Macaws and cockatoos?
I was watching cute parrot videos on Youtube with my fiance, and we ended up with a debate. You see, my fiance's dream bird is a blue and gold macaw. While I wouldn't mind keeping a large macaw, my dream bird list includes instead a large cockatoo, such as an umbrella or Moluccan. We know we won't be able to have any large bird for quite some time -- our parrot resources are currently limited to our mini-macaw and budgies -- so this is still in the purely hypothetical stages.
The question is whether a large macaw and a large cockatoo would get along.
We're not talking about sharing a cage, but interacting during play. I think it would depend on the individual personalities of the birds -- a more reserved than average cockatoo and a more playful than average macaw -- but that ultimately they'd be similarly sized and able to work out their differences and arrive at some kind of understanding without killing each other. My fiance thinks that the trends in behavior would strongly work against this arrangement and the macaw would very much dislike a cockatoo as a companion. He thinks the only appropriate companion for a blue and gold is another large macaw, like a scarlet or greenwing. I'll admit that's a more ideal arrangement, but I don't think that means a cockatoo couldn't work.
Does anyone have practical experience with an arrangement involving a macaw and a cockatoo interacting? How did it go?
My fiance was also surprised to hear me say that I'd want a large cockatoo and not a Goffin's. "I thought they were the clever ones," he said. "All cockatoos are clever," I said, "but Goffin's come across to me as distinctly sociopathic." "You also want an African grey," he said; "are you going to tell me that they don't have sociopathic tendencies?" "It's like the difference between Holmes and Moriarty," I said. "Holmes was addicted to cocaine and regularly shot holes in the walls of his apartment," my fiance reminded me. So let me amend my statement here: Goffin's = Moriarty, umbrellas = Sherlock, African greys = Mycroft. All of them are geniuses, but Moriarty deliberately sets out to make trouble, Sherlock doesn't so much mean to make trouble as he can't be bothered to not make trouble, and Mycroft just doesn't see the point of leaving his club when he can arrange everything he wants to be brought to him.
The question is whether a large macaw and a large cockatoo would get along.
We're not talking about sharing a cage, but interacting during play. I think it would depend on the individual personalities of the birds -- a more reserved than average cockatoo and a more playful than average macaw -- but that ultimately they'd be similarly sized and able to work out their differences and arrive at some kind of understanding without killing each other. My fiance thinks that the trends in behavior would strongly work against this arrangement and the macaw would very much dislike a cockatoo as a companion. He thinks the only appropriate companion for a blue and gold is another large macaw, like a scarlet or greenwing. I'll admit that's a more ideal arrangement, but I don't think that means a cockatoo couldn't work.
Does anyone have practical experience with an arrangement involving a macaw and a cockatoo interacting? How did it go?
My fiance was also surprised to hear me say that I'd want a large cockatoo and not a Goffin's. "I thought they were the clever ones," he said. "All cockatoos are clever," I said, "but Goffin's come across to me as distinctly sociopathic." "You also want an African grey," he said; "are you going to tell me that they don't have sociopathic tendencies?" "It's like the difference between Holmes and Moriarty," I said. "Holmes was addicted to cocaine and regularly shot holes in the walls of his apartment," my fiance reminded me. So let me amend my statement here: Goffin's = Moriarty, umbrellas = Sherlock, African greys = Mycroft. All of them are geniuses, but Moriarty deliberately sets out to make trouble, Sherlock doesn't so much mean to make trouble as he can't be bothered to not make trouble, and Mycroft just doesn't see the point of leaving his club when he can arrange everything he wants to be brought to him.