Mary in Florida
10-31-2015, 09:30 PM
It's been maybe five months since we brought our new little parrotlet into our home and hearts, after the loss of our parrotlet Pixie. Pixie and our lovebird, Loki had been buddies and Loki missed her lots. We had wondered how Loki might accept a new baby bird, as we had had it on good authority ( thanks, Linda!) that male lovebirds are more accaepting of a young bird as a friend, than a female lovie. Figuring the Loki was probably a male since he was three years old and had never laid an egg, we took the chance.
So we brought little "Orion" ( brave hunter- this was changed from the name Mozart when we first saw him, Orion fit better)), a then two month old male Pacific blue parrotlet home. I think Loki thought it was deja vu, maybe Pixie had returned, so he checked out this little newcomer, and put his head down for a head scratch. Well, Orion has been an alpha male from the start, so he didn't take kindly to this welcome. He'd strike out at Loki whenever Loki came near- at least at first.
Time went on, and Loki decided that if Orion wouldn't scratch his head, he'd scratch Loki's and it got to be where Orion let him do it, too. Over time, they've gotten to be playmates and "partners in crime". They call to each other, follow each other around, and as Loki strips paper Orion seems to be trying to learn to strip paper too. They will share a treat and try to feed each other sometimes, so it seems they've become buddies. And sometimes Orion goes after Loki- trying to bite his tail, fight, ( we don't let him and they're always closely supervised), but amazingly Loki has been very gentle with him.
Orion has become a great talker. He's imitating everybody in the house, including our tiel's calls, Loki's whistles an chirps, and the humans' coughs and sneezes. He also says, "scratchy-scratchy" ( sometimes as he's having his head scratches) and sometimes he adds to that "da bird", or "da baby bird". He says, "such a silly bird", or "such a tiny bird", and "Loki-loki-loki" ( sometimes adding,"silly bird", "pretty bird", or "come here') and a bunch of stuff I can't understand. He does it a lot, so he'll even talk into our faces!
In any case, things seem pretty good, most of the time, with Orion and Loki. But we had the surprise of our lives the other night when we discovered that Loki had laid an egg! So he's a she. She was so cute with it, so proud of it as she stood beside it in the bottom of his cage, and nodded her head excitedly as we told her how pretty it was. She'd jump back out of the cage onto our hands and nod some more, then jump back in, and then she sat on it. The only problem was that Orion, who at 7 months old is going through his own adolescent throes, started trying to attack Loki as she sat on her egg- we separated them and shut the cage door so Orion couldn't get in there ( Loki didn't like the door shut). Well, we took the egg as it was cracked, and it doesn't seem that Loki misses it, she's acting pretty much the way she always has except she's somewhat territorial about her cage, as she was not before this. And Orion has settled down some.
Both birds are totally bonded to their humans- particularly my husband, so I think part of that competitiveness, and aggressiveness on Orion's part is jealousy for attention from the human part of their flock. Don't know why because they both get plenty, and they're so darn irresistable.
But what a surprise, Loki is a female lovie, and yet for the most part sweet and gentle with the new baby bird. Maybe because that new baby bird is a fierce dinosaur in a little blue bird body!
So we brought little "Orion" ( brave hunter- this was changed from the name Mozart when we first saw him, Orion fit better)), a then two month old male Pacific blue parrotlet home. I think Loki thought it was deja vu, maybe Pixie had returned, so he checked out this little newcomer, and put his head down for a head scratch. Well, Orion has been an alpha male from the start, so he didn't take kindly to this welcome. He'd strike out at Loki whenever Loki came near- at least at first.
Time went on, and Loki decided that if Orion wouldn't scratch his head, he'd scratch Loki's and it got to be where Orion let him do it, too. Over time, they've gotten to be playmates and "partners in crime". They call to each other, follow each other around, and as Loki strips paper Orion seems to be trying to learn to strip paper too. They will share a treat and try to feed each other sometimes, so it seems they've become buddies. And sometimes Orion goes after Loki- trying to bite his tail, fight, ( we don't let him and they're always closely supervised), but amazingly Loki has been very gentle with him.
Orion has become a great talker. He's imitating everybody in the house, including our tiel's calls, Loki's whistles an chirps, and the humans' coughs and sneezes. He also says, "scratchy-scratchy" ( sometimes as he's having his head scratches) and sometimes he adds to that "da bird", or "da baby bird". He says, "such a silly bird", or "such a tiny bird", and "Loki-loki-loki" ( sometimes adding,"silly bird", "pretty bird", or "come here') and a bunch of stuff I can't understand. He does it a lot, so he'll even talk into our faces!
In any case, things seem pretty good, most of the time, with Orion and Loki. But we had the surprise of our lives the other night when we discovered that Loki had laid an egg! So he's a she. She was so cute with it, so proud of it as she stood beside it in the bottom of his cage, and nodded her head excitedly as we told her how pretty it was. She'd jump back out of the cage onto our hands and nod some more, then jump back in, and then she sat on it. The only problem was that Orion, who at 7 months old is going through his own adolescent throes, started trying to attack Loki as she sat on her egg- we separated them and shut the cage door so Orion couldn't get in there ( Loki didn't like the door shut). Well, we took the egg as it was cracked, and it doesn't seem that Loki misses it, she's acting pretty much the way she always has except she's somewhat territorial about her cage, as she was not before this. And Orion has settled down some.
Both birds are totally bonded to their humans- particularly my husband, so I think part of that competitiveness, and aggressiveness on Orion's part is jealousy for attention from the human part of their flock. Don't know why because they both get plenty, and they're so darn irresistable.
But what a surprise, Loki is a female lovie, and yet for the most part sweet and gentle with the new baby bird. Maybe because that new baby bird is a fierce dinosaur in a little blue bird body!