Using Pair Dynamics to Have Success with Pair Bonded Parrots

Pair bonds are some of the most challenging relationships to work with because you’re working with two birds with two different behaviors, their joint behaviors, and without training cannot be separated without causing stress.

I always say in a pair, there is the nicer one and the protector one. In JoJo (yellow nape amazon) and Ringo’s (orange wing amazon) relationship, Jo is the easy going dude and Ringo is in fight mode all the time. Then you have to ask well why is this bird calmer with me and this one so defensive with me?

Well Jo and I have a multi-year working relationship before Ringo came along. JoJo was heavily neglected and abused and we worked very hard to get over those hurtles. Ringo came in as a very sweet bird to me and others and Jo was already here, but quickly pair bonded with Jo (which was my hope) and because we didn’t have that relationship built up, his lack of confidence came out in the form of aggression.

Understanding the relationship and why it became that way helps you find gaps that provide the reasons to why the birds behave that way and how you can get around it. Ringo gets confidence from JoJo. So when I ask Jo to come out first followed immediately by Ringo, Jo shows that it’s cool with his calm step ups and Ringo follows his boyfriend in a similar manor. This still doesn’t fix Ringo’s lack of confidence, that will be worked on separately, but it can help build positive relationships and experience between the three of us which can build trust overtime. And it has! Ringo used to bite a lot when stepping up and through our training years ago, he will step up on my hand without biting but only if Jo comes first. We are still working on him independently stepping up nicely but independence from the mate has to also be trained... you can see how quickly there is a lot of moving parts.

Bonded pairs aren’t a loss cause and you can have relationships with them. Feel free to contact me if you are wanting to work on the relationship with your bonded pairs.