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theexbrit Jul 11 2008, 04:36 PM
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 All good advice nodding

We got Boo Boo first & she bonded with me very strongly after a month or so. I couldn't spend the time with her that I thought she needed, so I broke the cardinal rule & got a second p'let (a male) as a buddy for her. The general consensus is get another p'let because you want it, not because you think the original p'let needs a buddy. Generally, p'lets are ok on their own as long as you can spend an hour or two a day with them.

Anyway, we got Pesto & put him in Boo's cage. At first Boo would beat Pesto up so we had to separate them into two cages. We put the cages close to each other for a week or so & then tried putting her into his cage, again she would beat him up although not so bad this time. We separated them again & repeated the process a couple more times. Eventually they did bond & now they get on fine. We haven't seen any shaggin' but they are definately bonded to some degree. The good thing is they both still like to come out with me & play, etc. Pesto has always been wing clipped, so he is easy to handle, but as I said, when Boo can fly she is a tad "independent" :lol:

Now I don't claim that getting two birds in this way will work for everyone, maybe we were just lucky. I mean look at Gemmz experience :question:

I would say get one bird at first, with plenty of toys, etc & see how it goes. If you decide to get another bird later on, be prepared to have them in separate cages (maybe for life) if they don't get on :(

I also firmly believe that wing clipping is the way to go, especially during training. If they can fly away from you it's 10 times harder to train them. Also from a safety point of view we've clipped Boo's wings again. I see all these missing birds & think "if only they'd had their wings clipped, they wouldn't be missing". It is cute when they can fly, but to me, the risks are not worth taking: ceiling fans, open windows/doors, boiling water in the kitchen, windows they can fly into, etc, etc. All these hazards are in a house but not in the wild :scared:

It really doesn't seem to bother them that they can't fly & they really enjoy being with you more when they're clipped (they probably feel safer & they enjoy riding around on your shoulder or finger).

The only thing with clipping their wings is that you have to watch them every minute when they're out of the cage as they can't fly away from any danger. But as I said, I think the risks for a flighted bird are way higher than for clipped bird. But that's just my opinion, it's purely up to you as an owner.

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