Did I make a Mistake?

[Kirby]

As everyone pretty much well knows, I just recently (about a month ago) bought Kirby an old friend, my yellow lovie Skittles.

Before, when it was just Kirby, he loved to truck around and explore things by himself, very rarely on occasion he would groom Chris or I's face and just generally like being out of his cage.

I have had him for about 6 months and then went back into the store where I bought him from and the woman still had his old 10 year old cage mate there. So I caved and bought the now named Skittles.

They remembered each other and still get along great, with only a few arguments on who gets the best seat on the swing.



I have just noticed that Kirby has changed. For example: he usually would taste ANYTHING I was eating whether it was meat or juice, and now he's VERY reluctant to try anything with Skittles around. If she's out of the room, he's like OMG YAY FOOD.
He doesn't vibrate as much anymore and gets very worried when Skittles is in her cage and he's relaxing with us on the bed. Whereas Skittles couldn't care less where Kirby is.

I do understand that I might've rushed into getting a second lovie. But everyone SHOULD know what it's like to be manipulated into another one!!
Do you think I should've waited before getting a second one?

[BarbieH]

How many food dishes are in the cage? They might need two, one for each bird. Do you ever see Skittles chase Kirby away from the food dish? Or does he just seem nervous about approaching food around her?

[Kirby]

Oh!!! I forgot to mention they are not caged together mainly due to the fact that Skittles goes for Kirby's feet when they squabble, so I don't trust them alone together when I'm at work.

They are right beside each other but in separate cages.


He will usually try 'human' food when she's not around. For example last night, I put skittles back in her cage upstairs and actually got Kirby to eat some scrambled eggs. I brought her back down and he wouldnt eat ANYTHING. She will chirp a little when he goes to try something and this makes him stop going to eat whatever food.

[Janie]

So, what you are worried about is that he is a little less affectionate with you, right? In my case, I was THRILLED when Oliver became flock mates with Big Boi and Shy. There were times he'd fly off my shoulder and wait on the back of a chair till I came down and let him go back into the bird room with his new buddies. Having Oliver as a velcro "only" birdie was fun but knowing that he is so much happier with "his own kind" sometimes is even better. He loves me, is sitting on my shoulder napping as I type, but it sure is nice to know that he can also be happy with other birds and I don't mind leaving him nearly as much as I used to when I was his only love.

[BarbieH]

It sounds like he's probably still keeping an eye on this new bird who bites toes. He doesn't entirely trust the cage to keep her out. Tell me, does he need to turn his back to her, or otherwise lose sight of her, when he goes to eat from his dish?

You might try hanging the dish higher up than hers is in her cage, so he can feel that he has a height advantage.

[Kirby]

Skittles has NOT left her cage once until this morning to go see kirby...
I came up from my shower and she was running over Kirby's cage.
Where as 99% of the time Kirby is always out and opening Skittles cage to get into hers.

I am so happy Kirby wants to spend time with a friend and he is not alone any more when I'm at work. I guess it's hard adjusting to the little changes that I was so used to before Skittles.


I felt like I wasnt giving him enough attention when we first got Skittles. So I'd put her to bed at 8:30 and spend that extra half an hour with Kirby, but he would be SO WORRIED, running around and trying to get to the cages, that I just figured he wanted to be close to her and let him be.

I guess what I'm really trying to ask, is if I might've stressed Kirby out by getting him a friend, despite him having company now of the same species.

[BarbieH]

That's a tough question to answer, since Kirby can't tell us what he is feeling. Based on his behavior, though, it seems that there is some stress associated with this new flock member. It would be odd if there weren't; even pleasant changes carry some stress with them. He is certainly excited to have her around.

Do what you can to make sure he is eating and resting properly. Based on how my birds have behaved in similar situations, I think Kirby will calm down in time. He needs to get used to her being around. A bird's gotta do what a bird's gotta do. :)

[Kirby]

I agreed he might be stressed.... but it might not be associated with negative stress... I think it might be more so "show off stress" where he constantly trying to impress Skittles.

:x Which involves his airplane dance.... standing up really tall to get macho.... and dry humping the corner of his cage......

I swear they're just like pre-teen children....

[Kirby]

It sounds like he's probably still keeping an eye on this new bird who bites toes. He doesn't entirely trust the cage to keep her out. Tell me, does he need to turn his back to her, or otherwise lose sight of her, when he goes to eat from his dish?



I forgot to answer your question, it's not so much with even just eating... it's in general... if he knows Skittles is in the same room, he will want to get to her. He would sometimes snuggle under the covers with you, but he wont do that if he knows that she's out of sight, yet in the same area. And then that's when he gets the worried look to him.

It's so hard to explain... I just get this feeling when looking at him sometimes that he's just lost.....
I know he's trying to hard to adjust.... and then to make matters worse on top of this... we're moving soon.... *yay way to go lauren *

[Kirby]

Actually... last night proved I did NOT make the wrong decision to get Kirby a friend.

Chris (bf) was lying ont he bed last night and the birds were doing their thing in their cages. And all of a sudden Skittles decided that her cage was boring and flew over to Chris to play on him.
Kirby got extremely irritated from this, whether it was the fact that Skittles was away from him, or that he wanted to be on Chris too, he jumped from his cage to the floor and climbed up the bed skirt to claim Chris.

I don't regret getting an addition, i just had my doubts on how stressed Kirby was getting.

:D thanks for the advice and positive re inforcement