Getting my lovebird a friend

[SarahB]

I got my lovebird Marshmellow a little over a year ago. She was brought into a local vet as a lost bird and i adopted her (age unknown). I've just assumed she's a female, but she hasn't been blood tested, so her gender is unknown.
She's a very playful bird who hates being in her cage. Whenever my husband and I are at home, she is never in the cage (she stays out of the cage with us the whole day). My husband and I have different work schedules, so she's out of the cage majority of the day 4/7 days of the week. But I feel so bad leaving her in the cage those 3 days of the week when we are at work. I was considering getting her a friend and had a couple of questions.

Q1) Does the gender of the friend i get her matter? Do i need to get her tested to find out her sex and get her a friend accordingly?
Q2) Will she possibly be less affectionate towards us if she has a friend?
Q3) She is a fischer lovebird, does her friend need to be the exact same as her, or could i get a masked lovebird for example?

Thanks!

[linda040899]

Gender with regards to getting Marshmellow a friend is important since you don't know how old she is, either. The problem with lovebirds is that pairs of hens may or may not get along. Usually they don't get along because females are more aggressive than males. I've had pairs of females that got along just fine but there are others that would kill each other if housed together! Should Marshmellow be a male, you could get another female or another male. Keep in mind that with lovebirds, male + female can = babies if Marshmellow is still of breeding age.

There are 9 species of lovebird and each species has its own distinct personality. I've seen mixed species pairs get along just fine. The only thing you don't want is to have a mixed species pair have babies. Other than that, I don't see any problems.

While lovebirds will bond to each other, since Marshmellow is friendly with you, keep up the attention and you might have yourself a second velco lovie.

Hope this helps.