companion

[moddo422]

do congo greys get along with conures

[Kaedyn]

Not necessarily. While it can happen, it's not likely. My parents had a Timneh Grey and lovebird that were friends and even lived in the same large cage. They were very lucky.

 

A grey could very quickly and easily injure or kill the smaller conure. If they were both raised together as babies, you'd have a better shot at them getting along when they were older, but based on your previous post it sounds as if your grey is around 7 years or so. It will depend on the bird. You'd have to either take them out one at a time or moderate their out of cage interactions.

[BaxtersMom]

I think it depends on the bird or birds also. I have Baxter my grey and a month later our neighbor brought us over a lost conure. (could not find owners so we kept him) Anyway, I could not keep my conure away from my greys cage from the start.:ohmy: He (conure) Totally blew our quarantine rules, too:angry: . To make a long story short, my conure spends half his day on Baxters cage and sneaking his food. they get along great but have heard other members say they can not let their birds out at the same time. I guess I was lucky on this one. It might help how you introduce them to each other too so when and if you get your grey some of the members can give you some advice on that too.

[judygram]

My grey does not get along with my sun conure, the conure is jealous and I have to keep them separated if I have them both out at the same time. They don't go out of their way to get to each other but if they get too close one tries to nip the other. Greys may not get along with other greys unless they are hatchmates.

[Kaedyn]

I've read that in the wild, greys exist as single-species flocks. This means that they don't allow any other species of bird to mingle with them. This isn't the case for all species of parrots. For greys, this is a hardwired instinct. It's also a likely reason why they can have a difficult time accepting other birds, especially those of a different species, into their flock.<br><br>Post edited by: Kaedyn, at: 2008/11/02 04:53

[BMustee]

Kaedyn wrote:

I've read that in the wild, greys exist as single-species flocks. This means that they don't allow any other species of bird to mingle with them. This isn't the case for all species of parrots. For greys, this is a hardwired instinct. It's also a likely reason why they can have a difficult time accepting other birds, especially those of a different species, into their flock.<br><br>Post edited by: Kaedyn, at: 2008/11/02 04:53

 

This is the exact reason Greys and most other African birds do not get along well with other species of birds. New World parrots are "social flockers" and thus are more open to different types of parrots around them because in the wild there will be Macaws, Amazons, and Conures in the same group.

[danmcq]

My Grey (Dayo) absolutely hates my Conure (Jake). They must be monitored very carefully at all times. I have seen Dayo fly over and try to land on Jake just like a Hawk with Talons ready to grasp it's prey. Fortunately, Jake is very fast and always on the look out. He will fly off before getting hurt.

 

The other day I was paying more attention to Jake than Dayo liked and he started chasing Jake all over the house. They were flying everywhere.

 

Greys for the most part are not social birds with other species as others have stated here.

[LindaMary]

I remember reading somewhere that this single-species flock trait of greys may be explained by their relationship to their home habitat. As in : in the sahel and edge of the desert (read : dry conditions) where they are indigenous, their muted coloring helps camouflage them from predators. Another bird of different coloring within that flock could draw attention to the whole group, hence the greys don't allow it. I suppose that since the South American rain forest conditions are more colorful to start with, so multi-colored birds in mixed flocks might not have such an issue.

 

How the red tails figure into this, I don't know :whistle: It's an interesting theory, though. I wonder if cockatoos and budgies and other Aussie (dry terrain) birds are also single-species flockers - anyone know?

[she]

As you have already been told, greys can be very hard to socialise with each other as well as other species..although this is not always the case it is the most likely.It is very interesting that our companion birds, even though many are hand reared still remain true to their wild instincts.