Found One, Should we Get a Second?

User Question
I have really enjoyed your website on parakeets. We recently found a parakeet with clipped wings and have been taking care of it. We have not been able to locate its owners so it looks like we will be keeping it. It looks small and does have lots of stripes above its nose, so I guess it is young. It is cage trained because it will sit on top of its cage without flying away, but can fly.

I have two boys 13 and 9 and both want to take care of our little friend. They are very good with the bird even though the bird is a little nippy with all of us at times.

I have thought about getting another one so each boy can have his own but have heard that it is better to have only one so that they will bond with humans rather than the other bird. Is this true? If I were to get another one where can I find a very young parakeet? I have looked in the papers for a breeder but have not seen one. Anyway, thank you for any advice you can give.

Lisa's Answer
Definitely it's far easier to train a parakeet when it is trying to be a member of your 'human flock'. If you had 2 parakeets, they would be their own little flock and want to talk like each other and spend time together. My suggestion is to keep this first parakeet alone for the first 6 months at least, spending a lot of time talking to it and interacting with it. Then when you get a second parakeet, it will be joining the "existing flock" of humans/parakeet and it will learn from the first parakeet that it's proper to interact with humans and cuddle with them and talk with them and so on.

I'm putting together a page of breeders here -

http://www.lisashea.com/petinfo/choosing/handraised.html

Usually I just go to my local pet shops and they carry hand raised birds as well as bin birds. If you let me know what state you're in, I can try to track down a breeder in your area. It's really well worth it to go with a hand raised bird, they are just SO much tamer than the ones you get from those large bins!

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