new bird?

[judith]

hello,
i have..(or had :cry: ) 2 peached love birds. i put them in their cage on the deck outside last friday..but stupid me, i left the cage open...so they left. in the afternoon, though, i could hear them in the valley behind our house. yesterday, we went in the valley and kept calling them until all of a sudden i found one! on the ground. so, tired and hungry he was, it wasn't hard to get him. the other we haven't heard after that anymore..we keep on listening and calling out for him. i wanted to ask you what you would do.
of course we wait a while and hope the other will come back, but isn't it true you better get this one a new friend as soon as possible, otherwise it will die of grieve? and if so, how do i best introduce the new one?? please, advise me and thank you in advance!!

[bellarains]

Judith,

You can try putting the cage outside with the lone lovie left, to see if he/she can make contact calls to the other bird. Do however, make sure the cage is closed, secure, all doors locked, or closed with a quick link(the things that you attach toys with).

If you do not find the other bird, you can get the one left a new friend, but I would have a well bird check up first for the bird you have, and also for the new one you bring in. It's not necessary to have two birds, but with one, they do require more attention. The well bird check is needed to be sure that the one you have did not pick up anything while s/he was out, and of course any new bird being brought in needs a well bird check to be sure they don't bring anything in to the bird you have.

I don't know how long those two were together, but the one can very well mourn the loss of the other, but there are no guarantees he/she would accept a new bird either. Which leads me to, you would need to know the sex of the bird you have, before adding another bird. You can have him or her DNA sexed, that is unless you already knew the sex of both birds.

I am sorry for the loss of the other little one. I will hope that he or she will return, but that is a long time out in the wild by itself. Still, it's worth a shot to try and see if contact calls will help from the bird you have. We've had people find birds after that long, so there is some hope.

Le us know how it's going, and welcome to the board.

[judith]

Thank you very, very much for this advise, Lori!
I'll post later what happened indeed!!!
Thanks again!!
Judith