Ask Lafeber

Question:

July 7, 2020

Another REAL Bird


The point: How can I encourage my bird to act to a real one instead of what they do to a mirror?

My parakeet has been alone in a cage for almost three years. Then, he only had a mirror as a friend. I finally put him with another real bird and he thinks the other bird is just a mirror and does not respect the other.

How can I help him understand the ways of a real Parakeet?


Answer:

Hi Glory,

When you put two birds together, there is no guarantee that they will like each other. They rarely will immediately interact, unless it is to show aggression. As long as they are tolerating each other and not fighting to the point of pulling out feathers or drawing blood, then just leave them alone and give them time to bond. If they are going to get along, they will eventually start to chat with each other, groom and preen each other and if they are male and female, they might feed each other and start to mate. If you do have a male and female and do not want them to breed, then do not give them a nest box or anything they can get inside of or use as a nest. You don’t need to teach him to act like a bird – he knows this is another bird, he just doesn’t know if he likes the other bird yet. You should remove the mirror if it is still in the cage so he will focus on getting to know the real bird rather than just hanging out with his mirror.

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda

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