# Pros and Cons of keeping a brother and sister...



## Sweetcheek (May 21, 2012)

I am currently debating the pros and cons of keeping a brother and sister as pets indoors. Definitely would NOT breed them...

My little girl is determined to keep a specific female out of a clutch we are raising and I am equally enamored of the brother bird. I am having difficulty narrowing down which birds to keep and which to sell. 

Just wanting some advice and tips from others as to whether we can make this work or not, what the difficulties are, what to expect etc? Has anyone got a brother and sister, how do you find it, would you recommend it or avoid it?

Thanks very much in advance.


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## Renae (Feb 9, 2008)

I have a brother and sister (Theo and Charlie) out in the aviary but they have never tried to breed. 

There are thing you can do to prevent it from happening, you can read this article: Egg Laying Females just scroll down until you see Preventing Egg Laying and read from there. Your other option is to keep them in separate cages and let them have (supervised) out of cage time together.


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## AMom2011 (Apr 25, 2012)

I have a brother and sister. They LOVE each other. They are so bonded, it's is amazing. 
They are like mirror birds, lol they do everything and anything TOGETHER.

they are so much fun to watch, and to have around, and I'm so glad that I decided to get them both. They do the craziest things TOGETHER, one jumps of the play gym, the other one does. ONE flaps the wings like crazy, the other one does. One calls for me, they both do!!! soo funny. 

oh the excitement in my home, lol all the 'calls' whenever they see me  

I am already practicing the 'long nights' and cover them up from 8.30pm to 8 am. It's not 14 hours, but oh well.... I need some 'tiel time' with them alone when my babies are in bed, and usually from 6-8.30 it's THEIR time. 

I hold them together, I hold them individually, I practice step up with them, correct them if they get 'stubborn' teach them to not go after my ears/glasses I wistle to them, and let them play on the gym or on me. I must say, since we had them, my whole family got involved, and everybody plays with them, or carries them around.

even my 18 year old daughter who was totally scared of them, lol NOW, she offered to 'baby sit' them the other night, when I had to go to a meeting, and felt guilty for not letting them out of their cage. (the meeting was at night time, when they usually come out).

IF they should start mating..... oh well. I know now what to do 'in case' and as others in here have said, just because they mate doesn't mean the lay eggs.... and even if they do... I just 'shake them up' and let them have the eggs until they are not interested in them anymore. 

having them BOTH was absolutely the right decision for US and for THEM.


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

The tightest pair bond in my house is between Teela and Squeebis, who are brother and sister from the same clutch. I spend about half the year playing hormone police, because they will mate and Teela will lay eggs whether she has a nestbox or not. Last year I lost control of the hormones when I was out of town for a few days and couldn't enforce the long nights. Teela wouldn't stop laying eggs so I had to give her a nestbox and some fake eggs to sit on to make her stop.

This may or may not happen to you if you keep a brother and sister. It's OK to keep them as long as you know the risks and are prepared to deal with incest issues, and will prevent them from actually producing babies.

Henry (their brother) is passionately in love with his mother, who doesn't return his feelings and stays faithful to her mate (the father). There's more than one way to have incest problems when you keep related birds.


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

My father-in-law has this issue. He let his birds breed (they were unrelated) and kept all the babies that made it (there were some escapes). There is a brother-sister pair that is absolutely in love with each other, the males are separated from the females but they will sit next to the divider to sit next to each other. There are ways to prevent babies without having to separate the pair. 



> Henry (their brother) is passionately in love with his mother, who doesn't return his feelings and stays faithful to her mate (the father). There's more than one way to have incest problems when you keep related birds.


One of my father-in-law's males is in love with his grandmother and since her mate died several years ago, she has been very close with him. I've never seen them mate but they go everywhere together. Recently, her daughter passed away from night fright complications and now the daughter's mate has been singing to his OWN daughter. Its quite a show lol.


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