What decides if birds like each other??

[Sadie13]

i just became a 3 bird home and now i'm confused...

Mango beak was first, then when he was 2 we got red and she was 6-7ish.
Red isnt dna'd but they said they called her a girl and it stuck. ive never seen eggs but she will regurgitate when i am cleaning her cage and she is in there (i know either sex will do that).

Red has always tried to kiss and be near mango but mango always does the wings out puff up big boy dance, he has never bitten but he lounges at red.

So i just assumed mango is a jealous boy and can't have bird friends because he is the baby.

well things have been moving faster then expected with porkchop so i opened his cage yesterday and left it open. he got on the floor and hunted me down and we had some shoulder time and he learned step up (smart guy!)

but i had all 3 on the island in the kitchen where mango and red will keep their personal space but enjoy spending time while im cleaning and cooking, but little porkchop was running back and forth to mango and red and being silly and giving kisses! mango even kissed back!! and he will lounge at red if i am holding red to close to him, but in a moment of forgetting how quick the little green cheeks are he managed to switch shoulders and cuddle in between mango and my neck! Mango could care less.

i was assuming i would need to keep opal and mango like i do him and red, but now im wondering what decides if a bird likes another bird? Red has never displayed aggression to mango he just never liked her in his bubble. Could red maybe be a boy and porkchop a girl so he doesnt feel like he needs to defend his space? sorry, this instant acceptance of porkchop vs the years of him only tolerating red has me really wondering why? and with opal coming home im thinking maybe there is hope

thanks and hope someone knows what decides if birds are friends!

 

[MonicaMc]

That's a hard question to answer and one I wish I knew!!!!

Noel, my first conure, supposedly was friends with a male cockatiel in his last home. I really don't know if they interacted or not, but he did become cage buddies with my first female cockatiel. At first, Noel wanted nothing to do with Casey and would lunge at her to try and get her to go away. Casey on the other hand couldn't get enough of Noel! She kept trying to get close to him even though he kept lunging at her! I don't know if Casey's breeders had birds other than cockatiels and she "interacted" with my budgies without issues (they mostly ignored each other but she enjoyed raiding their cages for food and toys! even stuffed herself into a hamster wheel after watching the budgies play in it!). I had no intentions of keeping the two together because of the size difference, yet they eventually became friends and Noel accepted Casey. Casey would preen Noel and Noel would allow Casey to snuggle next to him at night! Unfortunately for Casey, Noel never did return the favor of scritches, but then she had me for that, too!


Charlie was an only bird for 10 years of his life (as far as I know), then was in a pet store for a year then in a foster situation for a year. His time in foster he ended up bonding with a male lilac crowned amazon. (don't recall if the zon DNA sexed or not, Charlie is assume male!) The two shared a cage without any problems and Charlie bosses around the other lilac crown as well as the much larger hybrid zon. Unfortunately, he did not get along with the ruby macaw (his fault entirely!) and now requires beak trims for the rest of his life.


I had Noel and Charlie for 3 years and the two never got along! Noel would try to occasionally copy what Charlie was doing, and Charlie wanted to preen Noel (then again, he seems to enjoy preening any bird!), but Charlie was far too aggressive in behavior to get along with Noel. (Charlie is aggressive in behavior to *ALL* birds! Odd, considering he still wants to preen them!)

Noel has been gone for just over 4 years now, and I've had Jayde for a little over a year. She was previously plucked by another bird that she was caged with, so I assume it was only a temporary thing. Charlie has been bathing more since Jayde came here, because Jayde was taking bathes nearly every day, if not twice a day! Jayde and Charlie do not get along. At best, they tolerate each other. At worst, they are squabbling! If I handle only Charlie, he doesn't care that I don't have Jayde with me. However, if I handle only Jayde, she wont settle down unless I go and get Charlie. I have never seen her try to copy anything that Charlie has done, other than going to the top of another bird cage that belongs to neither of them.






It's a mystery to me as well!

 

[chippy]

Wilbur (RIP) and Gemma were best of friends from day one...they played together, snuggled, and spent hours ever day together. It was nothing they did, they just "clicked".
All three birds now, Tiki, Pippin and Gemma are not friends. I think Gemma and Pip would like to be friends, they are working towards it, I think, but get nervous still.
Tiki doesn't like either one, but is tolerating (when she isn't busy bullying him) Pippin better. She was a re-homed bird and has come a long way and I think will take a few years, if ever, to befriend Pippin. I think she just wants to eat Gemma. *shrug* Not going to let that happen. Honestly, though, I think it's more nervousness than meanness.

 

[RavensGryf]

I guess it's like us if we're in a group of people... Some or one person we might click with, others are just okay, and others not so much!

I had a Slender billed corella who LOVED an Eclectus and persisted and was a pest until the Eclectus finally rolled her eyes, said okay, and finally became her friend. The SB would demand neck preening, so the Eclectus did it, but she never asked for anything in return.
When I gave the SB to a wonderful home with a big (entire) house dedicated to bird enrichment, and big aviary, she never made another bird friend again with anyone. Not even the other Toos. I guess she just wasn't crazy about any of them. Who knows why they choose certain ones to be friends with and not others, just like we do.

 

[Sadie13]

well i'm glad its common at least.
dogs are typically dog/cat friendly or they arent. so i am finding it funny (and a little sad) that mango is sitting all buddy buddy with porkchop almost under his wing, and poor red sitting on a different play stand and blowing raspberries at them!
they did some beak mouthing too...scared the crap out of me when the do it with the beak size difference, but mango has shown 0 aggression to him and his posture is calm.
i do stand right next to them though when they start the beaking....im so paranoid and i usually end up taking one away out of precaution...
hope i'm doing the right thing, i want them to be friends, but that is a BIG size difference....and i wasn't expecting them to want to be together.

 

[RavensGryf]

Robin just sits on his cage or on us, away from the others since he hates other birds. I don't care if he gets along with anyone. I'm used to it after many years of him hating others.

You see pics of bird friends often where one is much bigger than the other. If they're too mismatched in size, the larger one could even ACCIDENTALLY hurt the small one.
Raven hangs out with Budgies, but they don't touch or bother each other.