alexandrines I've owned and know. Age?

- He sees me as his "Mum" and listens to me, but has recently tried mating behaviour with my partner (female) and is getting increasingly anxious when she leaves the room. Unless my son is in the room, in which case...obviously he only has eyes for him! :rolleyes::LOL:
He also seems to always be in a mating behaviour period...constantly.His horrible cobra dance, flashing eyes, heart wings.....he must be so tired ha ha. He also does this thing where he sticks his tongue out the side of his beak and wiggles it, is that an Alexandrine thing? I can't find any mention of it. It's his cue for "give me a kiss".

- He is very sweet around other birds, he's a huge sook and was trying to make friends with our conures, but conures are cliquey and don't like the giant avocado with the huge beak. He watches over them and lets me know if they are in danger (according to him). So he sees them as his flock, and looks after them but they bite him. We don't let them mix obviously, their cages are just in the same room.

- I think he is lonely and would like to find him a friend. I've googled for a few species-appropriate friends for Alexandrines and obviously, Ringnecks come up, but in my experience, they are PROFOUNDLY loud. Derbyns and Plum heads etc are a bit rarer where I am. He's had "playdates" with a green fronted Amazon who he liked but she did not like him. He loves other birds.

- We are all in lockdown at the moment so he has a lot of engagement but as that ends, we will be out of the house more. I don't want his anxiety to increase, or his insanity.

- He ignores all toys and only bites his perch because he has no forward-thinking skills. He only bites the things he literally needs to rely on, BUT if his cage doesn't have toys and decoration he gets sad. But he will not play with them - ever. They look brand new after 8 months.

- He had his wings clipped by the previous owner all his life but can fly now (which is amazing since the neural pathways for flight were never developed in the critical stage, he's so smart). He flies around the room a lot and is always improving his aim and landing skills.

So - is another male Alex the right choice? I can't get him his preference of a human male to live in his cage, ha ha:LOL::LOL::LOL:. Will another Alex make him noiser?

There is so little info on Alexandrines with various combinations of other bird companions. I understand beak size/general size issues but what happens with other species? Eclectus, Hahns Macaw etc. I'm just reluctant to have another ringneck because of the horrifying noise and my lack of skills and time to train it away.

Please explain my crazy bird and what friend he needs to make him happy.


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