I need some advice on getting a another bird

[ggchungus]

I was thinking of getting another bird so that my current parrot GG wouldn’t be so lonely when I go back to school, the thing is I don’t know whether to get the same species as her or a different species because I only have one cage

 

[noodles123]

I understand that your intentions are good, but they are very misguided. If you do not have time for your current bird, you should not get another. The fact is, they may fight or try to mate, and in both scenarios, you could end up with two birds who require totally separate out of cage time at 3 hours minimum. You should never get a bird for your bird and only get one if you personally have the time and money to deal with 2 bird in the event that they cannot be out at the same time.


Also, any new bird will need to be quarantined for a minimum of 45 days (but ideally, per avian vet, 3 months in a separate air space. While a separate air space is impossible for many, you still would need both birds as far apart as possible (definite separate rooms) . You mention that you only have one cage-- under no circumstance would it ever be okay to keep a new bird in the same cage with your old. That is an accident waiting to happen on so many levels.


This is why it is also a good idea to wait until you are graduated and have a steady career/house etc as well, as life can change a lot when you are young, and birds live a very long time. It isn't fair to them to bring them into a situation when you don't know what the future holds and are struggling as it is (due to the nature of school, expenses, unknown future occupation which may have hours ill-suited for parrots etc).


You could easily end up complicating things much more with another bird, despite the fact that your hope is that they would get along, about 50% of the time, they do not....Additionally, the veterinary, housing, feeding costs etc increase significantly with a 2nd bird.

 

[Laurasea]

welcome to the forum! Glad you joined! Great people here, great resource, hope you stick around.

I love quakers and they are a social parrot. But sharing a cage isn't easy. I dont have any that do, one would keep the other from eating enough, fights, behavior changes like increase aggression and screeching.

Its important to quarantine new birds as tgey can bring in disease. It happened to me, abd has taken 4 month of antibiotics to get my birds past this.

Introduction work best when done slowly, and each parrot has their own cage. Then its up to the individual parrots if they would bond closely enough to share a cage. Parrots that get along together out of the cage, most often can't share a cage.

We recently had a member loose a parrot from cage mate aggression....

Personally I think quakers do better with another parrot around, but not sharing the cage. The risk is an increase in noise. And that they dont like each other, which is more work and time.