Chi and Rascal

[pinkdevil]

Normally I do not recommend or practice housing 2 different breeds of birds together but Chi (IRN) and Rascal (Sun Conure) are very bonded and the best of friends. They were handraised and grew up together as clutch mates at only a few weeks of age and have been inseparable ever since. They sleep, eat and play together and if I have one out without the other, they call out until they are reunited.

Rascal was injured in the nest at just 2 hours or so old so I removed her to handraise. She stayed as an only child until I began to handraise a couple of IRN chicks and housed together for company.

Rascal seems to have brought out the Conure side in Chi and they actually play together. I have not seen a IRN play with another bird before so was quite intrigued at the behaviour of these 2 together. I had expected to have separated them by now, so far has not been the case.

Here are a few pics of Chi and Rascal.

Bedtime




Even their body language forms a heart shape lol




Playtime. Don't worry, Rascal was not being aggressive or any injury inflicted on Chi. She is quite gentle and if she does get a bit rough, Chi lets her know and she backs off.




Both looking at me instead of the camers....so cute!

[InTheAir]

How sweet! How old are they?

[pinkdevil]

They are approximately 9 months old now.

[InTheAir]

Thanks for sharing the pics, very cute.

[pinkdevil]

I will have to take a few more soon. Don't want them thinking they are no longer photogenic!

[ellieelectrons]

Hi Pink

Thanks for sharing. It will be interesting to see how they go as they mature.

Everything I've ever read indicates that IRNs should not be housed with other bird species and that females should not be housed together. Based on your experiences, do you question that? I'm also wondering if there is anything that could be done with training to encourage birds to like their cage buddies. What do you think?

When we wanted to get a companion for our Janey, I thought my only option was to get a male IRN, so that's what we did. Whilst I wouldn't trade my Charlie for anything, he does add complications because they want to try to breed during breeding season... Last year, whilst Janey was seeking out a nest, I received several nasty bites and she bit a hole through an electrical cable that tripped our safety switch (we were lucky she didn't die!).

So it makes me wonder if female IRNs could cohabitate with another species or another female IRN in an effort to lessen hormonal problems? What do you think?

Ellie.

[ranechild]

Absolutely adorable.
I think the fact they were babies together is why they like each other so much now.

[ellieelectrons]

Possibly. Although, naturally at some point, nest buddies become independent of each other and stop hanging out.

Ellie.

[Skyes_crew]

Skye my IRN and Jewel my sun conure were buddies. Right up until they both inherited their hormones. Now they fight a lot!!! I think as babies they are virtually A-Sexual. But when they come into their sexual hormones they are ruled by a natural need to mate. So naturally they would not want a bird of another species that close to their "nesting" area. Even nest mates of the same species have been shown to fight when they reach sexual maturity. They are driven by their hormones...there is no rational thought process. It's all instinctual. They are cute pics though

[ranechild]

In that case... Enjoy it while it lasts

[Hakaishin]

Even the most stone-cold IRN can't resist a Conure's cuteness-overload.

Makes me curious what it'll be like when Chi gets older. Chi will be the size of 2 Rascals at full maturity. His beak will be the size of Rascal's head. Would be interesting if it continued to adulthood - Chi could be Rascal's riding-dinosaur-bird-thingie. Just hop on his back and away they go. LOL

[Skyes_crew]

I guess I have a large conure lol. Jewels head is about the same size as skyes head. Ringnecks reach their full size skeletally at 10 weeks old. So I think their sizes are nicely matched up

[Hakaishin]

Interesting - I'm certainly no expert and only had an IRN for a few days, but he's 17 weeks and already vastly larger than Kota (green cheek) was at 1.5yrs. Videos and pictures I've seen of fully matured IRNs reaching between 16-17" make up twice the mass of my former conure.

Maybe it's just my warped perception - I'm certain many here have seen the YouTube videos of Bowie (yellow IRN, 4yrs old) - and he's certainly not small. Standing next to his aviary's pineapple green cheek, Bowie is easily the size of 2 of them (from my perception).

Initially, I actually tried to place Kiba (IRN) into the same cage we had for Kota (conure) - it was actually quite spacious for Kota, but for Kiba it became obvious extremely quickly that it was too small and we immediately got ourselves a cage designed for large macaws just to give him plenty of room to play.

I'm still taken aback at how big Kiba's feet are by comparison... Kota would be lucky to wrap her little feet around my pinky. Kiba's feet wrap firmly around my thumb at twice the girth...

[Skyes_crew]

Ahhh that explains it. Green cheeks are the smaller of the conures. Mine is a sun. If kiba is 17 weeks then he is full grown already. They don't grow size wise after 10 weeks of age. The tail continues to lengthen and the beak will mature. The eyes will get their ring and the pupils will become smaller and start to dilate. IRN's are 16" in length but 8" of that is tail.

[pinkdevil]

Rascal will be 1 on September 22 and Chi around the same age. Still best buds. If I have one out and not the other or if Chi flies into another room and Rascal can not see Chi, Rascal calls out, Chi comes back to Rascal. None of my other breeds are housed together, would be an all in war. Chi and Rascal also don't want anything to do with other ringies or sunnies.
I have heard of other different breeds bonding together. One lady had a budgie and GCC together who were 'soul mates' so to speak. I have heard of cockatiels and other breeds living in harmony. I guess it depends on each bird and maybe on how young they were introduced or raised together, as in Rascal and Chi's case. But I keep all my breeds separated (with the exception of these 2).

Ellie:- I have IRNs all paired in separate aviaries but some people house multiple pairs in one large aviary with seemingly no issues or aggression between the birds even during breeding season. Maybe it depends on each bird compatibility, personality, age when introduced, time of year when introduced, personal space etc. I'm not sure but I do not house more than one pair together.
I am not sure if you can actually stop the birds desire to want to breed, only try to control with no partner and breeding box etc to encourage nesting behaviour. Even then some birds will lay eggs on the ground if they really want to. A couple of years ago I had a IRN hen who did not have a partner but did have a nestbox during winter to escape the cold weather and she laid eggs, even though she was the only one in the aviary and had been for over a year.

[pinkdevil]

Rascal and Chi after their version of a bath. This pic was taken end April this year.

[pinkdevil]

I took these pics about an hour ago. Rascal and Chi are still quite bonded at this stage.

[InTheAir]

Aww that is soooo sooo cute!

[ellieelectrons]

Lovely to see. Thanks for the update. I'd love to hear how these to go as they mature

Ellie.

[Skyes_crew]

There's always an exception to any rule and these two are it

It's great to see them still BFF's

[Merciix3]

OMG, these are the cutest I've ever seen.

[Redzone]

Amazing and so cute it hurts! One question, when they call out, do they do it in the same "dialect" if u know what I mean?

[Jen&Bug]

Wow, I thought I had the only bonded IRN/sun conure pair on the forum!

I got Rufus (SC) when Bug (IRN) was six months old. They fought each other at first, so I accessed some professional help from our local bird guru, and they've been living happily in the same cage for the last 4.5 years. Rufus has taught Bug some conure behaviours, like allopreening and snuggling, and the sight of them snuggled up on the perch together is just gorgeous.

They lunge at each other sometimes if one of them 'crosses the line' (especially when Bug is getting hormonal), but I've never seen them actually try to hurt one another. If I leave the room with Rufus, Bug will make sun conure noises until he can see Rufus again, although I'm not sure whether Rufus worries about Bug in the same way.

Based on my experience, it seems possible that your little guys' bond will last into adulthood. It would be great to hear more about it as they get older

[solobaby]

my IRN and green cheek conure are very bonded and have had the same sleep cage since my Green cheek conure was 7 weeks old
they live cage free from 6am until 7 pm and they spend that entire time stuck to each other

[pinkdevil]

Redzone, I have not noticed either of the birds mimicing each other as yet, but it wouldn't surprise me if either of them do eventually.

I've been trying to get a photo of them at bed time sleeping next to each other but everytime I go near their cage, they wake up and move lol.

[Skyes_crew]

My conure Jewel and my IRN Skye mimic my cockatiel Nani. Sometimes it sounds like I have a flock of cockatiels in the bird room lol. And they do it perfectly that you can't really tell the difference.

[pinkdevil]

lol Birds can be very clever at mimicking, especially electronic things. I have been caught out numerous times of the phone 'ringing'.