Getting another birdie

[HerbiesMomma]

Jason & I want to get another birdie. Herbie is definitely a boy (what a humper!) and we thought that if we got a girl that they would pair up and he would be happier than if we got another boy.

We went to a bird shop today and she told us that if we got a girl that he would get territorial and bond with her and get aggressive towards us. He is an incredibly sweet, velcro bird who loves our attention and this worries me. I would hate for this relationship to go sour if we introduce another lovie.

There are seven(?) 3 week old birds that we have yet to meet and we are really excited about adding another one to our little family. From what he said, one is pied, 3 are Dutch Blues and 1 or 2 are Cinnamon birds. I can't wait to see them!!

Any thoughts?

[CompassionAk]

Well every bird is different,my male Boo was never aggressive towards me when he was with his girlfriend Annie. His attitude changed a bit once I brought a female into the picture and of course he would rather spend time with her than me but he still loved his momma! When Annie would be nesty Boo would be back to his lovey dovey self and start acting like a needy baby who couldn't get enough attention from me.

I decided to re-home Annie though,she was too much for me to deal with right now as I have health issues and I couldn't deal with her random attacks on the other birds. Annie was out for blood when she attacked and there were several occasions I thought she was going to bite off a toe because one of the other birds landed on her cage and at the time I was in so much pain it was a real chore to get up and run over to that cage to separate the birds.

Life is much better with Annie out of the picture,all the birds are happy and there are hardly any squabbles. I was afraid of how Boo would react to losing his mate but he has done really well and is back to being the constant snuggle bug he used to be. I am home alot though and am able to spend loads of time with the birds and give Boo extra attention.

If you get another bird there is a chance that Herbie may not get along with her/him,there's also a chance he may fall in love and be inseparable from his mate. Every bird is different and so it is really hard to say how Herbie will react. It sounds like he's pretty happy with you guys though!

[lemonypickett]

I give a strong vote for another male!!

My Eddie was the biggest cuddlebug.... I didn't want to lose that. So, I luckily ended up with another male and he (jimmy) and Eddie are the best of friends. They groom and feed each other, take turns humping the happy hut.... and love sitting on the same swing together. That said, Eddie isn't in love with jimmy like he would a female, so I get to keep my tame pets!!!

Let us know what you decide!!

[linda040899]

I would probably get another male, as well. Two males can live quite happily together and you don't have to deal with a nesty hen that constantly wants to raise a family!!!

[Enko_chan]

While that situation does not necessarily always happen when a hen is brought into the picture, I vote strongly for another male.

They are as likely to bond and love one another as a male-female pair are without the nesty-hormonal-egg laying situation, and possibility of babies. I have a wonderful male-male pair (my Frey and Odie) and we love them! They are very much bonded with one another, in fact for a very long time we thought Frey was a hen! That's how much they love each other and behave just like a male-female pair! They are also very much bonded with my husband and I. They BEG for our attention and can't get enough of us. Be prepared: once two lovebirds bond there's no separating them. We can't play with just one lovebird without piercing contact calls bursting our eardrums- they're like magnets! But there's no loss of bond with them and us (human beings) because of their bond with one another, we spend a lot of time with them as a pair and they are very much people birds.