Giving Zeus a new friend

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allira
Posts: 22
Joined: Sun Feb 03, 2013 9:15 pm

Giving Zeus a new friend

Post by allira »

Hello all,
Zeus has become an amazing bird. If any of you had read my earlier posts, he was a parent-raised aviary bird, which myself and my partner have managed to convert to a friendly pet. Zeus still doesn't let us pat him on the back of his neck (if at all), however he basically lets us do everything else, from kisses, to grooming my hair, and letting us hand feed him.
All-in-all, I'm extremely proud of Zeus and myself.
He's still unfortunately going through the bluffing stage and his new fetish of sitting on my head has resulted in him awkwardly biting at my forehead, which is EXTREMELY hard to ignore.

A couple of weeks ago or so, my partner expressed that he thought we should get a second IRN, this time, a hand-reared and tamed bird, in the hope that it'll teach Zeus a few things while also keeping him company. After much thought and consideration into the well-being of Zeus, and the new bird, we settled on it being a great idea.

We've just recently been offered a 4 month old, green IRN, which has been hand-reared and loved as a pet. We will be inspecting the bird tomorrow (tuesday) and hopefully bringing it home.

I just have a couple of questions to ask, so any advice would be appreciated.
a) How soon is too-soon to add the two birds to live together in the same cage? I'll be adding the new bird into a smaller cage, but they'll be in the same room, but I'm a bit hesitant that Zeus may become defensive or partially territorial as he basically free-roams the entire loungeroom.

b) Should I wait until the new bird is settled and eating before worming it? I have to worm all of the birds sometime this week anyway, so I figured itd be better to do them all at the same time.

c) What physical signs should I be looking out for when introducing the two birds? I understand clearly that biting is agressive, but will there be any testing of either birds at all or perhaps court-ship type related body movements?

Thanks so much guys, all advice is appreciated! Will definitely post some great pictures soon too! :D
Melika
Posts: 1920
Joined: Thu Aug 04, 2005 9:11 am
Location: Florida
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Re: Giving Zeus a new friend

Post by Melika »

First, quarantine. For a month.

Second, I don't have much to tell being that we only had the two IRNs, but it seems that IRNs seem to like having their own space to go to. Personalities can be sooooo different between two birds even of the same species that allowing each his/her own sanctuary is a kindness. Hane was a bully to his big brother and they absolutely could not be housed together- they could barely share a playstand! Tsume did not bully any other birds, but Hane will if given the chance.

May I ask why you worm your birds? Do you think they were exposed to sources of worms? -curious-
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I've been called 'birdbrained' before, but somehow I don't think this is what they meant. say:hah-nay
ellieelectrons
Posts: 2708
Joined: Mon Jul 19, 2010 1:17 am
Location: Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia

Re: Giving Zeus a new friend

Post by ellieelectrons »

Hi Allira

When I introduced my guys, I first kept them in separate rooms, partially for quarantine reasons and partially so that they wouldn't feel threatened but might be curious about each other when they heard each other. I would let them out separately during their play-times. Sometimes, they might see each other whilst the other was in their cage and they might interact through the bars. I moved their cages closer together and looked to see if they would sleep side by side. The two cages weren't the same height, so that didn't really happen much at all. Then, I would let them out at the same time during play-time, monitoring it very closely. My original plan was to do this for a couple of weeks before attempting cohabitation but one day, the male went into the female's really big cage whilst she was in there and they seemed okay. So the next weekend when I was staying at home and could check on them regularly, I changed up the big cage, changed all the perches around, moved the location of the cage, etc. (to try to minimise territorial behaviour on the part of the female - ideally I would have had a new cage for them to use together), we let them try cohabitation... and it worked, never a problem other than the occasional tiff.

Ellie.
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