Does my little guy need a buddy?

[Jtomalley]

I apologize for the super long post…

My husband and I have a very sweet and very timid male black-masked lovebird, we’ve had him for about 6 years. He was rescued out of a German shepherd’s mouth in Pacoima, California, and the lady that found him put a post on Facebook because she had him in a cage on her refrigerator, but her 3 big dogs kept barking at him and terrorizing him, and she said he wouldn't have a good life like that. I answered her and picked him up the same day.

Our vet thinks perhaps he may have been injured when the dog caught him in the lady’s yard, because he seems to have a possible eyesight problem on one side.

My question is that in six years, despite daily interactions and attempts to get him socialized, he is absolutely terrified of us. (To be honest, I’d probably be pretty scared if I spent any time inside a dog, too). We don’t try to force him, and we leave his flight cage open in case he wants to come out and fly on his own, but he spends most of his time hiding behind toys when we’re in the room.

We have another rescue lovebird in a separate cage because she’s a fairly aggressive peach faced lovebird, and she intimidates him and is very territorial and will bite him if we don’t watch her closely. She is more social and comes out for play and is learning flight recall, although she does bite us and it’s taken her a long time to get to the point where we can handle her. She was roughly handled before she came to us, she was a breeder bird and was terrified of hands for many months, but she’s getting better at trusting people.

My question is would our black-masked lovebird have a better life if we got him a little boy buddy? Perhaps another male black-masked or a blue-masked lovebird of a similar size and temperament? He just seems very sad and lonely, but as he’s too afraid to be with us, I just want Houdini to have a better quality of life. I love him dearly, but I’d rather have him at least get the chance to have a preen and playmate as he may never feel comfortable interacting with humans, and I thought maybe a little bro-friend might ease him out of his shell enough that he’d feel okay hanging out on a play stand outside his cage (after a quarantine period as well as several weeks of acclimation in separate cages to make sure they are compatible and would get along).

We have a third large flight cage if they don’t get along well enough to live together, and we would be prepared to give a third birdie a happy life with healthy foods and lots of enrichment even if they couldn’t be in the same cage together.

Do you think it’s been too long for our little boy to have a friend?

[linda040899]

Kudos to you for being willing to take in Houdini and trying to give him a better life than the one he came from. Thanks for caring!

Masked Lovebirds are, by nature, very shy and timid. This is their personality. Many can make great pets but some are so damaged they just don't want to interact. I think the idea of another male Masked buddy for him is a great idea. As long as you know you have a male and the bird is laid back/not aggressive, it will probably work out very well. Since he chooses not to interact with you, a companion will give him what he needs most. Please let me know how this works out for you.