Living with a Bonded Pair by Erika Hurford

Living with a Bonded Pair by Erika Hurford

This article is intended as a follow up from my first one, published in the September 2008 issue of Parrots, about living with two conures. I shall briefly recapture the story.

Almost four years ago, we decided to introduce a second bird into our household, as a friend for our three year old Green-cheeked Conure who had appeared lonely for some time. We thought he would benefit from having some company and become a bird again, instead of spending most of the time with us. He had also become uncharacteristically aggressive, seemed to hate me being around, but was friendly towards my husband and son.

After much thought, we decided on another small conure, rather than a completely different species and, although the sex of the new addition was to be determined, our main concern was for the mutual acceptance of the two birds, their happiness and wellbeing. We had anticipated some risks involved in our plan, such as choosing the wrong bird, although until the introduction, we were not able to predict any problem, and losing the 'pet bird bond', which we had enjoyed with the first one for a long time.