How To Get Two Birds To Get Along | PARROT TALK | MARLENE MC’COHEN
– So, the first and foremost reason I think my birds get along, not saying they’re always perfect, but the reason you’ll
see that I’m able to do a lot of different things with all of them at one time is. (upbeat music) Hello, my sniffers,
flighters, and newbies. My name is Marlene Mc’Cohen, and here is my mustache
parakeet named Brando. Today, we have a very long-awaited video that so many of you have
been asking me to make. Today is the day that
I’m ready to make it. I’ve made a video
like this previously, but this is now an updated video. Before we go on, I want you guys to maybe go get a cup of tea.
Don’t worry if Brando tries to drink this. This is my special tea that came in the Feathered Fun Box Jersey edition, and it is an avian tea for birds, and it’s Jersey’s birthday blend. So, don’t mind me. Now go get your tea because
I’m gonna kind of treat this a little bit like a podcast because I have a lot of
important information to get to for you guys, and I think it’s
gonna be extremely valuable. For those of you who love birds or are just generally interested in birds or planning on getting a bird or already have a bird but you’re planning on getting a second bird, this is gonna be one of the most important
videos you could listen to.
You guys know that I believe that you can never stop learning,
researching, and growing when you have gotten yourself
involved with the birds. So, get ready, take time,
and take this in. As you guys know, we’re gonna
talk about how to get birds to get along. You can go on the Internet,
and you can find many ways to get birds to get along. You can find a lot of information
about introducing parrots. But ever since making my last video, I decided to analyze what it is and what is the reason
that most of my birds can live in harmony. I mean, aside from Rocky
who is doing an amazing job recently
with this specifically, all my birds can be out and I don’t have
to worry about them attacking each other
or getting aggressive, and we’re talking about so
many different species of birds and a few different sizes.
So, how do I make that happen? I want you guys to
listen to the end of this because I’m gonna tell
you some of my secret ways that I use to make it happen. Well, they’re not secret. It’s just kind of something
that’s an instinct to me, and I wanna expose that now because I think it will
help you guys a lot because it has a lot to do
with analyzing parrot behavior. By the way, guys, even
though you can listen to this as a podcast because I’m gonna go through all this information very
steadily and clearly, I may put in some inserts
into this video just to give some demonstrations just so
Do you guys have a better idea, maybe some stuff from old videos that will renew your memory
on what I’m talking about. Let’s get started. So, the first and foremost
the thing that is important when you get a new bird or
when you bring two birds home is to make sure that
each has its own space. This is important even if they seem like they are in a relationship
or if somebody gave them to you or you got them for some reason and you were told they are a couple.
This is still going to
be extremely important. When I say their own space,
I mean their cages, their play stands,
literally their area. Let me use this opportunity
to talk real quick and give you a great example. I got two Senegals from somebody. Their names are Nellie and Monty. (Nellie chirps) Hi. (Nellie chirps) Hi, Nellie. (Nellie chirps) Hi, Nellie. Oh hi. I’m different. What do you think? Hi. He looks a little scary. – [Woman] No, he’s not. – Hi. – [Woman] He’s very sensitive
about being loved less. – Oh you are so cute. – [Woman] He feels like he’s loved less. – Oh ’cause you have a big head. At first, I was very pro
having them together. They literally, I have seen them rumble like two football players that
would not get off each other.
For those of you who
are new to the channel, I urge you to go back
and watch that playlist and see how I got those birds and what impression I was
under when I got those birds so that you could watch the whole story and just kind of be filled in. You don’t have to do that now. You can do that afterward. So, here’s the story, Nellie
and Monty are two Senegals that kind of would appear
or were given to me as if they were not so
much in a relationship but more so in sharing a cage.
Now you guys have to remember when you first get a bird and
bring a bird or birds home as I did in this case, they’re gonna be extremely hypersensitive. You know, when you go to a new area and you don’t know what’s going on and you might have a little bit of fear, that can change a bird’s behavior. And then once they get more comfortable, you start to learn what
a parrot’s mentality or that specific bird’s
personality is like. Well, Nellie and Monty
were on their best behavior because they were new and they were scared and they don’t
know what was happening. This is okay a good thing
because this is your opportunity to make a good impression on
any bird that you bring home this is the time,
especially if they’re a rescue, for them to understand
that whatever circumstances they came from, this
is going to be changed. It’s just an amazing hypersensitivity that you can take advantage of. Nellie and Monty were
seemingly very good together. They came in the same cage, and they slept in the same cage, and everything seemed
very simple that way.
After a few days when
they were settling in, all they did was attack each other. Now some information
that you guys should know is when I got the birds, she told me that each of the birds
had a missing toenail because at some point,
each of them had, you know, taken off each other’s toenails. So, that information stayed with me. It became a valuable piece of information. When Nellie and Monty
started attacking each other, I was like okay, the fastest
the thing that I need to do to solve this is to give
them their territory.
I mean, even if they were
nowhere near the cage ’cause birds can be very territorial, if they were both on me
because I kinda got them adjusted to me very quickly, if for any reason they came together, they would attack each other, and then I’d be in the
middle of, like, a brawl, and they would attack me. It was kind of dangerous, you know? Some of these little birds
have the worst bites because they just go for it. It can be a lot more shocking. So, I knew I had to do something. So, the first thing I set out to do was make sure that they do
have their territory. I separated them and put
them in different cages. This took me a little bit longer to do because they were in quarantine
from my other parrots, which we’ll get to in a second.
Long story short, after a while,
after they were comfortable knowing that they had their own space, they started becoming those two
loving birds to one another. And something I should tell you guys is that both of their cages
are next to each other. But when I cover them at night, I use one cover to cover both of them. So, they’re kind of
like we’re establishing that relationship, sleeping together where they see each other but can’t get in each other’s
way and have their things inside their cage, their food bowl, their water bowl, their
purchase, and toys, then they’re no threat to each other, but I’m establishing a flock mentality in which they’re kind of sleeping together where they see each other. We’re gonna talk about
flock mentality coming up because that’s a really
important part of this. Another important part of
this Nellie and Monty story is that there’s a huge
possibility that when I came into the equation, that’s why they started getting aggressive towards one another. Now we formed a triangle.
So, we have Nellie, Monty, and me. I’ve become the person that
they both met at the same time. So, this is not like I have one bird, and I’m doing an introduction. I’m getting two
birds at the same time. And they both took a liking to me. Because of the way I socially
integrated myself with them and the way I socialized with them, they both equally took to me. So, now I kind of posing
a threat to each of them, a threat in between their relationship and then also a threat in
fighting over attention for me.
So, that was important for
me to get their relationship situated before I did any
more serious bonding with them ’cause I wanted
them to be amazing together if you think about it, how often do birds have a friend? Don’t even get me started on that, but it was important to me
that they never get separated and that we can repair and continue to let this
relationship flourish. With that being said on the subject of having their own space, what I’m specifically talking about is the bird having their
cage, their plays and, their toys, their
food, their bowls. That goes for all like
the Nellie and Monty story even if they come together. So, that brings us to
what if a bird is new. For example, you already have a bird or you have multiple parrots
and now for some reason, you’ve brought another bird into the home.
Well, the most important thing
that you’re gonna have to do is quarantine that bird. You guys know I’m really big
on quarantine with birds. Nellie an,d Monty,
got super quarantined ’cause I’d never seen them previously. Quarantine is generally
about birds being sick, you don’t want them to give anything to the current birds you have. So, when you get a baby bird, they’ve generally been in a place with a lot of other baby birds. You don’t know what the bird has. Very important to quarantine your bird when you bring your bird home. Whether the bird is a baby or
a rescue, you don’t understand what it might have come in contact with. No matter where you got the bird from, you should ask for
paperwork, and vet checkups, and get to know the vet that
the bird was regular at.
Information like that will
go a long way for you. So, I don’t wanna go
so much into quarantine because I think we’ve done
that in another video. Yes, baby. But in a nutshell, you wanna
bring the new bird home and have that bird in a separate room and a separate cage for at least 30 days. This is important so that you
don’t transfer any diseases or any sickness to your current birds. By the way, when you wash the
bowls and things like that, you always wanna keep
that separated as well and do a real thorough
cleaning, and wash your hands. Just take great care to
practice no cross-contamination. So, eventually, you wanna bring that bird into the same room to possibly interact with your other birds or just kinda live in
there happily, right? Now a lot of these situations, some of you who are
bringing in a second bird to possibly be a mate or a friend for another bird of a similar species, if you’re interested in doing that, then when you bring the
new bird out of quarantine, what you’re gonna wanna do
is put the cages together and let them get used to each
other for a little while.
Now if both birds are of different species and that wasn’t your goal, then really you just need them
to be in the same environment however way. But if you want them to have
some sort of a relationship and that’s kinda what you’re going for, friends, preening each
other, I think the trick I did with Nellie and Monty with the cages together
and covered together will help. I also have a tree and a
stand that they share. But in the beginning, I didn’t
put them on the same stands until they sorted their relationship out with the separate cages. So, now we’re gonna get to the
second most important thing when introducing two birds together and getting them to get along. Now I know this sounds
extremely informational, but we’re gonna get to all the good stuff. So, I want you guys to stay tuned because it’s really important to me that you understand this.
When you’re trying to get educated, you can’t decide what’s
important and what’s not. You just gotta listen
to the whole thought process so that you can understand
where I’m coming from and why I do certain things. Number two is not something
you’re gonna hear often, but it’s the most important thing for me, and it’s why I love birds, and it’s why I’m good with birds. You guys know that I grew up with birds since I was seven years old. Sometimes I meet people that
have been in the business for a very long time, and
they quote the number of years that they’ve been in it. And, you know, they started
when they were like 30 years old or 20 years old and they got a bird and they’re like I have
been in this business and with birds for 30 years and people don’t know
that I got them beat.
This is gonna be the most important part, and that is observed, observe, observe. You really wanna be an
observer of parrot behavior when you have a bird, okay? It has to be interesting to you. What are they doing? What are their movements? Where is their instinct to go? Like he’s scratching his feet. What made him scratch his feet right now? Did he just drink water? Is he itchy? Is he flapping? Is it the air conditioning? All sorts of different things
like sometimes, you know, they just ate or whatever. You could see that
it was that he drank water. In a controlled environment,
and I promise you, if you wanna get into birds at all, this is gonna have to be both important and interesting to you. So, if you’re the type of person that you wanna sit back
on your phone all day long texting and scrolling and
that’s kind of what you do in your relaxing time,
you might want to rethink getting a bird.
Your priority now should
be to be interested in every part of that bird’s
movements and behavior. It should be interesting to you like you are an ornithologist. I am dead serious about that. It is interesting, guys. Honestly, if you just stare at your bird and say oh why did he do that movement why did he do this what does he do when I make this sound what does he do when that person enters the room, you’re gonna have a lot
better of an understanding about your bird, why he
bites, why he screams, why he’s upset, and it’s
gonna make for your life to be so much easier. So, the most important thing
about observing your bird is that it’s in a controlled environment. You never wanna put
these two birds together and then leave them alone. That’s the most dangerous
thing that you can do.
By the way, birds are smart. They know when you’re looking at them. You can tell them no,
and they’ll go right back to doing what they’re doing
when you’re not looking. You want to establish
dominance in this situation and let them know that you’re
here, you’re the flock leader, and this is what’s happening now. So, before we talk about
the most important things to look for and to observe in
this controlled environment, let’s talk about the
controlled environment.
So, the controlled environment
has to be a neutral area. Vinny is outside throwing a tantrum. What do I mean by a neutral area? That cannot be near any
one of those birds’ cages, specifically your original bird. Your original bird has to
feel like his territory is never going to be
touched, interfered with, or taken over. That could even, for your
bird, mean the entire room that that bird is in. Generally, it’s a better
idea to take both birds to a guestroom, a bathroom, or any room in which your first bird and the current bird do not feel territory over.
As I said, it’s just like
when you bring a new bird home for the first time. They become hypersensitive
in this new environment. What happens when you
become hypersensitive and something is new? You look to the leader and you’re essentially the flock leader. So, both of them are kind
of now gonna be waiting for your cues.
Now you can establish some
sort of flock mentality and work on training. Now, remember, when you’re doing this, you do not force the birds to be together. You’re not trying to put them
together and go here, here. You’re just kind of trying to interact with both of them together,
to watch them and to observe. At this moment, let’s talk
about what we are observing. Remember, this won’t be the last time that you take the time to observe. You continuously gotta
be observing your bird, your bird’s behavior,
your bird’s interactions with all of the other birds, and your bird’s interactions
with birds in different spots.
For example, Brando might
be very safe with Monty if we’re both here. But if Brando goes onto Monty’s stand, Monty might try to push Brando off. That does happen. Yeah, Brando
and Monty probably need to be put into a neutral
environment together, and that has to be worked on. So, that is something to observe. When you have a dog, you
kind of can train it, learn, and you should always be
observing all of your animals.
You can learn something new every day. But with birds, you may have
to be honest with yourself and realize you may never get it down. You may always need to be working on it. For most people, it’s
a lifetime of research and a lifetime of analyzing. Here are some things I
want you to look out for. If one of the birds
particularly is an aggressor, do you feel like they ignored each other, or do you feel like they went to attack each other right away? Now if they ignored each
other and just kind of chill, especially with younger birds, this can be a little bit easier, then you’re kind of on your way.
It’s gonna be a little bit easier. If one of them right away
goes to attack another, then it’s gonna need a lot more work and you’re gonna have to take time to establish this relationship. Stay tuned because I’m gonna
teach you some of my ways that I think are foolproof
for getting all my birds to get along and be
able to chill together. When you’re observing the
birds in this environment, you’re gonna learn a lot
about your birds’ psychology, both birds, and how each one interacts. Now if let’s say you have a conure and then you have a mustached parakeet and you’re seeing how they
react, one might be the aggressor and one might not be.
That doesn’t mean all
conures are like that. It doesn’t mean all mustached
parakeets are that way. And it doesn’t mean
that they’ll be that way with the same kind of
bird every single time. It’s really interesting
how some of my birds back down to others. But then it never really
amounts to one bird being the ultimate high
bird on the pecking order if you know what I mean. For example, Vinny may be
able to stand his ground next to Rocky, my huge macaw,
and frighten Rocky. Yet, my Amazon who is more of Vinny’s size might be a little more
aggressive to Vinny, and Vinny will back down. It’s very interesting to watch. So, you always got to
be watching out for it. Never trust your bird’s
behavior with one bird and assume it’s gonna be like that with that bird to another bird.
Very important. A few more tips on taking the time to observe your bird in
a neutral environment is that you never wanna panic. The energy that you bring to the situation is gonna be the energy that
you bring to the birds. So, prepare yourself to be comfortable, not distracted. This gotta be you
and both of the birds. You have to be ready to
kind of put a blocker if you think one of the birds is gonna attack quickly. And if you think one of your birds is gonna bite you hard, you gotta be prepared for that as well in whichever way you feel possible. Maybe you don’t wanna put your
hand as a block, for example. You gotta know your bird. On the subject of knowing your bird, no amount of training is
ever gonna prepare you for working with birds. It all comes with experience. Every bird is gonna bring a
whole new experience to you, to your family, and your other birds. So, you always gotta keep working on it and you always got to love it.
Once you’ve made the introduction and it’s been quite a while and you feel kind of let’s say comfortably that they haven’t attacked each other and they haven’t
shown any kind of jealousy, you wanna do one of two things. One, you want to interact with them. And two, you want to chill with them. What’s the difference? And you should do both. Both should be achieved
in this period that you’ve set to work with your birds. I wouldn’t leave that
situation unless I tried both. So, what is kind of
chilling with your birds? Okay, yeah, they’re both
here, they’re both calm. Maybe I could kind of just read a book, or maybe I could kind of watch TV, but the focus is on the birds. It’s just all about them
learning to live with you and learning to establish
that flock mentality.
Remember, they’re in
a neutral environment, they’re in a new room, they’re
hypersensitive right now, and you’ve established
yourself as this flock leader. So, they go oh okay, so I’m in a new room, and there’s a new bird, so
maybe this is what happens in this new room. We just kinda chill and relax. You don’t wanna leave
the room until you feel like you’ve been able to
do that with the bird. But here’s something
that I do with the birds and I think I made a video
on this before for you guys. This might sound crazy,
but it’s what I do. I’ve observed that this
100% goes a long way to establishing a flock mentality. But here’s what I do. Here’s Brando.
(Brando chirps) Okay. Now before I give you this demonstration, another point, I think
this is point number four, which is important to
both this part of the training and this part of, like, establishing kind of a flock
mentality with your bird is respecting the pecking order.
I know we’ve talked about this before, but it’s very, very important. For example, I’ve had Jersey
longer than I’ve had Brando, way longer than I’ve had Brando. Jersey is accustomed to a
certain amount of attention. She’s accustomed to a
certain amount of routine, a certain amount of attention,
and a certain amount of love. Brando is new. Brando’s not accustomed to anything yet. For all he knows, when he gets his love, that’s. He’s gonna learn how things go. And that’s what he’s
eventually gonna get used to. You don’t wanna change it up for your original bird too much. You wanna respect Jersey,
a.k.a. your first bird or the bird before this
bird on the pecking order. You wanna respect them as
let’s say an elder, okay? Because if not, their
territorial instincts will decide that this bird is a threat. So, a very important part
of this is to make sure that Jersey always feels loved and that her love and that she is a priority has never changed.
What do you do to make
sure she feels that? One, when you come in the room, you always greet her first
because there was a time let’s say that she was the only bird and that’s what she got. In my personal life,
that’s not how it was. But in this case, let’s just
say Jersey is the first bird. You would come in and greet her first. If you’re giving any of the bird’s treats, you give Jersey a treat first. If you’re putting new toys in the cage, you give Jersey a new toy first. You let Jersey choose first. I know all this might sound crazy. If it sounds crazy, you’re not
ready for parrot psychology and you might not be ready for a bird. This is first and foremost
what you need to understand and believe about parrots and how they have a flock mentality. You have to work with
that, not try to change it.
On the same note, interestingly
when I go to put the birds to bed, I put Jersey to bed last. I let her feel like she’s
getting that extra time with me. So, yeah, the other
bird gets to go to bed. A lot of that reason is ’cause
Jersey has FOMO about going to bed, which is
kind of interesting in itself whereas most of my
other birds are like you, time for bed, bye. So, I let her feel like
she has that extra time. So, that’s a little spot where
it differs for me. But that comes from analyzing my bird and observing and seeing what they, so to speak, took personally. Just a little warning before
we get onto my way of establishing myself as
let’s say a flock leader, part of the flock with
birds, really be careful about the size of the birds
that you’re trying this with.
If you are new to parrot ownership, don’t just, like, introduce a macaw and maybe a little mustached parakeet without really knowing what you’re doing, without having a history of
this kind of introductions, without really just
generally having experience. That might be something to consider. If you have a very small bird, bringing a very large bird into the home when you have no experience, things that you have to
have on your consciousness, you might not be ready for because a lot with parrots is human error. And so, you have to be extremely aware and hypersensitive to the birds yourself. Back to let’s say we have
Brando here and Jersey here.
This is literally what I did
with the birds the other day. I had Jersey and I said to
her, “Jersey, this is Brando. “Brando, this is Jersey.” And I kissed Jersey to let her know that even
though he’s being introduced, she is first, she is my baby. I’m not gonna go oh look at
the baby and let her watch and let her be from the cage
going what happened, oh my God. That is stressful for the bird. That is like something is changing. A lot of birds don’t like change. A lot of birds love routines depending on how you raise them. You can raise
them to get used to change. I think it’s
a lot healthier for them.
But still, there’s a certain amount of things that you do want to
make sure they understand will never change like your love for them, their territorial instincts,
and things that belong to them. Back to this, I kissed Jersey, and then I kissed Brando, then I kissed Jersey, then I kissed Brando and just kind of brought them
closer and closer and closer. None of ’em, like, pecked each other. And then a lot of people underestimate how much birds understand. When people underestimate that, I don’t think they
know birds at all. I don’t think they grew up with them. I don’t think they spent
30 years with birds. I think they spent 30 years owning them and not listening to them. So, I tell my birds, hey, this is Brando, and Jersey, you need
to take care of Brando, Brando is new, but I’m not
gonna love you any less. How do we know what birds
picked up and what they haven’t throughout our interactions with them? If you’re a great parrot owner and you’re including your
bird as much as you can, they’re gonna pick up on a lot more.
Just as food for thought, we didn’t learn to speak parrots, but most of these birds
learn to speak our language. Just think about that. And then eventually I
put it together if I sense that it’s safe. I would never put them
together if they were not. And just kind of put all
three of us together, kinda like a symbolic way of
saying we three are a flock and we three are safe.
You know what happened when
I did that the other day. She was very jealous of Brando. She just sat with Brando
right next to each other on the top of the stool where
the top is about this big. They just sat next to
each other wing to wing for about an hour. That is a development. I was very happy with that development. There was a moment
when I had to leave, not the house, the room. I came back. They were fine. It was amazing, which by the way if you’re not an experienced
bird owner, never leave. That’s just something that
I did because I know Jersey. And you guys probably know
Jersey well enough too. So, if you have more than one bird, you always wanna treat
the first bird first, then the second bird you got, then the third bird, and so on. This whole process of kissing the bird and doing this kind of introduction leads me to the sixth
thing, which is conditioning. What is the definition of conditioning for those of you who don’t understand? Conditioning is the process
of training an animal or a human being to get accustomed
to certain circumstances or even to behave in a certain way.
Now in this case when you
wanna condition your bird to get along with another bird, so you’re conditioning both birds, my two important notes
to you would be one, to not give up, and two, if you do give up and say oh my God, my bird
will attack the other bird for sure and now I have to separate them and hang out with one and
hang out with the other, 100% I guarantee you
it’s a lack of training and time spent on the whole process. Now onto the good stuff. Before I get into the good stuff, I have to talk to you
about flock mentality. What is flock mentality? If you look outside in the wild, for those of you who are
fortunate to live in Australia and you can see the wild galah cockatoos, you’ll often see them kind of not just
specifically flocking with but kind of in the same areas as the sulfur-crested cockatoos and they’re kind of all together eating.
For the most part, you
don’t see much drama. Well, I have seen some funny videos. But in general, none of them
are out to kill each other. They can get a little bit
territorial over food. But in general, when there’s abundance, all of these birds can fly
together and hang together and they’re kind of more
worried about themselves. So, why are these birds in
the wild able to get along and we’re so worried about
our birds getting along? In comparative terms, there is much more abundance in the wild. They can fly free, they
can go wherever they want to look and forage for food. In the situation of birds
living in our homes, these birds are forced to rely on us. So, when I get a new bird, my current bird is like wait a minute, I rely on this person, how’s
it gonna change for me?
It becomes a territorial thing. Now when you throw a
human into this equation, because the bird is living in your house, you have a lot of different
things affecting your training. You have the birds being
territorial, you have jealousy, you have the confusion of the bird not understanding if you are
a mate or a flock leader, which is what’s very important
to try to establish yourself as a flock leader rather than a mate.
So, I’m gonna show you how. By the way, every time you
add a bird to the flock, this is something very important, a process that you’re
gonna have to go through it, every time you add a bird, it’s
gonna get harder and harder and harder because you’re
going to have to carry all of these birds as if
you’re carrying a flock. Sometimes people might say Marlene, you make it look so easy,
you have so many birds, I don’t know you do it.
Is it hard? It’s not hard in the sense
that it’s difficult for me because I understand the birds. It’s a lot of work is really what it is, and it’s work that I’m cut out for because I have experience. So, I, in no way, ever
want you guys to look at me and go oh my God, she has that many birds, I can have them too. I just, like, grew up with
this systematic ability to have them all and have them all out and have them flighted. I wasn’t born that way. It took a lot of time, it took a lot of learning a
lot of education, and so on, and a lot of experience in
just analyzing their behavior. But yeah, so don’t get discouraged. If you watch me and you’re like
I should be able to do that, no, you really might want a life, right? You might want to focus on other things.
So, don’t run out and get another bird if you don’t think you can handle all of this process that
I’m about to tell you because I think this is what works for me. The major part of having birds
for me is including them. You guys won’t believe
the power of inclusion. You’re raising something. You’re including it in everything you do. This is great for birds
because you’re establishing a flock mentality. Inclusion is major, and it’s specifically major for parrots. Now don’t get me wrong,
any kind of training with your bird is great training.
If you wanna train your
bird with a clicker if you wanna train your bird
to take treats to do tricks, any way in which you work with your bird is great attention for your bird. But what I’m telling you is
how to live with your birds. Living with your birds
is just as important as training your birds. And inclusion is a major
part of the flock mentality. What is flock mentality? When you see birds out in the
wild, you see them in groups, which are flocks. Some birds have larger
flocks than other birds. When I was in Costa Rica, we
were watching the wild macaws.
They always seem to fly
with a minimum for birds. It was a really beautiful
sight and interesting to see. But birds, flock
together, they fly together, and they work together in flight. You see them fly together in V formation so that they can catch
each other’s updraft. Birds work together. A lot of parrots mate for life, which is also very important.
I’m gonna tell you, guys, something sad, which is gonna give you
a little more insight into flock mentality. Sometimes when people
wanna capture wild birds for the parrot trade, which
is a terrible, terrible thing, they will create ways, I’m
not even gonna go into detail ’cause I can’t even, I don’t wanna, I don’t even wanna traumatize you guys like I’m traumatized thinking about it, but they’ll create let’s
say a trap to catch a bird.
That bird will be let’s
say stuck in this trap in a very inhumane way,
and it will scream and cry. And then what happens
is all the other birds come as a flock because what they wanna do is they want to make sure that they’re fending off the predator. But when they come as a flock, that’s how they
trap the rest of the birds. It’s heartbreaking, but it’s a great insight
into flock mentality. Now Blue, the Indian Ringneck is flying around after Leo. If Leo gets in any kind of
debacle with another bird, Blue just flies right
down and involves herself. Yeah, it’s very, very
interesting to watch. I’m telling you that story ’cause I just want you to understand how birds work together and they always have an eye on their flock or their flock family. Because they mate for life and because they go
through a hormonal period while they’re in your house,
it’s very important to try and establish that flock mentality leader with your bird instead of the mate.
We’ll probably make a video on that. But I just want you guys to know that that’s a large part of the reason why birds scream when you live the room because of that story
that I just told you. Therein lies the mentality, right? So, when you have a
bird and it’s screaming ’cause you left the room,
you might wanna be anxious or you might wanna be upset with the bird, but you have to understand
that bird is feeling a certain level of stress. That’s natural to them because
they feel like they’re losing a part of their flock. Sometimes cockatoos pluck not because they were particularly abused but because birds in these
environments that we live in, they’re not meant to live with us.
It’s very hard for them to thrive. So, that’s how a lot of
parrots deal with that. They could have been
over-loved, which is something that people won’t tell you, but it’s true. So, the first and foremost
reason I think my birds get along, not saying
they’re always perfect, but the reason you’ll
see that I’m able to do a lot of different things
with all of them at one time is that they eat together. We kind of have let’s say
a family meal time.
I never showed on YouTube what dinner looks like with the birds. (suspenseful music) – Is Merlin still behind me? – Yeah. And I try to put things on let’s
say one plate or two plates where they can kind of all
gravitate around the food. If one bird likes one kinda thing and another bird likes a different thing, I put those two different
things on the same plate. It just kind of establishes
like oh there’s no threat, food is abundant. And I’ll have my plate
right there with them. A lot of people might think okay, you don’t want to establish
your bird being with you all the time and eating around you. But for me, I believe we take away so much from birds, right? Everything is at our convenience. We take away them flying
because we can’t handle it.
We can’t handle a little flighted bird. We take away boxes because
we don’t want them to nest. After all, God forbid they should lay an egg. But at the same time, the
reason it’s dangerous for them to lay an egg is
that they might be egg-bound. After all, they don’t have
enough strength or calcium. After all, they’re not having the right foods or they’re not having the right strength in their muscles to fly, right? I try not to take those things away.
I try to make them feel
they are a part of a flock. I think it helps them to be quiet and happy and fulfilled. If you hear my birds be loud in a video, usually I’m near the
door, and I’m about to leave. That’s when the bird is like going psycho when we’re all in a hallway. It’s like the birds
know I’m about to leave and they’re getting stressed. But other than that, like
if you hang out in my house most of the time aside from
us playing music and stuff, they feel comfortable. When you make them feel comfortable, they’ll also feel
comfortable with each other, and it’s extremely important. You’ll notice that after a while when you have one plate
or various plates around for the birds to eat on, after a while, they’ll include each other. If they start to like each
other, watch out for this, then let’s say Leo is holding an apple, then Blue will go and try
to eat from that apple.
Picasso did the same thing to Jersey. So, those are kind of some
cues where you could see where the relationship is going. I believe that including
them in food and yourself as well as establishing
that flock leader mentality, establishes abundance
and makes them understand there is enough for all
and this is feeding time. So, the next thing is such a powerful tool for getting my birds to like each other. There are a few parts to this trick. First of all, I take my
birds to shower with me. Who’s up there? Perfect, Blue. And then Leo’s there. And then Nellie knows that
she could sit next to Leo. I had to go get your brother. Cody, go to your spot.
(Cody chirps) Good bird. Why is this so important? It’s another thing that
establishes flock mentality. Oh here we are and we’re all going to this neutral environment
and we are together. Once you turn that water on and you get that rainforest vibe going, they start feeling like they’re
in some sort of rainforest and they just kinda relax and chill. You could see it with
Vinny and other birds like I’ll put them up on the kind of like on the glass
together, for some of you, maybe a pole where the
curtain is, whatever, and they may start trying
to, like, get at each other, but after a while, it’s like
oh okay, you’re here again.
You gotta try it every day. Oh, you’re here again? Okay, got it. I’m over it. After a while, they’re over it. This has worked with every single bird. Another part of that trick
is I like to shower at night. So, I can get out of bed
and roll into my day. So, the birds are a little bit tired. If you work with a bird on
interacting with each other or relaxing around one
another when they’re tired, think about what that
does to their mentality. Oh, this is a relaxing time. So, Brando’s here and
let’s say Monty’s here. They’re both too full. They should be full, okay? It’s really good to work with birds when they’re kind of
like just comfortable. Do you know what I mean? Because they get that,
like, food coma vibe. I know in regular training, people are like I wanna hold a treat so that the bird can do something. That’s a different kinda thing, but also a good thing and great for training.
But what I’m talking about here
is a bird being comfortable. Kinda like if it was
equivalent to a human being, this is the couch-chilling vibe where you’re like oh he’s fine, I’m fine, I’m too tired to do this. After a while, they just get
so used to being in that mode that they’re not even going
to try and bother each other later when they’re on the
same stand or hanging out or in the cages.
Only when one of them is
territorial over a certain area, that’s when it becomes dangerous. So, you will always have
to be observing and knowing what those territorial
areas are for your birds. Whether you wanna take
those areas away or not, that’s up to you and how you
wanna live with your bird in your house and what you can handle. But the shower is a major
inclusion technique. It’s worked for all of my birds. Think about it. If you spend a whole day
and they’ve eaten together two or three times and then
they’ve showered together, after a while, it’s like oh
you’re the annoying person over there, oh you’re over
there, I’m not even gonna budge. They’ll stand up there, and they’ll stand right
next to each other, and they’ll just get over themselves. It’s just got that spa vibe. The sounds, it’s calming to them. Think about it. It kinda mimics the rainforest. The other birds are all over.
It’s no matter. So, I do like
to create certain ways for them to kinda feel that
homey, rainforest, flocky vibe. On that same note, that
brings me to something else you could do, which I kinda touched upon, just kinda sitting and
reading or watching TV. Sometimes I have the
birds up a little later past their bedtime. Don’t get me wrong, sleep is important. Especially for cockatoos, you want them to get
like 12 hours of sleep. But if they’re a little bit tired and you have, like, two different birds, you can just work
with them, sit and watch TV. They get the vibe. They pick up on your energy. So, if you’re just kind
of in relaxing mode and you’re not running
around the house freaked out and saying why don’t my birds get along ’cause they’re just there
and one ran to attack and kids gotta go to school
and you gotta go here and you gotta go there.
It’s a different vibe than
you sitting and chilling. Let’s eat. Dedicate the time to what it is. Eating is eating. The shower is the shower. Chilling and relaxing is
chilling and relaxing. I’ve told you guys this before. Sometimes when George and I feel like we’ve been gone too long, maybe we’ve been gone
during the day too long, then we will say okay,
no, we have to go home and watch TV with the birds. We find a way to include them all. Every time you get a new bird, you have to bring in a new
spot, a new environment, a new play stand, somewhere
where they feel comfortable. There could be lots of different instances where you don’t know you’ve upset a bird by giving something of theirs away. This is the real thing, guys. Again, every time you bring a
new bird into the situation, each bird has to share in this process. Keep that in mind. Every bird that you bring into your life, you’re gonna have to put
them through this process.
Don’t take on more than you can handle. I mean, I probably
gotta take like 10 birds up to the shower now. I gotta eat with 10 birds
and watch TV with 10 birds. What can you handle? Don’t take on any more than you can handle ’cause it’s gonna cause
much more stress for you, and you can’t gauge
what’s coming up in life. Sickness, marriage, kids,
you just have no idea. So, try not to take on
more than you can handle ’cause it won’t help anyone,
especially not the birds. And then with that being said,
make sure you don’t go back and leave the birds unattended in their territorial environments without really analyzing their
behavior towards each other over weeks, days, or months. You want them to be safe. With that being said,
you need to know all the other possibilities
like maybe Monty is fine next to Cody but not if Cody
has sort of went into the top of her cage and gotten
territorial over a toy.
You have to kind of be
on guard all the time and know oh God, I can’t let
Monty just walks over there when she’s in this situation. It’s always gonna be like a puzzle that you’re gonna have to be ready for and you’re gonna have to understand. That’s gonna be one of the major ways to keep your birds safe. Every time you bring a new
bird into the environment, you’re creating a whole new
series of potential dangers that you have to be
instinctively ready for.
So, you have to research,
watch, observe, analyze, grab out all the information you can, and make it part of your instincts in how you handle the birds
on every day-to-day basis. The last thing I wanna leave you guys with is every single bird that you bring in is gonna need your attention. So, even if you think
you’re bringing in a bird because you feel like you worked too much and you feel like you’re
conure needs a friend, most likely, I’m not
saying it’s impossible, I’m just saying most likely the new bird will need your attention and the old bird will need your attention and you will need to work
on this entire process because the two birds may not
fall in love with each other.
Probably 80%
of the time, they don’t. They may become good companions. Usually, it’s in the most unexpected forms like Picasso and Jersey or Blue and Leo. You just can’t gauge. It is nice to have more than one bird so that there’s kind of
another bird to work with and set as an example. But just remember, if you
think you’re buying yourself more time by your bird having a friend, that bird’s not gonna do the job. You’re still gonna owe your first bird everything that you committed to them. Now you’re gonna owe your second bird everything that you committed
to the first bird as well and possibly at separate times. That’s just something to keep in mind. For those of you who don’t
live in the United States, I know there are a lot of
countries that have a law that you have to get two birds together.
That’s especially beautiful
if they’re bred that way and put together that way. I think I admire that. But just to clarify for those of you who don’t understand what’s going on here ’cause I see this in the comments a lot, we’re already in a crisis. We have a lot of rescue birds that it’s almost impossible
to find and mate right away or they didn’t come with a mate or they’re so attached to human beings that they just don’t
understand a mate or a friend. So, that’s what we’re dealing with here is kinda like a crisis. Ideally, it would be amazing
if every bird have a friend. That’s kind of the reason
why it’s hard for me, (sighs) it was hard for me to do
the whole rehoming thing with Nellie and Monty
because I am so scared that they would be separated. It’s so important that they are together.
I’ve grown to love them. I feel like they do
well in this environment. Don’t get me wrong. There may be the perfect person out there. But they get very jealous
over that human interaction. Someone would have to be way
prepared for them to bite, attack, and rip their skin up. It’s a whole process. The experience people think they have versus the experience
that they do have and aren’t ready for is just, sometimes you’re just not
ready to take that chance.
I have to do what’s right for the birds. With all that being said, I know this was kind of a long video. If you guys have stayed
till the end, thank you. You have your
birds’ interest in mind. I hope you learned
something new here today. Maybe I forgot something. If I forgot something or
you had an amazing way of introducing your two birds, please put it at the bottom
here for other people to read and maybe utilize. I’m sure as soon as I finish this video, I’ll think of five great
ways to include your bird and create that kind of flock mentality. But that’s what this community is for. For those of you with
trouble with your birds, I know you guys feel like
I may be the only one that can help you, but I urge
you to join Parrot Station.
It’s the Facebook group I
created for this situation. Parrot Station on Facebook
has so many people ready and willing to share
their experiences with you. And then you could share pictures unlike the comment section
here or videos and show what it is that you’re dealing with. As you guys can imagine,
I get so many emails, and I feel so guilty
not being able to help because I feel like
I’m letting down a bird somewhere in there. It’s a lot of pressure on me.
But that’s why I created Parrot Station because it’s up to
you to find the information that you can and I want to
be able to make it easier for you guys to do that. So, please join Parrot
Station on Facebook. Introduce your bird. Also, I get to see your bird when you do, and it’s very exciting for me.
As you guys can understand,
if you write me a problem with your bird and you forget details and then I have to sit down and write a thesis when I don’t have all
the information and never will ’cause I’m not there with you analyzing the situation,
it’s just really hard. So, so I hope that guys can find some mentors and people on there.
It doesn’t mean don’t email me, it doesn’t mean don’t
share things with me. I just wanna kinda let
you guys know where I am. It’s very hard when you are the person that everyone feels is the answer. I just wanna share with you
guys that I read your emails and I want to respond.
But with every email, I feel
like, would take an hour to back and forth for me. I should put that effort into creating more ways for
you guys to get information, whether that is through Parrot Station or by making more of these videos. With that being said,
if you like my shirt, a lot of you are asking where my merch is, you can’t find it, it’s
at www.parrotstation.com. Go there and check it out. A lot of you are asking
about the Feathered Fun Box. The Feathered Fun Box
is a unique experience for you and your bird. It’s a subscription box
that comes with parrot toys for your bird and also special merch, kinda like my dream box. Honestly, I put so much into it. I love that there’s
something like this for birds out in the world.
That’s why I created it. I hope you guys enjoy it. And watch some of the
unboxings here on YouTube. I’ll share those with you
because I’m just so happy with the results. I love sending ’em out. I love making the box beautiful. I love you guys getting your merchandise, and I love the fact that those of you living in places with bird
stores have access to bird toys. So, always check back at Parrot
Station to see what’s new because we’re always
creating new things for you and your birds.
When I grew up, there were
no such things for birds. That’s why I’m here creating them today. By the way, don’t forget,
if you guys are looking for an amazing bird
food brand for your bird that is healthy, organic, and
not full of food colorings and sugar and peanuts smashed, check out Marlene’s Signature Blend. We just launched in the UK. Northern Parrots now sells our food. You guys have been asking for it. You got it. Also, Things for Wings in Canada sells our bird food right
now, which I’m proud to announce, that they will ship to you.
So, if you are international, don’t forget to check out those websites. I will put the links below. I love you guys so, so much. Thank you for listening. And please go out and make
your bird’s life better today. (light music).
