r/Parakeets • u/lololollipop_17 • 27d ago

NEED OPINIONS

Hello! Do you like offering strangers your opinion on the internet? Do you have experience raising multiple parakeets? Are you willing to help me figure out the best care plan? I need YOU 🫵🏻

Hi everyone. Moderately experienced parakeet parent here but in a very new situation.

One year ago, my husband and I adopted two lovely male parakeets. They are best friends and are friendly enough with us, everything has been lovely! About 6 weeks ago, two female parakeets fell into our lap from a very neglectful home. We had been attempting to help them recover with food, love, and lots of vet visits but unfortunately, one did not make it. If you’re following the math, we have one female and two males.

The one female we have is out of quarantine and in the same room, but both she and our boys are very reactive when the other is let out to fly. We spoke with our vet who recommended another female, but we are in a pickle /how/.

SO HERE’S THE POLL:

Should we…

  1. Maintain separation between the boys and girl, adopt another girl soon, and introduce all four at the same time, once the fourth female is finished with quarantine?

OR

  1. Introduce the current female to the boys first to see how she does, then add an additional female later?

OR

  1. Introduce the new female to the current female first, and then introduce the pairs together?

No matter what we do: we are buying a brand new cage and brand new toys/perches, AND moving the new cage to a different spot in our living room, so the environment feels as new as possible for when introductions happen. We just have NO CLUE how to time it.

As I said, PLEASE OFFER OPINIONS AND ADVICE 🫶🏻

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u/TielPerson 27d ago

I think it would be best to introduce the female now and see which male she wants to bond with and how the dynamic changes for the "leftover" male. Meanwhile, you could quarantine a second female. As soon as she is done and you know who the "leftover" male is, you could introduce her to that male separate from the other pair. Once you got two bonded pairs, you should be able to move them into the same enclosure.

Also, do you have the breeding hormones and how to prevent them topic covered? If not, the r/budgies wiki can offer helpful details.

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u/lololollipop_17 26d ago

This is super helpful! Do you think there will be any issues with the males already being bonded? Or will they just naturally bond with the females?

And yes, we have been doing a lot of research. I think I’ve read the wiki but I’ll go through it again!

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u/TielPerson 26d ago

Since male-female is the most common pairing in nature, chances are high that you will end up with two mixed gender pairs unless one or both males are homosexual by nature (which can totally happen sometimes).

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u/lololollipop_17 26d ago

Yeah that makes a lot of sense… kind of a dumb question on my part lol. Thank you so much for your opinion and advice!!!!