| need advice: peculiar parakeet predicament - CLICK HERE for the Pet Manual Forum Home Page |
| Mike Rollin |
hello friends,
so we've had a wonderful budgie named ringo for the past 3 years and he
is superbly friendly and cheerful--he spends most of his time on our
shoulders or heads when we are home--at least he used to. a couple of
months ago, on a whim, we hung up a small clothing tag with a dog's
face (in a santa hat) with a shiny puffball behind it as a toy. well,
it seems ringo has fallen madly in love with this tag/puffball. he
taps at it and nuzzles it day and night, and when he's with his "tag",
if you approach him he'll puff up and flap his wings alarmedly at you
until you back off. it's clear he thinks this tag is his girlfriend,
and he's VERY protective.
so the issue is actually this: we've finally decided that ringo
clearly needs a friend. he has had a great relationship with us, but
how intensely he seems to love this tag tells me he badly needs some
bird lovin'. but we're super nervous about introducing a new bird and
generating some bizarre budgie-budgie-tag love triangle. so the
questions are these:
1) can someone point me to a good general faq on introducing a second,
younger budgie to a VERY tame, playful and sweet male?
2) does ANYONE have any insight on how we ought to wean ringo off of
his tag girlfriend? he's so in love that it would seem cruel to take
it away, but i'm worried that with a new bird around he'll get even
MORE protective and maybe never make friends with the new one at all.
thank you all so very much for your time, hope at least this tragic
bird/tag love story has enriched your day--
mike
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| Troy & Vicky Jollimore |
He's just looking for something more bird-like in his life. We had a little
budgie that would aggressively and repeatedly try to climb into mirrors and
rip the bells attached to them to shreds. He still loved and played with us,
but I figured he might be mentally scarred if he continued being alone. So
we gave him a friend. The new one seems to be naturally submissive, and our
inexperience had us just dumping the two together in the same cage, but they
get on well enough. They're friendly to us, but the new one still won't come
to us 'on demand' like the first one will.
When we added a third, we put him in a second cage and planned to keep him
seperated until he was hand-tamed. But the birds all heard each other and
got so worked up that we felt bad enough to just put them together. They
immediately got along. This guy is independent and sticks up for himself, so
he has the respect of the first bird. They're usually all three together, or
go 2+1. Again, he won't come to us at all outside of the cage. We have to
resolve ourselves to a training method.
I'd recommend putting your new bird in a seperate cage, and don't let them
know about each other if possible. Get the new guy used to you, trust you,
and come to you without running away. Then put the new cages together for
awhile and see how they get on. Your bird will probably forget about the toy
for awhile. Ours doesn't do that much with the mirrors anymore.
"Mike Rollin" <mrollin@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1118291706.967695.133830@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> hello friends,
>
> so we've had a wonderful budgie named ringo for the past 3 years and he
> is superbly friendly and cheerful--he spends most of his time on our
> shoulders or heads when we are home--at least he used to. a couple of
> months ago, on a whim, we hung up a small clothing tag with a dog's
> face (in a santa hat) with a shiny puffball behind it as a toy. well,
> it seems ringo has fallen madly in love with this tag/puffball. he
> taps at it and nuzzles it day and night, and when he's with his "tag",
> if you approach him he'll puff up and flap his wings alarmedly at you
> until you back off. it's clear he thinks this tag is his girlfriend,
> and he's VERY protective.
>
> so the issue is actually this: we've finally decided that ringo
> clearly needs a friend. he has had a great relationship with us, but
> how intensely he seems to love this tag tells me he badly needs some
> bird lovin'. but we're super nervous about introducing a new bird and
> generating some bizarre budgie-budgie-tag love triangle. so the
> questions are these:
>
> 1) can someone point me to a good general faq on introducing a second,
> younger budgie to a VERY tame, playful and sweet male?
> 2) does ANYONE have any insight on how we ought to wean ringo off of
> his tag girlfriend? he's so in love that it would seem cruel to take
> it away, but i'm worried that with a new bird around he'll get even
> MORE protective and maybe never make friends with the new one at all.
>
> thank you all so very much for your time, hope at least this tragic
> bird/tag love story has enriched your day--
>
> mike
>
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| jmcquown |
Mike Rollin wrote:
> hello friends,
>
> so we've had a wonderful budgie named ringo for the past 3 years and
> he is superbly friendly and cheerful--he spends most of his time on
> our shoulders or heads when we are home--at least he used to. a
> couple of months ago, on a whim, we hung up a small clothing tag with
> a dog's face (in a santa hat) with a shiny puffball behind it as a
> toy. well, it seems ringo has fallen madly in love with this
> tag/puffball. he taps at it and nuzzles it day and night, and when
> he's with his "tag", if you approach him he'll puff up and flap his
> wings alarmedly at you until you back off. it's clear he thinks this
> tag is his girlfriend, and he's VERY protective.
>
> so the issue is actually this: we've finally decided that ringo
> clearly needs a friend. he has had a great relationship with us, but
> how intensely he seems to love this tag tells me he badly needs some
> bird lovin'. but we're super nervous about introducing a new bird and
> generating some bizarre budgie-budgie-tag love triangle. so the
> questions are these:
>
> 1) can someone point me to a good general faq on introducing a second,
> younger budgie to a VERY tame, playful and sweet male?
> 2) does ANYONE have any insight on how we ought to wean ringo off of
> his tag girlfriend? he's so in love that it would seem cruel to take
> it away, but i'm worried that with a new bird around he'll get even
> MORE protective and maybe never make friends with the new one at all.
>
> thank you all so very much for your time, hope at least this tragic
> bird/tag love story has enriched your day--
>
> mike
Birds often fall in love with a particular shiny toy (mirrors in particular,
although this isn't the case in your situation). In your case it's probably
the shiny puff-ball. It's not cruel to take it away if you replace the toy
with something fun but less distracting to your bird. Perhaps something
with colourful beads and a bell; some leather strips to chew on.
I guess my question is, do you really want a companion for Ringo or do you
want him to resume paying attention to you, riding around on your shoulder?
There is a myth about birds needing a companion. If their human is their
friend and companion they are often very happy having their own cage and
having the humans all to themselves.
In my opinion (and I have had parakeets since 1966) if you want to introduce
a new young 'keet companion to Ringo you need to ditch the shiny stuff.
It's likely Ringo sees his reflection that's what he's talking to and
interacting with. He will be highly protective of it if you introduce a new
bird into his "space" with that still there.
Of course if you *want* to get a new bird, integrate them slowly together.
Perhaps a small cage next to Ringo's cage for a week or so to allow him to
talk to his new companion before you simply put them in a cage together.
And keep in mind, not all budgies get along with each other. But if they
do, there will still possibly be the "ignore you" factor once they have each
other to keep company with.
Good luck and thanks for sharing Ringo's story.
Jill
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| pammyT |
"Mike Rollin" <mrollin@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1118291706.967695.133830@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> hello friends,
>
> so we've had a wonderful budgie named ringo for the past 3 years and he
> is superbly friendly and cheerful--he spends most of his time on our
> shoulders or heads when we are home--at least he used to. a couple of
> months ago, on a whim, we hung up a small clothing tag with a dog's
> face (in a santa hat) with a shiny puffball behind it as a toy. well,
> it seems ringo has fallen madly in love with this tag/puffball. he
> taps at it and nuzzles it day and night, and when he's with his "tag",
> if you approach him he'll puff up and flap his wings alarmedly at you
> until you back off. it's clear he thinks this tag is his girlfriend,
> and he's VERY protective.
>
> so the issue is actually this: we've finally decided that ringo
> clearly needs a friend. he has had a great relationship with us, but
> how intensely he seems to love this tag tells me he badly needs some
> bird lovin'. but we're super nervous about introducing a new bird and
> generating some bizarre budgie-budgie-tag love triangle. so the
> questions are these:
>
> 1) can someone point me to a good general faq on introducing a second,
> younger budgie to a VERY tame, playful and sweet male?
> 2) does ANYONE have any insight on how we ought to wean ringo off of
> his tag girlfriend? he's so in love that it would seem cruel to take
> it away, but i'm worried that with a new bird around he'll get even
> MORE protective and maybe never make friends with the new one at all.
>
> thank you all so very much for your time, hope at least this tragic
> bird/tag love story has enriched your day--
Here's what I would do. Remove his love article, rearrange the cage or even
buy a newer bigger one. Get another young male and place them both in the
new cage together.
In all the time I have kept small parakeets, I have never had problems
introducing a new one.
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| pammyT |
"Troy & Vicky Jollimore" <tjollimore@NoSpam.sympatico.ca> wrote in message
news:FIVpe.44312$Ph4.1078500@ursa-nb00s0.nbnet.nb.ca...
> He's just looking for something more bird-like in his life. We had a
little
> budgie that would aggressively and repeatedly try to climb into mirrors
and
> rip the bells attached to them to shreds. He still loved and played with
us,
> but I figured he might be mentally scarred if he continued being alone. So
> we gave him a friend. The new one seems to be naturally submissive, and
our
> inexperience had us just dumping the two together in the same cage, but
they
> get on well enough. They're friendly to us, but the new one still won't
come
> to us 'on demand' like the first one will.
>
> When we added a third, we put him in a second cage and planned to keep him
> seperated until he was hand-tamed. But the birds all heard each other and
> got so worked up that we felt bad enough to just put them together. They
> immediately got along. This guy is independent and sticks up for himself,
so
> he has the respect of the first bird. They're usually all three together,
or
> go 2+1. Again, he won't come to us at all outside of the cage. We have to
> resolve ourselves to a training method.
>
> I'd recommend putting your new bird in a seperate cage, and don't let them
> know about each other if possible. Get the new guy used to you, trust you,
> and come to you without running away. Then put the new cages together for
> awhile and see how they get on. Your bird will probably forget about the
toy
> for awhile. Ours doesn't do that much with the mirrors anymore.
I would simply place them all in together. They have such a strong instinct
for flocking I have never had trouble. If you have one tame one, you will
find that given time, they will all follow it's lead and become tamer too.
People are oftem far too 'mimsy' about putting birds together and with
small parakeets it really is simplicity itself.
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| pammyT |
--
"jmcquown" <jmcquown@bellsouth.net> wrote in message > I guess my question
is, do you really want a companion for Ringo or do you
> want him to resume paying attention to you, riding around on your
shoulder?
> There is a myth about birds needing a companion.
I disagree most strongly. I think birds have a need for fellow birds and
enjoy having a preening companion.Small parakkeets in particular have a
strong instinctual need to be part of a flock. Humans will only ever be a
poor substitute.
> If their human is their
> friend and companion they are often very happy having their own >cage and
> having the humans all to themselves.
Not so. My first ever pet budgie was as tame as could be. I bought him in
1975 and tamed him. He lived alone for 2 years being completely free to fly
about my home as he chose. He would sit on us, steal salad and veg from our
plates etc and seemd happy. Yet when I was given another 2 budgies a couple
of years later, he still was tame, sat on us, nibbled food etc but now he
had 2 mates to do it with. All 3 flew loose in my home 24/7 and the 2
additions eventually became as tame as 'dixie' was.
Visitors were told that if they disliked birds and objected to them sitting
on heads and shoulders etc, they simply weren't invited in.
>
> In my opinion (and I have had parakeets since 1966) if you want to
introduce
> a new young 'keet companion to Ringo you need to ditch the shiny stuff.
> It's likely Ringo sees his reflection that's what he's talking to and
> interacting with. He will be highly protective of it if you introduce a
new
> bird into his "space" with that still there.
I agree with that.
>
> Of course if you *want* to get a new bird, integrate them slowly together.
> Perhaps a small cage next to Ringo's cage for a week or so to allow him to
> talk to his new companion before you simply put them in a cage together.
But not with that. I have always simply put budgies and cockatiels
together. Eventually 'Dixie' had 4 companions in total, each simply popped
into the cage with the rest of them. Travelled all over Germany with me and
eventually brought back to the UK in the 1980's.
> And keep in mind, not all budgies get along with each other. But if they
> do, there will still possibly be the "ignore you" factor once they have
each
> other to keep company with.
For someone which all those years budgie experience, you are giving wrong
advice. Tame bonded birds, remain tame bonded birds no matter what. Dixie
eventually nested with one of his companions and both he and his mate would
fly to me for treats to take back to the babies who also became as tame.
All that from the original pet bird tamed by me. The others were given to me
and were not at all tame.
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| jmcquown |
pammyT wrote:
> "Mike Rollin" <mrollin@gmail.com> wrote in message
> news:1118291706.967695.133830@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
>> hello friends,
>>
>> so we've had a wonderful budgie named ringo for the past 3 years and
>> he is superbly friendly and cheerful--he spends most of his time on
>> our shoulders or heads when we are home--at least he used to. a
>> couple of months ago, on a whim, we hung up a small clothing tag
>> with a dog's
>> face (in a santa hat) with a shiny puffball behind it as a toy.
>> well,
>> it seems ringo has fallen madly in love with this tag/puffball. he
>> taps at it and nuzzles it day and night, and when he's with his
>> "tag",
>> if you approach him he'll puff up and flap his wings alarmedly at you
>> until you back off. it's clear he thinks this tag is his girlfriend,
>> and he's VERY protective.
>>
>> so the issue is actually this: we've finally decided that ringo
>> clearly needs a friend. he has had a great relationship with us, but
>> how intensely he seems to love this tag tells me he badly needs some
>> bird lovin'. but we're super nervous about introducing a new bird
>> and generating some bizarre budgie-budgie-tag love triangle. so the
>> questions are these:
>>
>> 1) can someone point me to a good general faq on introducing a
>> second, younger budgie to a VERY tame, playful and sweet male?
>> 2) does ANYONE have any insight on how we ought to wean ringo off of
>> his tag girlfriend? he's so in love that it would seem cruel to take
>> it away, but i'm worried that with a new bird around he'll get even
>> MORE protective and maybe never make friends with the new one at all.
>>
>> thank you all so very much for your time, hope at least this tragic
>> bird/tag love story has enriched your day--
> Here's what I would do. Remove his love article, rearrange the cage
> or even buy a newer bigger one. Get another young male and place them
> both in the new cage together.
> In all the time I have kept small parakeets, I have never had
> problems introducing a new one.
Obviously you've never had two get along for a short while and then suddenly
try to kill each other. In the last years of my last two parakeets' lives I
had to keep them in separate cages. Any time I tried to reintegrate them,
it was a fight to the death. One bird literally lost a claw in the battle.
Just because your few birds have gotten along doesn't mean they all will.
IMHO.
Jill
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| pammyT |
"jmcquown" <jmcquown@bellsouth.net> wrote in message
news:r11qe.73939$6k7.71777@bignews4.bellsouth.net...
<snipped>
Obviously you've never had two get along for a short while and then
suddenly
> try to kill each other. In the last years of my last two parakeets' lives
I
> had to keep them in separate cages. Any time I tried to reintegrate them,
> it was a fight to the death. One bird literally lost a claw in the
battle.
> Just because your few birds have gotten along doesn't mean they all will.
> IMHO.
a few back then, but up to 50 or more in latter years. Same with
cockatiels.
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