I'm Jealous of my Second Parakeet

User Question
I just purchased my 2nd parakeet. The first one is tamed and happy and wonderful, but doesn't talk. He is approximately 8 months old. The 2nd one I have had for one day. I put them on the floor together and in the same cage and it was instant love. I don't relish the thought of the first one ignoring me because of the second one. I guess I am already jealous. Will the first one still have the same affection towards me as before we purcahsed the 2nd one. If not I am considering returning the 2nd one. Please advise.

Thanks, oh also, is there any chance of 1st one talking now?

One more thing, I was under the impression that the "less" stripes above the cere meant the younger it was. Is this not true?

Lisa's Answer
I'll answer the questions in the reverse order. So on the stripes, the parakeet ONLY has stripes on its forehead when it is very young. I have photos of young and old parakeets on my site for you to see the difference. As the parakeet ages, the forehead feathers grow out with just solid colors - usually solid yellow. So they are no longer striped when they are older.

Next, on the talking. If a parakeet is going to learn to talk, it usually does that by age 6 months. So if your parakeet is 8 months, it probably just isn't a talker. Some parakeets learn to talk, others don't. It takes a fair amount of work to train a parakeet to talk, it wouldn't just happen on its own. So at this point it's likely your parakeet knows what it's going to know and adding or not adding other parakeets will not change that.

Finally, on the jealousy issue. If the first parakeet was part of your "flock", then having another parakeet in the group will just make your "flock" bigger. But unless you're home all day because you work from home, making your parakeet stay alone is on the cruel side. To get rid of your parakeet's friend because you want him to pine away in loneliness for you all day isn't nice! Parakeets are flock creatures. They need to have flock members around. To a parakeet it is a sign of danger and fear to be alone, because that means they have been separated from their flock. In the wild, parakeets live in HUGE flocks of hundreds of birds. So it's already bad enough that your parakeet "only" has two flockmates - you and the other parakeet. To cut that flock down to just one - and then to leave your bird completely alone for hours at a time - is almost a form of torture for the little bird. So my answer there is to PLEASE let your bird have a friend to keep him company when you're not around. All parakeets go through stages of being friendly and not friendly as they age. Your parakeet is getting into its teenage years so it is naturally going to be less cuddly towards you. It'll be cuddly again when it gets out of being a teenager. You need to be patient.

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