Greys live with Cockatiel?

[jay257]

Hello all! 

I hoping someone could enlighten me please, my african grey Larry is now 20 months old and doing very well.  However during the week (4 days ,my wife has Fridays off too) he is on his own for a minimum of 6-7 hours which we really hate but can't avoid.  Its been the same since we got him @ 11 week old.  Every evening, he is out his cage and we play with him for minimum 4-5 hours.  During the day we we make him plenty of foraging toys with hidden treats so he does keep very occupied and he isn't plucking or anything like that.

However, we feel it would be lovely / beneficial to get him a companion (in different cages).  What bird can live happily with a grey?  We were thinking of  cockatiel or would this not work?  Would larry be aggressive and territorial towards an new bird entering the home?

Any help / advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

Regards,

 

James and larry.

 

 

[SRSeedBurners]

At nearly 2 years old chances are Larry would not befriend a cockatiel unless you are very lucky.  If Larry acts like a normal Grey and decides that bullying the cockatiel is fun and easy to do, you will have to be ever vigilant and one small accident can severely injure the cockatiel.  I keep my birds in similar sized groups: greys together, my Viking mid-size ruffians together and my lils together.   Even with my lils, my conure likes to bully the cockatiel but there is no size difference so he can hold his own.

[jay257]

what bird would recommend?  thank you for your reply.

 

 

[SRSeedBurners]

Another Grey  🤣

I couldn't trust my GreycieMae with any of our other birds.  She's just to big and can easily hurt them.   Enter Huey, a strapping male African Grey and he put her in her rightful place!   She tried to bully him but learned real quick it was no contest.

[Greytness]

There's no easy answer to your question. It depends upon the bird's personality, for one. It's truly a crap shoot.

I have 13 flighted fids, and 8 must be taken out as solos. I have a group of 3 same size birds that can come out together, and 2 duskie  conures that can be out playing together.

Part of my situation is that I don't want to take any chances with testing them out together. There could be other groupings that would work, but I'd rather rotate them. For me it's less stressful not having to continuously supervise their interactions.

[Talon]

Greytness, how do you manage that in a day?  8 solos?   Just curious how others mange.  Lucky for me my three co exist although their not “friends”, they’re more like family that knows they have to co exist, but not necessarily like each other!  Lol

[SRSeedBurners]

I manage with daily Wednesday night beatings (joke: you're laughing right now).

 

Actually, I have three sections in the aviary/birdroom.   One for lils, one for midls and one for my Greybies.   Then they get rotated in to help work in the office until they can't be good and out they go.

Edited December 16, 2018 by SRSeedBurners