 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 because... Hello, my sniffers, flighters, and newbies. My name is Marlene McCohen, and this here is my mustache parakeet named Brando. And today we have a very long-awaited video that so many of you have been asking me to make. So today is the day that I'm ready to make it. Actually, 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 AVM 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 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 a bird. So get ready, take time, and really take this in. So 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 really analyze what it is and what is the reason that most of my birds can live in harmony. I mean, aside from Rocky, who was actually doing an amazing job recently with this specifically, all my birds can be out and I really 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 on this because I'm gonna tell you some of my secret ways that I use to make it happen. Well, they're not really secret. It's just kind of something that's a natural instinct to me. And I want to expose that now because I think it will help you guys a lot because it has a lot to do with analyzing parrot behavior. And 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 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 thing that is important when you get a new bird or when you bring two birds home is to make sure that each has their own space. And 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 own cages, their own play stands, literally their own area. So let me use this opportunity to talk real quick and give you a great example. I got two Senegal's from somebody. Their names are Nellie and Monty. Hi. Hi, Nellie. Hi, Nellie. Oh, hi. I'm different. What do you think? Hi. It looks a little scary. No, it's not. Hi. He's very sensitive about being loved less. Oh, he's loved. Do you mind? Does he have a big head? He feels like he's loved less. Oh, because you have a big head. Now, first I was very pro having them together and they will, 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 can watch the whole story and just kind of be filled in. You don't have to do that now. You can totally do that afterwards. So here's the story. Nellie and Monty are two Senegal's that kind of would appear or were given to me as if they were not so much in a relationship but more so sharing a cage. Now, you guys have to remember when you first get a bird and bring a bird or birds home, like 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 a 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, right? Because they're new and they're scared and they don't really know what's happening. And this is kind of a good thing because this is your opportunity to make a good impression on any bird that you bring home because 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 simply 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 toenail. 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 thing that I need to do to solve this is to give them their own territory. I mean, even if they were nowhere near the cage because birds can be very territorial, if they were both on me, because I kind of 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. And it was kind of dangerous, you know? Some of these little birds really have the worst bites because they just go for it and 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 own 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 that relationship sleeping together where they see each other but can't get in each other's way and have their own things inside their cage, their own food bowl, their own water bowl, their own perches and toys. Then there are no threats 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, right? 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 literally 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 pose a threat to each of them, a threat in between the 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 because I really wanted them to be amazing together because if you think about it, how often do birds actually 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. So with that being said on the subject of having their own space, what I'm specifically talking about is the bird having their own cage, their own play stand, their own toys, their own food, their own bowls. And that goes for like the Nellie and Monty story even if they come together. So that brings us to what if a bird is new? So for example, you already have a bird or you have multiple parents and now for some reason you've brought in 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. Obviously Nellie and Monty, they got super quarantined because I'd never seen them previously. So 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 they might have come in contact with. No matter where you got the bird from, you should ask for paperwork, vet checkups, get to know the vet that the bird was regular at and 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, wash your hands. You know, 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 kind of live in there happily, right? Now in a lot of these situations, some of you are bringing in a second bird to possibly be a mate or a friend for another bird of a similar species. If you are 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 really your goal, then really you just need them to be in the same environment, however which way. But if you do want them to have some sort of a relationship and that's kind of what you're going for, friends, preening each other, I really think the trick I did with Nellie and Monty with the cages together and covered together will really help. I also have a tree, a stand that they share, but in the beginning I didn't put them on the same stand 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. And when you're trying to get educated, you can't decide what's important and what's not. You really just gotta listen to the whole thought process so that you can understand where I'm coming from and why I do certain things. So 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've been in this business and I've had 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 observe, 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 beak. Like what made him scratch his beak right now? You know, did he just drink water? Is he itchy? Is he flushing? Like is it that air conditioning? Like all sorts of different things. Like sometimes, you know, they just ate or whatever. Obviously 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 about getting a bird. Your priority now should be to be interested in every part of that bird's movement and behavior. It should be interesting to you, like you are an ornithologist and I am dead serious about that. And it is interesting, guys. Honestly, if you just stare at your bird and say, oh, why did he do that movement? And why did he do this? And what does he do when I make this sound? And 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 like the most dangerous thing that you can do. And 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 are not looking. You really want to establish a 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. Vinnie is outside throwing a tantrum. What do I mean by a neutral area? So that cannot be near anyone 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. So 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 guest room, a bathroom, any room in which your first bird and current bird does not feel territory over. Like 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 going to be waiting for your cues. And now you can establish some sort of flock mentality and really 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. So in this moment, let's talk about what we are observing. And remember, this won't be the last time that you take the time to observe. You're continuously got to be observing your bird, your bird's behavior and your bird's interactions with all of the other birds and your bird's interactions with birds in different spots. So 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 actually does happen. Yeah, actually, 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. And when you have a dog, you kind of can train it, learn, and you should always be observing all of your animals and 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 know, you may always need to be working on it. For most people, it's a lifetime of research and a lifetime of analyzing. Here's 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 chilled, 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 really take time to establish this relationship. And stay tuned because I'm gonna teach you some of my ways that I think is foolproof for getting all my birds to get along and be able to chill together. So when you're observing the birds in this environment, you're gonna learn a lot about your bird psychology, both birds, how each one interacts. Now, let's say you have a conure and then you have a mustache parakeet and you're seeing how they react. One might be the aggressor, one might not be. That doesn't mean all conures are like that. That doesn't mean all mustache 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. So for example, Vinny may be able to stand his ground next to Rocky, my huge macaw, and really frighten Rocky. Yet, my Amazon, who is more 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 gotta be watching out for it and 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 the 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 bird. So really prepare yourself to be comfortable, not distracted. It's gotta really be you and both of the birds and you have to be ready to kind of put a blocker if you think one of the birds is gonna attack really quickly and if you think one of your birds is gonna bite you really 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 really gotta know your bird and 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, to 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 comfortable that they haven't attacked each other and they haven't really showed 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. So what's the difference? And you should do both. Both should be achieved in this period of time 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, maybe I could kind of watch TV but really 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 kind of chill and relax, right? 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. So this might sound crazy but it's what I do and I've observed that this 100% goes a long way to establishing flock mentality but here's what I do, okay? So here's Brando, okay? Now before I give you this demonstration, another point I think this is point number four which is really 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. So 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, a certain amount of love. Brando is new. Brando's not accustomed to anything yet, right? For all he knows, when he gets his love, that's when he gets his love. 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, aka 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 loved and her as a priority has never, ever 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 birds 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. And 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 and 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 because Jersey actually has FOMO about going to bed, which is kind of interesting in itself, where as most of my other birds are like, yo, 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 personally, but that comes from analyzing my bird and really observing and seeing what they sort of to speak took personally. And just a little warning before we get onto my personal way of establishing myself as, let's say a flock leader or 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 mustache parakeet without really knowing what you're doing without having a history of these kind of introductions, without really just generally having experience. And 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. So this is literally what I did with the birds the other day. So I had Jersey and I said to her, Jersey, this is Brando, Brando, this is Jersey. And I gave Jersey a kiss 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 and a lot of birds don't like change. A lot of birds love routine depending on how you raise them. You can actually raise them to get used to change and personally I think it's a lot healthier for them but still there's certain amount of things that you really do want to make sure they understand will never change. Like your love for them, their territorial instincts and things that belong to them. So back to this, I gave Jersey a kiss and then I gave Brando a kiss and I gave Jersey a kiss. Then I gave Brando a kiss and just kind of brought them closer and closer and closer and none of them like pecked each other. And then a lot of people underestimate how much birds understand. When people underestimate that I don't think they really 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 really 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 and just as a food for thought we didn't learn to speak parrot but most of these birds learn to speak our language. Just think about that. And then eventually I literally put them together. If I sense that it's safe I would never put them together if they're not and just kind of put all three of us together. Kind of like a symbolic way of saying we three are a flock and we three are safe. And you know what happened when I did that the other day? She was very jealous about Brando. She just sat with Brando right next to each other on the top of a 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. In fact, there was a moment where 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 than the second bird you got than the third bird and so on. So this whole process of kissing the bird and doing this kind of introduction leads me into the sixth thing which is conditioning. So 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. So now on to the good stuff. Before I get into the good stuff, I have to talk to you about flock mentality. So 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 Gala 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 although 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's much more abundance in the wild, you know, right? 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 is it gonna change for me? It becomes a territorial thing. So 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, right? 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 why it's very important to try to establish yourself as a flock leader rather than a mate. So I'm gonna show you how. And 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. 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 how you do it. 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 and 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 know, 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 Parrot. Now don't get me wrong, any kind of training with your bird is great training. If you want to train your bird with a clicker, if you want to 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 flock mentality. So what is flock mentality? When you see birds out in the wild, right? You see them in groups, which is flock. Some birds have larger flocks than other birds. When I was in Costa Rica, we were watching the wild macaws. They always seemed to fly with minimum four birds. And it was a really beautiful sight and interesting to see. But birds, they flock together, they fly together, they work together in flight. You see them fly together in V formation so that they can catch each other's updraft. Like birds really 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 because I can't even, 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. And 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 actually trap the rest of the birds. It's really heartbreaking, but it's a great insight into flock mentality. And now blue, the Indian ring neck is flying around after Leo. If Leo gets in any kind of debacle with another bird, blue just flies right down and involves herself. So yeah, it's very, very interesting to watch. So I'm telling you that story because I just want you to understand how birds really work together and they always have an eye on their flock or their flock family. And 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. So 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 leave the room because of that story that I just told you there in lies the mentality, right? So when you have a bird and it's screaming because you left the room, you might want to be anxious or you might want to be upset with the bird. But if you 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. And sometimes cockatoos pluck, not because they were particularly abused, but birds in these environments that we live in, they're really not meant to live with us. It's very hard for them to thrive. So that's how a lot of parents deal with that. They could have been overloved, 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 because they eat together. We kind of have, let's say, like a family meal time. I never should have put on YouTube what a dinner looks like with the birds. Am I not so blind? Yeah. And I try to put things on, like, let's say one plate or two plates where they can kind of all gravitate around the food. And if one bird likes one kind of thing and another bird likes a different thing, I'm gonna put those two different things on the same plate. It just kind of establishes like, oh, there's no threat. There's an abundance of food. 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, you know, 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 flighted bird. We take away boxes because we don't want them to nest because, God forbid, they should lay an egg. But at the same time, the reason it's dangerous for them to lay an egg is because they might get egg bound because they don't have enough strength or calcium because they're not having the right foods or they're not having the right strength and their muscles to fly, right? I try not to take those things away. I try to make them feel like they are part of a flock and I think it really helps with them being quiet and happy and fulfilled. If you hear my birds be loud in a video, usually I'm near the door. I'm about to leave and that's when the bird is going psycho or 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 really comfortable. And when you make them feel comfortable, they'll also feel comfortable with each other and it's extremely important. And 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 totally 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 can see where the relationship is going. I believe that including them in food and yourself as well is establishing that flock leader mentality. It 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. Well, there's a few parts of this trick. First of all, I take my birds to shower with me. Blue's over there. Perfect, Blue. And then Leo's there. And then Nellie knows that she can sit next to Leo. I gotta go get your brother. Cody, go to your spot. Good bird. Why is this so important? It's another thing that establishes flock mentality. Oh, here we are. 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 a rainforest and they just kind of relax and chill. And you could see it with Vinnie 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 or 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 know? 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 works with every single bird. Another part to 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 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, 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 kind of thing. Also a good thing and great for training but what I'm talking about here is a bird being comfortable kind of like if it was equivalent to a human being, this is the on the couch chilling vibe where you're like, oh, he's fine, I'm fine. I'm too tired to do this. And 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 and it's literally worked for all of my birds. If you 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. And 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 kind of is calming to them. Think about it, kind of mimics a rainforest. Other birds are all over, it's no matter. So I really do like to create certain ways for them to kind of feel that homey, rainforesty, flocky vibe. So on that same note, that brings me to something else you could do which I kind of touched upon. Just kind of 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 cocktoos. 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 really 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 you know, 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, shower is 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 gondering the day too long then we will say, okay, no, we have to go home and watch TV with the birds and 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 place and 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. And again, every time you bring a new bird into the situation, each bird has to share in this process though. 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 because 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 because 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, months. You really want them to be safe. And with that being said, you really 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 walk 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 and that's gonna be one of the major ways to keep your birds safe. So 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 instinct and how you handle the birds on every day to day basis. And 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 work too much and you feel like your 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. In fact, probably 80% of the time they don't, they may become good companions and usually it's in the most unexpected forms like Picasso and Jersey or Blue and Leo. You really 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 and now you're gonna owe your second bird everything that you committed to the first bird as well and possibly on separate times. So that's just something to keep in mind. And for those of you who don't live in the United States, I know there's 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 really admire that. But just to clarify, for those of you don't understand what's going on here because I see this in the comments a lot, we're already in a crisis. We have a lot of rescue birds that's almost impossible to find them 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. It's kind of like a crisis. Ideally, it would be amazing if every bird have a friend and that's kind of the reason why it's hard for me too. You know, it was hard for me to do the whole re-homing thing with Nellie and Monty is because I am so scared that they would get separated and it's so important for me that they are together. Obviously I've grown to love them and I feel like they do really 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 and someone would have to be way prepared for them to bite, attack, rip their skin up. Like it's a whole process. The experience people think they have versus the experience that they actually do have and are ready for is just, sometimes you're just not ready to take that chance, you know, 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 really have your bird's 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 in 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 on like the comment section here or videos and really 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 really 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 like basically a thesis when I don't really have all the information and never will because I'm not really there with you analyzing the situation, it's just really hard. So I hope that you guys can find some mentors and people on there that doesn't mean don't email me. It doesn't mean don't share things with me. It just just wanna kinda let you guys know where I am. It's very hard when you are the person that everyone feels like is the answer. I just wanna share with you guys that I read your emails and I want to respond but every email I feel like would take an hour or two back and forth for me and it's much better for me to put that effort into creating more ways for you guys to get information whether that is 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 www.parrotstation.com. Go there and check it out and 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 them 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 without bird stores have access to bird toys. So always check back up at Parrot Station to see what's new because we're always creating new things for you and for your birds. When I grew up, there were no such things for birds. So 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 peanut 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've got it. Also, things for wings in Canada sells our bird food right now. I'm proud to announce and they will ship it 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 birds life better today.