Changing Friendships

Well it’s been several months now since I put Rocky and Bluey together in one cage and the change in the behaviour of both birds has been quite apparent. The first few weeks were tumultuous, with Rocky trying desperately to impress Bluey, but she wasn’t having any of it and suppressed most of his advances with a swift peck!

Now though, both birds seem quite happy in the company of each other and there is much friendly gesturing between them, with only the occasional sharp peck from either bird if there is some jealousy over a piece of food, or me making a fuss of one without the other. My initial fears never materialised, and I should never have worried about putting them in together, in fact I just wish I had done this sooner.

There is a downside to all this though. The main difference is in the attitude of the birds towards me. Where Bluey at one time would mostly flee in my presence, she still does on occasion, but sometimes she is quite curious and will come towards me, and often does the wing lifting and standing on one leg, which is usually a sign of acceptance and often given when receiving praise. Rocky on the other hand has decided that he likes his new found friend more than me, or so it would seem at times. At one time he would always come out of the cage if I had some fruit or raw vegetable pieces. He would also come out of the cage on an almost daily basis and have a fly around. But now he just doesn’t seem interested and appears content to stay in the cage with Bluey. The only time he will eagerly leave his cage now, is when it is bath time – usually once per week, where I splash him from the tap with tepid water, and he loves it!

Of course, this means that I don’t have to spend so much time keeping either bird amused like I used to have to when they had separate cages, as they make their own entertainment between them. So I suppose it is good in a way that they each have another bird to interact with, but for me, it’s a little bit like your best friend has put you on the back burner. But both Rocky and Bluey still answer my whistles, and Rocky will still talk away to me albeit from behind the cage bars.

I still love having them both around though, despite the mess they sometimes make – it is not unusual to find a seed husk in your tea for instance, and you can wonder how the heck it got there!

So all in all, things have changed, some for better, some for not, but I would not be without them.