Clearly the alpha bird

[tweetiepiesmom]

I'm continuing to work with Buddy and Tweetie Pie, using millet to get them to come to me. When I hold up my arm now, they may come and sit for a few seconds whether I've got millet or not. When I have millet, Buddy is the first one on my hand. Tweetie Pie comes next and stands beside Buddy. Buddy will usually position himself to make it difficult for Tweetie Pie to get at the millet. He'll nip at Tweetie Pie and Tweetie Pie will fly off but then come back. Sometimes Tweetie Pie will get a few seeds before Buddy chases him off. If I put Buddy off my hand, Tweetie Pie will fly on and eat the millet but he's got one eye on Buddy. If Buddy flies in to get the millet, Tweetie Pie flies away. Poor little Tweetie Pie doesn't seem to get his share of millet! Its funny because Tweetie Pie is noticeably larger than Buddy!

[willowsmum]

Another lovely pic tweetiepiesmom. It's funny how the characters of each of our buds can be so different

[jellybean]

I've got a situation similar to yours.... SAM, he's always got to be top bird, and Ben is the bigger bird too, but on the whole they get along.

[tweetiepiesmom]

Yes jellybean, my two are great pals, too. Right now Tweetie Pie has some new pinnies on his head and he'll sidle up next to Buddy and bend his head down. Buddy is quite obliging and will preen Tweetie Pie's head. Its quite precious! I guess when it comes to treats its each bird for himself! Occasionally one will take a nip at the other but it never amounts to more than that.

[reenie]

I've just been asking about a similar situation in another thread. Wee Kevin is only about 15 weeks old or so, but he's definitely the boss of the much bigger Stuart.... Even though he totally depends on Stuart to confirm things are safe.... Like the floor, or the shower, going in the kitchen etc. Funny wee things aren't they.

[elysianblight]

Do you ever have one jump ON the other?
When I first got them, Cypress was my brave friendly boy and Citrine was much smarter (sorry Cypress) but wary. Cypress will let me rub his head a bit when he's eating but Citrine refuses to be touched, and usually only comes over if Cypress is already over.

On the other hand, if Citrine and I DO get some bonding time going.. Cypress will inevitably interrupt by launching himself at us and landing right on Citrine's back. Citrine obviously squeals and thrashes away, and then comes back when he knows Cypress is distracted by food and sidles his way in. Ruins the moment though!

[tweetiepiesmom]

I had Tweetie Pie first and brought Buddy home 4 months later. Buddy is also about 4 months younger than Tweetie Pie. After I put them together, I saw Tweetie Pie lift his leg over onto Buddy's back. Buddy let him know pretty quickly that it was unacceptable behavior and I've never seen him do it again.

[Marianne Marlow]

It's funny how often the smaller birds are the dominant ones.

My Monty was half the size of Roswell(show bird) and he used to push him about.

[reenie]

Jul 8, 2020 0:18:00 GMT elysianblight said:

Do you ever have one jump ON the other?
When I first got them, Cypress was my brave friendly boy and Citrine was much smarter (sorry Cypress) but wary. Cypress will let me rub his head a bit when he's eating but Citrine refuses to be touched, and usually only comes over if Cypress is already over.

On the other hand, if Citrine and I DO get some bonding time going.. Cypress will inevitably interrupt by launching himself at us and landing right on Citrine's back. Citrine obviously squeals and thrashes away, and then comes back when he knows Cypress is distracted by food and sidles his way in. Ruins the moment though!

Yes, Kevin has done exactly that to Stuart a couple of times but it's not a regular thing.

[elysianblight]

Jul 8, 2020 16:44:22 GMT reenie said:

Yes, Kevin has done exactly that to Stuart a couple of times but it's not a regular thing.

Yeah Cypress is a total brat!  
He has always been my tamer one, and it used to be that Citrine would not come out of the cage unless Cypress was out. So I would hold them each in a different hand with a sprig of millet between my fingers. Unfortunately this made it easy for one to steal the other's treat if they finished theirs faster or pulled it out of my fingers and dropped it. 
So I guess they learned "every man for himself" early on, even though I tried to discourage it. 

Now Citrine is getting a lot more friendly with me and I think Cypress might be a touch jealous of us both, so he's started doing this. 

[samwiseg]

You are so right Marianne Marlow I think that is the case in the animal world full stop - if you ever see the difference in behaviour with a shire horse and a shetland pony its unbelievable?!

The little shetlands are SO BOISTROUS!

[Hezz]

Jul 9, 2020 10:26:57 GMT samwiseg said:

You are so right Marianne Marlow I think that is the case in the animal world full stop - if you ever see the difference in behaviour with a shire horse and a shetland pony its unbelievable?!

The little shetlands are SO BOISTROUS!

I would have used a different word to describe any shetland that I've come across, and not a very nice one.

[samwiseg]

Totally agree Hezz, but I cant say that on here!!!

[reenie]

Jul 9, 2020 20:21:45 GMT Hezz said:

Jul 9, 2020 10:26:57 GMT samwiseg said:

You are so right Marianne Marlow I think that is the case in the animal world full stop - if you ever see the difference in behaviour with a shire horse and a shetland pony its unbelievable?!

The little shetlands are SO BOISTROUS!

I would have used a different word to describe any shetland that I've come across, and not a very nice one.

Haha. I used to help out at an animal sanctuary and I loved the shetlands. There was one whose name was Chicco... I always called him Rocko because he was, well, feisty I suppose is the polite word.