Adding to the flock: tiels and zons?

[come on co11een]

As of right now, I only have one bird, my cockatiel Penny. As you might be able to tell from my posts, she's kind of the center of my world (we just moved to a new city so I can go to grad school and she doesn't get to see her "dad" very often anymore, as we are now long distance). Pretty soon after I got her a year ago, I started thinking about getting another bird. I was just wondering what some of your experiences have been in adding to your flocks, especially the second bird. Getting another cockatiel seems like a really great option- I already know how to take care of tiels, they are small, transport well (we do a lot of roadtripping to see family), and they are usually sociable with each other. My breeder even recommended letting Penny "pick out" her new friend, which I like the idea of.

But something has come up! My parents have long-time family friends who have a "parrot" they are looking to rehome. The man is a doctor and went to medical school in Mexico and early on in his career he was given this bird as payment for some treatment. He has had it ever since then and they think the bird is about 30 years old. From what I understand he is well cared for, but he doesn't get much attention (little to no outside cage time or family interaction) due to having a big family, busy schedules and an insane golden retriever. They mentioned looking for a new home for him, and my parents passed this information on to me and now I can't stop thinking about him!! I *think* he is an orange wing amazon (one of the daughters told me this a while ago, I don't know how true it is). I know it's kind of a long shot, but if I were to give him a home, what kind of issues do you think I could anticipate from Penny? The owners of this other bird say he is "skittish" (I would be to if no one ever paid attention to me!), so I know I would have my work cut out to make him feel comfortable and loved and I'm willing to do the research and put in the effort, but my main concern is how Penny would react to having another bird in "her" house. She is beyond obsessed with me (I can't go to the bathroom without her company, let alone eat dinner, take a shower, or do homework). I'm afraid she will be really put off if there was another bird taking attention away from her and as silly as it sounds I don't want to upset her. I wouldn't hope for any direct interaction between them in the near future, but eventually can amazons and cockatiels interact?

Any perspective you can offer: on getting a second bird, on what kind of bird would be a good second bird to a a currently "only-cockatiel," on taking in an amazon (if that's what he is), on interaction between different types of birds, would be awesome. Like I said, taking in this bird may not even happen for a few different reasons, but I do want to get Penny some company in the fairly near future.

Thanks!

[come on co11een]

Edit: I just found out that he is a Yellow Cheek Amazon. I'm not really familiar with this type at all, can anyone give me any information on them? I'll do my own research, of course, but if you have one, I would love to hear about your experiences!

[kali]

Sorry, i don't know much about Amazons, but i do know that it's hit and miss when introducing two birds, you might be lucky, but then you might not be!

Do you have the time to take bird out and interact every day?

[come on co11een]

Originally Posted by kali

Do you have the time to take bird out and interact every day?

Yes, I'm a grad student, which basically means that I am on campus around 15 hours a week and spend the rest of my time at home trying to find ways of putting off the reading and writing I should be doing. BirdBoard is a great help in that!!

[pippy]

I love Amazons! My boyfriend's got a Yellow Crowned Amazon called Charlie. Here's a pic of her I took the other day.





Charlie gets on ok with my three Greys and Mark's Grey but she can be quite stroppy and snappy at times and has mood swings! I'd be very wary about letting a smaller bird near her because she could kill it with one snap of that beak.

I don't know about the temperament of a Yellow Cheek Amazon though. In fact I've never even heard of them to be honest! Is that the 'proper' name for them do you know?

[MissV]

Amazons can be super testy, bitey, headstrong fids. They're rehomed a lot and can be huge problem birds.

That being said...the good parents of Amazons I've known and talked to on this board LOVE their 'zons and have good relationships with them.


So...they can be awesome, just require a lot of patience and understanding.

They're also good talkers. I had a convo with the guy that bought a cage off me last night and he said that when the door bell rings his Zon will go "Come on in!" all nicely....but he's partly doing that to eff with them, because, yanno, they've no clue who's actually at the door. ^^

[come on co11een]

Originally Posted by pippy

Is that the 'proper' name for them do you know?

Oh, that's a great picture!! They are more commonly called Red Lored Amazons.

[pippy]

Originally Posted by come on co11een

Oh, that's a great picture!! They are more commonly called Red Lored Amazons.

Ah now that I have heard of! Beautiful birds!