Parent Raised or Handfed?

[PoysPoppa]

We have a male handfed parrotlet who I would like to purchase a companion for. We have had him for a little more than two years (he was born in February of 2006). My question is, if I were to get a copanion for him, would it be best to get him another handfed female or a parent raised female? I just want the best chances of them becoming friends. Also, would the difference in age be a problem, as I would like to get a female that was probably only several months old.

I have a large cage that I can have shipped to me in a month or so, but I also would be keeping them separated for some time to make sure that they can get along. Once, my large cage arrives, I plan on housing them together.

[pam311]

Some birds never become "friends". I just adopted a parrent raised boy in hopes that he and Hadji will be friends. Currently Luigi is still in his 30 day quarentine.

He is still terrified of me, my hands and well everything. I do not plan on attempting co habitation until Luigi is more comfortable around humans. i hope to have a bond with both but realize that when and if they become mates, I may be a 3rd man out.

Since I have had both hand raised and socialized and completely parrent raised unsocialized, the hand tame/socialized p'let is 'transition' period is much easier.

Good luck in your search , and Mr Poy is a cutie.:D

[chapala]

If you can get a hand-raised and socialized weaned baby, that is the best for ease of handling. But, you would want to keep the female apart from the male until she grows up a little. Or, you could look for a female who is a bit older, and they could be placed together sooner, in a large enough cage. If you want to handle the female and/or just have her be friendly, you probably want the socialized bird.
Reta

[PoysPoppa]

Thanks a lot for the great advice! I just have a couple more questions, when you say I shhould let her grow up a little, how old should she be before I let them cohabitate? Also, after I have quarantined for a good forty five days, can I keep them within veiwing distance of each other while she's growing up, or should they not be able to see each other?

I have decided to wait for a good hand fed baby. It might take a couple more months but I think it will be better for us.

[Pado]

Each situation for each bird can be different.

Mostly it depends on how the birds were raised and socialized.

Breeders that separate their birds from their clutch mates and raise then alone with only human interaction will have a harder time accepting and living with other birds - they will not have learned the skills they need to deal with flock behavior - they can learn these skills but it will take more work on the owners behalf - you won't be able to just put them together. These birds are falsely imprinted to humans and its believed are the ones that tend to have "issues" later in life.

A breeder that leaves his birds together with other birds and only pulls them for hand feeding (with syringe feeding this handling only takes a few minutes per bird) if the breeder does no other socializing the birds will not be human friendly and can come to fear the hand pulling them for the feedings. These birds will want to be with other birds and it can be more difficult to train them to be human friendly. Again they can be tamed but it will take more work.

A breeder that lets the parents raise their chicks, these birds will be more strongly bonded to other birds but can be human tamed - it will just take more work on the owners part. These birds will prefer the company of other birds but can also come to be social with humans and quite tame. These birds are generally quite stable as they know they are birds.

The breeder that raises their birds in the company of their clutch mates and other adults - either by hand raising them or co-parenting - and handles and plays with the birds often will have the best balanced birds for the pet trade. They will be human friendly and socialized and also well balanced with their own kind. These birds will take to humans and to other birds easily. IMO these are the birds that make the best pets and have the least "issues" later in life.

So depending on what category your bird falls into will depend on how well he will accept another bird. I was told the most ideal for a match is a bird of the opposite sex and one around the same age. But it really depends on the birds past experience. Each scenario can work but each will take a different amount of work.

I introduced my pair when my male was a year and my female was 8 weeks (although I did not allow them to live together until the female was much older - she was about 4 months by the time I placed them together). I did not know the past of my male but my female was hand-raised and lived with her clutch mates (she was fearful of humans). They were a very successful match. I let them have supervised time out of their cages daily and their cages were next to each other - they formed a strong bond over this time and when I finally put them together they were fine.

Pairs will not be as strongly bonded to you as a single bird. You can keep them friendly but they will prefer each other. Mine will fly and hang out on me but I can't scratch their heads etc - this is reserved by birds for their mates - so although they like to hang out on me and do follow me around, they do not allow me to do any of the pair activities :)

Also opposite sexed pairs can mate and lay eggs - this creates another set of issues for you to deal with. Mine are sitting on eggs now even though I did everything possible to prevent them from laying. Also when pairs are in the breeding mode you can not handle or interact with them (basically they won't let you :D .

Pairs also need a VERY large cage as Pacific pairs bicker a lot and if they don't have the right amount of space they can injure one another. A large cage is a MUST or one of the birds will be miserable.

Even with all this extra care to consider I still prefer to keep mine paired - I feel they are pretty well adjusted and happy to have each other.

Sorry for the long post - I get carried away :p

[PoysPoppa]

Well, I did find a breeder who has a parent raised 9 week old female that I have decided to pick up tomorrow. She has been handled everyday by the breeder and her son, and seems pretty nice. Reading about how the handfed birds can develop issues later in life is what steered me in the direction of getting the parent raised bird. I will be keeping them in separate cages, and will try to have them cohabitate once she is about 4 months old as well. I'll keep everyone updated on their progress.

[chapala]

Glad you found a bird - she sounds perfect, parent-raised and also socialized! Por favor, post some photos when you get a chance!
Reta

[RockyandhisFriends]

I think that 4 months of age is still too young to introduce a bird to a mate that is of breeding age. The mature male will most likely want to try and breed with her. If he is unable to mate with her he will start biting at her feet and wings to try and coax her into breeding. They have been known to inflict serious injury and even death on a young bird. I would wait until the bird is at least 11 months old. If you don't want to wait that long I would try to locate an older bird.

[chapala]

Thanks Rocky - I thought that sounded very young to put with an older male, but you speak from the voice of experience, and I only have the one P'let!
Reta

[Pado]

Correction :


(although I did not allow them to live together until the female was much older - she was about 4 months by the time I placed them together).

After speaking with PoysPoppa I realized I made a typo in one of my posts - I put my birds together when my female was 6 months old not 4. I wanted her flight feathers to grow in so both birds were more evenly matched in case of a squabble. I actually placed them together before her flight feathers were complete since she was completely standing her own with the male - she had actually become more of the boss figure :p .

The female did not allow my male to breed her until she was close to a year (give or take) - She completely holds all the cards in that area and still does (imagine that :p ).