Considering bird ownership - questions

[Laurasea]

Its just my opinion on the white, but I have 7 birds, and I do observations. Birds do have a preference for well lit. If you can stick your head in a cage and look out of a white one and a black one there is a big difference i thought.

My quakers are full grown , mine run 107-125 grams. I love them. I do think you can consider one.

The thing is as a species they like to make noise, while the volume isn't as loud as a sun, not going to cause ear damage, but loud enough to drown out everything. They enjoy being vocal. If you can turn that to talking its a lot easier to take, most will learn a few words to a lot if words.

Quakers are very intelligent, social and active, and do like cuddling. Mine are very aware if bite pressure , so they don't bite hard but they will beak grab you, beak bang , beak scrape and beak communicate .

Quakers do not do well left in cage all day, while people work , or left in the cage while you are home. The first thing most do is turn to screaming , and they are happy to scream 8hrs straight without taking a single break. So they are rehomed by the hundreds . They also will quickly turn to feather destruction, and self mutilation if their needs are met. All 3 of mine were problem birds I took in.
One from a college student, Quakers are not dorm room parrots, one was neglected and was plucking and mutilation of feet, my newest was being sold at a pet store, and screamed 100% of the time and had started to over preen, after seeing her for months I decided to "save" her in fact the day I got the money I walked into a store meeting and they were letting staff know they sending her back. Thank goodness I was in time! She was hands down tge most difficult parrot to break from screaming!!! I nearly lost my mind with her screaming from sun up to sun down!!
We got past that , and now things are pretty darn good.

That being said , in a home where they are part of the family , where they don't spend a majority of the day caged , given stuff to do, abd a decent amount of contact time, cuddle. An utterly fantastic parrot. And likely to do well with interacting with everyone. They live in huge colonies in the wild, and are very social.

I dislike promoting them, because they are seriously not going to do well as an only parrot left in a cage for a working person. They are more like a cockatoo, incredibly intelligent, and social . So like a cockatoo they will turn to plucking and screaming and get passed around. ( there are some that do fine as sole burd left alone all day, but as a species no) they aren't for the most part going to make it to a parrot rescues, they are cheap, readiky available, people who get them are often first time parrot owners . When things go south the sell them on Craigslist, shove them outside or into a garage. I wish I could save more.

But I think what you described as your lifestyle, yes I think yiu could love them as much as I do.

Nearly all will be cage aggressive as adults. You can't stick fingers in cage, you nearly always have to have them come out if cage fir changing water and food and stuff. Mine are all cage protective and scream abd attack if I put my hands in. Once out of the cage , sweetheart!!
if you decide they would be the species for you, do look for a home breeder even on Craigslist , because they will be raised as part of family. I'm all for rescue or rehomes on there too. But you have to have a solid parrot understanding to get them over any issues like screaming, and if misunderstood and have become aggressive. They are a species thst can be rehabilitated from aggressive behavior or loss of tame. You can help them stop mutilation, but if plucking will likely pluck for life. Nothing wrong with a plucker they are still going to give love and be happy and wonderful company, just thst you have to accept they will be having skin showing.

 

[imouse1]

Thank you!

I use all cast iron except for my stainless steel kettle and stock pot. I've actually been wondering about the cast iron - all the bird books recommend the stainless so we might need to change over completely.

The one thing I am trying to research which is hard to word correctly on google is that my kid uses an inhaler for her asthma. It's not one of the ones with a nebulizer, but I'd still like to know how much it might affect the bird.

I actually started taking my kid around the bird stores jokingly/not jokingly "to experience getting bitten." I spent a lot of time around the bigger birds as a teen, so I find the smaller birds can't pack quite the same punch, but I figured if the kid was going to become fearful after the first bite, we should find that out now. There was a baby conure at the first place that was very happy to oblige, and my kid's ear was purple for a week! But the whole baby temperament vs adult is one of the main reasons we're looking at getting a rescue no matter the species.

Depending on what your cast iron has been seasoned with, it should be fine. As long as it isn't aersolizing large amounts of grease you'll be okay. I mean, you'd have had to jump through some seasoning hoops but

I got Gregg (AKA the Sir) because he is quite awesome. He's a GCC and we managed to bond through glass at a pet store when I wasn't even looking for a pet, much less a bird. He. Is. Awesome.

Some unexpected things:

1) They bite because they do and don't know it hurts. Like, they are using it to send a message when they're trying to get you out of the cage or "Stop touching me, woman--I gotta CLIMB!" They also bite because they're trying to get rid of things they don't know belongs there, like freckles. Or because they're trying to climb up on your hand and they're trying to stabilize you. Or because you taste like grapes and that fleshy finger should be grapes. Or because they've had too much sugar and their brain gets aggressive. Or because you messed with their bell toy and they're being protective of it. Or because you're trying to play with them. That kind of thing. BUT the more trust they get with you, the less hard they'll bite because they know you're not bring malicious or going to disappear out from underneath them.

2) Gregg easily spends at least half of his time upside-down in the cage--eating, drinking, playing, tryna figure out what you're doing, try a get you to let them out... They're canopy-dwellers and they know it.

3) They don't like loud sounds but the moment they realize you will respond to the flock call, they'll flock call you. And ring the h### out of their bell toys. Don't mess with their bell toys lol

4) They're not massive fans of change and one way they will let you know that is biting you. Only change one thing a day if you can, and that change could be cleaning out the cage.

5) Bells, brah. Bells on your perch. Bells on your playground. Bells on your toys. Bells on your beBells. They want it. They know you got it. Bells.

6) They love to cuddle. They love to climb. They love to eat. They love tricks. They do things in 10-15 minute bursts so training and cuddles is possible, and training is as easy as they are stubborn. Cats with the tweets, dogs with the treats lul.

IDK if that helps.

 

[Newfie-N-Tx]

Hello Gardwyn,
It’s awesome your daughter has an interest in birds. My son is also 10 and sounds just like your daughter!

I never had thought about having birds before until my son started showing interest and proved himself able nursing a baby dove that was found on our patio during a hurricane next to her dead family. He says all the time he’s going to be a avian vet when he grows up. I didn’t think it was more than a dream, like we all have as kids. Not until one of our budgies had a cut and I was too freaked out over the sight of blood to react, knowing the wait is long for the avian vet in area but my son calmly went over got the avian styptic powder applied it and stopped the bleeding.

He has been surprisingly mature with them. I help him with most things especially when it came to hand feeding two of them we got as babies from a breeder. I spend time each day with all of them training. As good as he is about it, he can’t do it all himself. On weekends we move all our birds temporarily in smaller cages so we can do deep cage cleanings. That we all take part of as a family. Even our youngest son that turned 4 this week helps out with the cleaning. Pretending he’s a zookeeper.

We started with a budgie and now we have two budgies, two cockatiels and a double yellow headed Amazon. I am just as obsessed with birds as he is. Our birds are all members of the family and we treat them as such.

One thing is that whatever bird you get may bond unexpectedly to someone else in the house. You can’t control it. We have one cockatiel my parents got for our son for his 8th birthday that only lets my husband touch him! I came home one day to find my husband who has service related PTSD, holding this little bird with tears rolling down his face and a huge grin, saying that he felt overcome with joy he couldn’t understand. I do believe having birds seems to have helped him with it.

I understand your concerns about having birds completely because we have a 4 year old, and I was worried about having an Amazon in the house, and would not have were he not already used to birds. If either of our sons had different personalities I would not have brought birds into our home. Let alone a bird with a reputation for aggression like an Amazon parrot. I think age is a good starting point to look at with kids and choosing a type of pet in general but it depends on the child as well. Some kids might be overly excited or want to treat it like a dog or cat. We have an 11 year old niece that came down for a weekend visit and I had to get upset with her because she kept taking my tame cockatiel out of the cage, when this bird needed downtime, to not trigger her hormones for egg laying. She didn’t seem to want to listen or understand that this cockatiel that she last saw as a baby was now an adult and cannot be handled the same way as a baby with touching places on her body. Besides the risk of getting bitten. (Though I kind of hoped she would, to teach a lesson). I was out of my mind that weekend. I realized then that age matters less than the child.

I think the species itself is hard to go by on choosing what bird is right for you since birds are a bit like people in how each has their own personality that may not be what you expect from the species, and it can change as they age. Of all our birds the two that show the most aggressive behaviors are the cockatiels. That said neither of them has bit anyone but they do hiss and puff up and will lunge if you do something they don’t like when they don’t like it. Our female tiel actually makes me think about cats how one minute they are happy to have you rub their head then the next they are latched onto your hand with nails and teeth dig in. She doesn’t actually bite but, will lunge and press her beak against your hand as a warning, and she can go from calm to bird “Karen” in under a second. That’s just her personality and I actually love that about her. We also don’t force contact with any of our birds. I think that’s something a lot of people don’t understand when getting birds, even more so with children. Everything has to be at their own pace even if it takes forever. Our first budgie isn’t scared of us but won’t come over to us either. We’ve accepted he may never come over to us to touch him and that’s okay.

Our Amazon had his first major molt and became insanely cuddly lowering his head for head scratches. I thought when he molted he would be a terror as people describe. I even bought falconer gloves to be ready, but he’s the opposite. I expect eventually when he hits “bird puberty” that we will need them, but so far at 8 months he’s never been aggressive. I feel kind of guilty for having assumptions about him because of the reputation. Still I’d never leave him alone with the kids but he’s not what I thought.

I’m telling you all this because choosing the type of bird you do it’s hard to know exactly what one will be like until you’ve had it in your home for awhile. Age, hormones and such can also effect how they are. Some have reputations for some behaviors but there’s always an exception and things can influence it. If you have the opportunity to take your daughter to a place where she can spend time with a few and see what one chooses her that might be good. We went to a breeder for two of our birds and let the birds choose us. I really wanted a lemon yellow cockatiel but a red eyed albino(white faced lutino) tiel ended up hopping on me and did not want to get off and now she’s my girl Ghost! Bossy as she is she chose us. Our Amazon was in with two baby scarlet macaws, but he was the one that had shown interest in us, eager to have us hold him (even if he was too young to walk much) We weren’t sure what kind of parrot we were going to get that day. I’m glad we brought him home even if I was kind of nervous about it. We never laughed so much as we have had the last few months with all the stuff he says.

Cockatiels are a great choice for a first bird as are budgies. I don’t really know much about any other kinds mentioned from personal experience. I find Cockatiels are more laidback, and very loyal, but love to just sit and cuddle. They also can live a long time. I know they say 15 to 20 years but I know someone who had a cockatiel she inherited from her mother that lived to be 34. So if you go with a cockatiel you may end up with it when your daughter is older. That’s something to consider. Budgies seem to have more energy and are very entertaining to watch. Ours play all day long.

Whatever bird you go with will not just be your daughters but everyone in the house. Who know you might end up loving it as much as she does! That’s what happened with us. Haha I didn’t expect to grow up and be a full blown crazy bird lady!

Good luck!

 

[Gardwyn]

Its just my opinion on the white, but I have 7 birds, and I do observations. Birds do have a preference for well lit. If you can stick your head in a cage and look out of a white one and a black one there is a big difference i thought.

My quakers are full grown , mine run 107-125 grams. I love them. I do think you can consider one.

The thing is as a species they like to make noise, while the volume isn't as loud as a sun, not going to cause ear damage, but loud enough to drown out everything. They enjoy being vocal. If you can turn that to talking its a lot easier to take, most will learn a few words to a lot if words.

Quakers are very intelligent, social and active, and do like cuddling. Mine are very aware if bite pressure , so they don't bite hard but they will beak grab you, beak bang , beak scrape and beak communicate .

Quakers do not do well left in cage all day, while people work , or left in the cage while you are home. The first thing most do is turn to screaming , and they are happy to scream 8hrs straight without taking a single break. So they are rehomed by the hundreds . They also will quickly turn to feather destruction, and self mutilation if their needs are met. All 3 of mine were problem birds I took in.
One from a college student, Quakers are not dorm room parrots, one was neglected and was plucking and mutilation of feet, my newest was being sold at a pet store, and screamed 100% of the time and had started to over preen, after seeing her for months I decided to "save" her in fact the day I got the money I walked into a store meeting and they were letting staff know they sending her back. Thank goodness I was in time! She was hands down tge most difficult parrot to break from screaming!!! I nearly lost my mind with her screaming from sun up to sun down!!
We got past that , and now things are pretty darn good.

That being said , in a home where they are part of the family , where they don't spend a majority of the day caged , given stuff to do, abd a decent amount of contact time, cuddle. An utterly fantastic parrot. And likely to do well with interacting with everyone. They live in huge colonies in the wild, and are very social.

I dislike promoting them, because they are seriously not going to do well as an only parrot left in a cage for a working person. They are more like a cockatoo, incredibly intelligent, and social . So like a cockatoo they will turn to plucking and screaming and get passed around. ( there are some that do fine as sole burd left alone all day, but as a species no) they aren't for the most part going to make it to a parrot rescues, they are cheap, readiky available, people who get them are often first time parrot owners . When things go south the sell them on Craigslist, shove them outside or into a garage. I wish I could save more.

But I think what you described as your lifestyle, yes I think yiu could love them as much as I do.

Nearly all will be cage aggressive as adults. You can't stick fingers in cage, you nearly always have to have them come out if cage fir changing water and food and stuff. Mine are all cage protective and scream abd attack if I put my hands in. Once out of the cage , sweetheart!!
if you decide they would be the species for you, do look for a home breeder even on Craigslist , because they will be raised as part of family. I'm all for rescue or rehomes on there too. But you have to have a solid parrot understanding to get them over any issues like screaming, and if misunderstood and have become aggressive. They are a species thst can be rehabilitated from aggressive behavior or loss of tame. You can help them stop mutilation, but if plucking will likely pluck for life. Nothing wrong with a plucker they are still going to give love and be happy and wonderful company, just thst you have to accept they will be having skin showing.

my 3 girls. Took year or two for them to gell as a flock. Though I could have them out together abd behave before they become buddies. Top is Phoebe pet store girl, middle is Penny she was caked in poop with matted feathers and bloody feet, and Plucking, still plucks her neck, when I got her in a cage not even big enough for her to stand up straight, spent so many years like thst she still never stands up straight, abd Pikachu on bottom from a wonderful college student who knew he had to give her up View attachment 31707

Oh my goodness, your three quakers are just adorable fluff balls, aren’t they?

I wonder if the “babies” we saw were all that young then – they were certainly around the size of yours, but didn’t seem able to fly yet which is why I assumed they’d grow into a good sized bird. Honestly, I thought I knew a decent bit about parrots, but I’m changing that to knowing a decent bit about Amazons, macaws, and cockatiels, since every place we’ve gone has had at least one kind of parrot I’ve never heard of before!

It sounds like the general quaker temperament might work for us. I don’t mind them being territorial of the cage – I don’t even really mind biting as long as we don’t need stitches regularly. I worked with a rescue macaw for a while that was a master of being very sweet for days and then striking out with zero warning. Both the lady who’d gotten him and I will take some of those scars to our grave. We worked out over time that he was reacting to the sound of a diesel engine – go figure!

Your comments about screaming do concern me a little though. I’ve always assumed that most parrots need a reason to start screaming (I’m talking about the constant, day in day out kind, not flock calls or an angry outburst) but that once it’s started, some birds do it because they enjoy it. And frankly, I’m wondering if a bird that’s prone to screaming would pick it up from the kids. Since we own our own house, we’ve never bothered to make the kids be particularly quiet. Now, the kids’ noise is always very happy. They don’t fight or scream at each other or anything. But there’s a fair bit of yelling and loud laughter. They were playing with Lego earlier, but they’re reenacting Star Wars with it, so there’s was a ton of “pew, pew” “hold that door!” and so on.

We’ve also got a dog that barks a lot – she’s a guarding breed and will never accept that the mailman, garbage trucks, and the neighbor with his lawn mower aren’t a threat. And again, we’ve never tried to stop that behavior. We wanted a dog for added security and picked out a breed we knew would bark. We’ll tell her it’s all right, and she can stand down, but otherwise, she’s doing her “job.”

So I’m worried that a bird like a quaker might start screaming just to be part of the general mayhem. Again, can’t really fault the bird if that’s in its nature. And I’m aware there are outliers in any species, and we might just be a household that has a bird that thinks screaming = playing with the people no matter the breed. And we won’t give up a bird just because it’s really loud. But I’d like to try and avoid it if we can.

So I guess, all that to say, do you think quakers would try to match the noise around them, or would they be happy as long as they were in the middle of the noise, being an out and active part of it?

 

[Gardwyn]

Depending on what your cast iron has been seasoned with, it should be fine. As long as it isn't aersolizing large amounts of grease you'll be okay. I mean, you'd have had to jump through some seasoning hoops but

I got Gregg (AKA the Sir) because he is quite awesome. He's a GCC and we managed to bond through glass at a pet store when I wasn't even looking for a pet, much less a bird. He. Is. Awesome.

Some unexpected things:

1) They bite because they do and don't know it hurts. Like, they are using it to send a message when they're trying to get you out of the cage or "Stop touching me, woman--I gotta CLIMB!" They also bite because they're trying to get rid of things they don't know belongs there, like freckles. Or because they're trying to climb up on your hand and they're trying to stabilize you. Or because you taste like grapes and that fleshy finger should be grapes. Or because they've had too much sugar and their brain gets aggressive. Or because you messed with their bell toy and they're being protective of it. Or because you're trying to play with them. That kind of thing. BUT the more trust they get with you, the less hard they'll bite because they know you're not bring malicious or going to disappear out from underneath them.

2) Gregg easily spends at least half of his time upside-down in the cage--eating, drinking, playing, tryna figure out what you're doing, try a get you to let them out... They're canopy-dwellers and they know it.

3) They don't like loud sounds but the moment they realize you will respond to the flock call, they'll flock call you. And ring the h### out of their bell toys. Don't mess with their bell toys lol

4) They're not massive fans of change and one way they will let you know that is biting you. Only change one thing a day if you can, and that change could be cleaning out the cage.

5) Bells, brah. Bells on your perch. Bells on your playground. Bells on your toys. Bells on your beBells. They want it. They know you got it. Bells.

6) They love to cuddle. They love to climb. They love to eat. They love tricks. They do things in 10-15 minute bursts so training and cuddles is possible, and training is as easy as they are stubborn. Cats with the tweets, dogs with the treats lul.

IDK if that helps.

I’ll start working on that with the cast iron then! I season mine by brushing on oil, but I have a newish pan we haven’t used much yet, and who knows how the factory seasons things.

Wonderful details on owning a conure – thank you!

One thing we’ve considered if we get a bird that likes climbing is turning the ceiling in a room into a jungle gym type place – sea grass nets, hanging perches and swings, that sort of thing. Sort of a ninja line with something always in easy reach to move to. Do you think a conure would benefit from/enjoy something of that nature?

You said your conure doesn’t like loud sounds. As I detailed for Laurasea in my previous reply, we are NOT a quiet household. There’s not a ton of shrill, harsh sounds, but there’s a lot of noise. Do you think that would bother a conure?

 

[Gardwyn]

Hello Gardwyn,
It’s awesome your daughter has an interest in birds. My son is also 10 and sounds just like your daughter!

I never had thought about having birds before until my son started showing interest and proved himself able nursing a baby dove that was found on our patio during a hurricane next to her dead family. He says all the time he’s going to be a avian vet when he grows up. I didn’t think it was more than a dream, like we all have as kids. Not until one of our budgies had a cut and I was too freaked out over the sight of blood to react, knowing the wait is long for the avian vet in area but my son calmly went over got the avian styptic powder applied it and stopped the bleeding.

He has been surprisingly mature with them. I help him with most things especially when it came to hand feeding two of them we got as babies from a breeder. I spend time each day with all of them training. As good as he is about it, he can’t do it all himself. On weekends we move all our birds temporarily in smaller cages so we can do deep cage cleanings. That we all take part of as a family. Even our youngest son that turned 4 this week helps out with the cleaning. Pretending he’s a zookeeper.

We started with a budgie and now we have two budgies, two cockatiels and a double yellow headed Amazon. I am just as obsessed with birds as he is. Our birds are all members of the family and we treat them as such.

One thing is that whatever bird you get may bond unexpectedly to someone else in the house. You can’t control it. We have one cockatiel my parents got for our son for his 8th birthday that only lets my husband touch him! I came home one day to find my husband who has service related PTSD, holding this little bird with tears rolling down his face and a huge grin, saying that he felt overcome with joy he couldn’t understand. I do believe having birds seems to have helped him with it.

I understand your concerns about having birds completely because we have a 4 year old, and I was worried about having an Amazon in the house, and would not have were he not already used to birds. If either of our sons had different personalities I would not have brought birds into our home. Let alone a bird with a reputation for aggression like an Amazon parrot. I think age is a good starting point to look at with kids and choosing a type of pet in general but it depends on the child as well. Some kids might be overly excited or want to treat it like a dog or cat. We have an 11 year old niece that came down for a weekend visit and I had to get upset with her because she kept taking my tame cockatiel out of the cage, when this bird needed downtime, to not trigger her hormones for egg laying. She didn’t seem to want to listen or understand that this cockatiel that she last saw as a baby was now an adult and cannot be handled the same way as a baby with touching places on her body. Besides the risk of getting bitten. (Though I kind of hoped she would, to teach a lesson). I was out of my mind that weekend. I realized then that age matters less than the child.

I think the species itself is hard to go by on choosing what bird is right for you since birds are a bit like people in how each has their own personality that may not be what you expect from the species, and it can change as they age. Of all our birds the two that show the most aggressive behaviors are the cockatiels. That said neither of them has bit anyone but they do hiss and puff up and will lunge if you do something they don’t like when they don’t like it. Our female tiel actually makes me think about cats how one minute they are happy to have you rub their head then the next they are latched onto your hand with nails and teeth dig in. She doesn’t actually bite but, will lunge and press her beak against your hand as a warning, and she can go from calm to bird “Karen” in under a second. That’s just her personality and I actually love that about her. We also don’t force contact with any of our birds. I think that’s something a lot of people don’t understand when getting birds, even more so with children. Everything has to be at their own pace even if it takes forever. Our first budgie isn’t scared of us but won’t come over to us either. We’ve accepted he may never come over to us to touch him and that’s okay.

Our Amazon had his first major molt and became insanely cuddly lowering his head for head scratches. I thought when he molted he would be a terror as people describe. I even bought falconer gloves to be ready, but he’s the opposite. I expect eventually when he hits “bird puberty” that we will need them, but so far at 8 months he’s never been aggressive. I feel kind of guilty for having assumptions about him because of the reputation. Still I’d never leave him alone with the kids but he’s not what I thought.

I’m telling you all this because choosing the type of bird you do it’s hard to know exactly what one will be like until you’ve had it in your home for awhile. Age, hormones and such can also effect how they are. Some have reputations for some behaviors but there’s always an exception and things can influence it. If you have the opportunity to take your daughter to a place where she can spend time with a few and see what one chooses her that might be good. We went to a breeder for two of our birds and let the birds choose us. I really wanted a lemon yellow cockatiel but a red eyed albino(white faced lutino) tiel ended up hopping on me and did not want to get off and now she’s my girl Ghost! Bossy as she is she chose us. Our Amazon was in with two baby scarlet macaws, but he was the one that had shown interest in us, eager to have us hold him (even if he was too young to walk much) We weren’t sure what kind of parrot we were going to get that day. I’m glad we brought him home even if I was kind of nervous about it. We never laughed so much as we have had the last few months with all the stuff he says.

Cockatiels are a great choice for a first bird as are budgies. I don’t really know much about any other kinds mentioned from personal experience. I find Cockatiels are more laidback, and very loyal, but love to just sit and cuddle. They also can live a long time. I know they say 15 to 20 years but I know someone who had a cockatiel she inherited from her mother that lived to be 34. So if you go with a cockatiel you may end up with it when your daughter is older. That’s something to consider. Budgies seem to have more energy and are very entertaining to watch. Ours play all day long.

Whatever bird you go with will not just be your daughters but everyone in the house. Who know you might end up loving it as much as she does! That’s what happened with us. Haha I didn’t expect to grow up and be a full blown crazy bird lady!

Good luck!

Thank you for sharing! Actually, your son sounds like my son. He’s 12 now, but he is the kindest, gentlest person I’ve ever known, and he’s responsible for the crazy amount of fish in our house. When he was 6, he started getting interested in fish, and we told him the same thing we told my daughter at 8 – research and planning first. But we’ve supported him and joined in his interest with him, and now 6 years later, he’s still just as excited about fish and seems to be on his way into turning this into his career. He works with the local fish store to breed rarer fish, and they buy his babies – he makes a lot more than I ever saw at 12! But his heart truly lies with conservation. He’s been teaching himself Portuguese for a couple years and has his heart set on working in Brazil to help with the wild caught fish trade as an adult. We absolutely aren’t holding him to any of this, and I still sort of expect fish keeping to take a backseat in his life at some point, but I’d never really seen a kid get so focused on one thing for so many years. And then his sister started with birds.

My daughter has had to wait a couple years more than he did to reach the point of bringing a pet home, but I did want my youngest kids old enough to interact with a bird respectfully. There’s less of that to worry about with fish! But I fully expect it to be as much a family thing as the fish have become. I’d be surprised if it becomes her one true passion like it did for my son, but I think there’s few things more impactful than gaining the trust and love of a living creature. I feel very privileged to go on these journeys with my kids – and I’m very glad someone else ended up loving birds, because I’ve missed being around them the last 15 years!

I appreciate your story because we are going around visiting the local rescues, and while I want to set us up for success, I do think there’s a lot to having that moment where you connect with the “right” bird. So far we haven’t really had that.

Basically, I really want to stay brutally honest about where we’re at in life and what we can handle and not mess up a bird’s life. But I also do want to keep an open mind and see where this takes us. Hopefully strike a balance between being impulsive and listening to our hearts. And who knows – maybe in the future when the kids move out I’ll be able to bring home a rescue macaw or cockatoo into a much quieter, adult only household!

 

[imouse1]

I’ll start working on that with the cast iron then! I season mine by brushing on oil, but I have a newish pan we haven’t used much yet, and who knows how the factory seasons things.

Wonderful details on owning a conure – thank you!

One thing we’ve considered if we get a bird that likes climbing is turning the ceiling in a room into a jungle gym type place – sea grass nets, hanging perches and swings, that sort of thing. Sort of a ninja line with something always in easy reach to move to. Do you think a conure would benefit from/enjoy something of that nature?

You said your conure doesn’t like loud sounds. As I detailed for Laurasea in my previous reply, we are NOT a quiet household. There’s not a ton of shrill, harsh sounds, but there’s a lot of noise. Do you think that would bother a conure?

Short answer to your question at the end: yes. Gregg has adapted very well to the noise in my life and I'm a sensory person, too, so we can watch each other's backs lol Seriously, though, I never thought in my life I'd own a bird and there's no other bird I can imagine other than a GCC now that I’ve had him. He’s uncomplicated. And, honestly, if I had been a kid this would have been a good grow-up bird because we would have been doing activities for roughly the same amount of time and the rest of the time could just be quality chill time. He’s fine with just being in his cage seeing me or on his little playground while I’m at my desk while he rolls around his Halloween eggs or goes through some dried flowers. (Could be an activity for your kiddos, too, is growing some herbs and edible flowers for your GCC.)


OMG, I don't feel so crazy now about the ceiling LOL I mean, they're canopy dwellers, right? They're upside-down all the time. Why not give them a little space up top where they can canopy crawl around and perch? I haven't been able to start his cabinet cage yet but I have designs laid out for it, with the idea of it will be expandable / attachable to something like that.

Gregg is mostly upset by the unexpected, like all conures, but the unexpected noise hits him worse and he can go full French if it gets too much, too close, or too loud. This house is noisy AF. With 2 shrill doges who can't stop barking at everything, 1 deep-throated doge that barks at what I assume are her diagnosed demented hallucinations anymore. My doge that **BORKS** mostly in reaction to what she thinks the other 3 are hyper upset about before chuffing for a long time afterward. Then two cats that if they sense any kind of food meow like the apocalypse is coming. The husband of the couple is redoing the cabinets on the property so there is constant banging, air compressor, and drilling noises. And a neighbor whose animals need to be liberated from her because they’re outside almost 24/7 no matter the season barking and meowing because they’re freezing, starving, broiling, hurt, and bored. He's In the less than 3 weeks he’s been here, he’s slowly gotten used to it.

Once he put the sound to the source he was completely fine. He knows there's doges barking in the background--he's over it because I think he's put together that my doge is like the other doges so that must be what those sounds are, and they're not for him. He knows the cats aren't coming for him--they're hunting cans in another room because he's seen them hunting cans in our room (and what happens to them when they start looking at him). He knows the other occupants are being loud somewhere else because he's heard them speak--he's fine with it.

Though, he does struggle with my Ampedphibian* listening to the news or movies or whatever is unwelcome so he'll attack it if it's nearby haha. He’s fine with familiar music like his morning or night music, violins, and Hozier (though, he picked the violins on his own). When it’s random videos like news or shorts on YT, the ever-changing voices and noises are a bit much for him unless I SPAM-watch one creator for awhile. He has the same issue with the phone (he hasn’t met the laptop), though he’s smart enough to be able to tell when the phone is recording him versus me showing him a video of another conure.

The other night when I was up with food poisoning I did figure out why he gets up at night for hours at a time. We’re not far enough away from the City construction site / former homeless campground where there are multiple gunshots a night (to the point the police no longer respond unless someone calls in a dead body). Whatever it is about that tone waking him up freaks him out and he can’t get to sleep for several hours. He won’t let me give him good boy grapes, cuddle him, or do anything other than turn on the light so he can look around from inside his cage. And then because he doesn’t sleep well, he has extended mad boi hours until he can get some substantive sleep. I’m hoping it’s just because it woke him up but I’ve had other things wake him up (like me dropping something in his cage) and he doesn’t react the same. It must sound primitively like something that bothers him =( .

Now that the weather is clearing and it's going to be semi-warm again, I'm going to get his cabinet cage sanded down so I can get his sleepy-time room set up separate from his playroom. The top of the cabinet I am going to line with cork board inside and out because it's safe for conures and is known for soundproofing. That should help him feel a bit more secure and get him through the night. Right now, he perches on his wood toy with the bamboo finger traps to sleep. I think it brings him comfort to be able to chew on something when he first wakes up freaked out. But he’s an emotional eater so I have to be careful about giving him too many pellets because he’ll go crunch them when he’s nervous about something just as equally as when he’s actually hungry.

Man, I never thought I would own a bird but Gregg is an absolute riot. He's still a baby so he's learning things. So, I'm watching him figure out how to use them to hold things he's eating, we're working on him taking things from me with his talons instead of his beak (because he likes to bite me when he just wants me to dump the food in his bowl and leave him alone and I need him to know that that's not acceptable but I'll meet him halfway), and him figuring out how to use them to clean his feathers like a good Buckbeak. Sometimes he'll figure out something then just stare at his foot like he just acquired it haha. Or how to use his beak to peck, not just bite, to get the eggs open so he can get to some millet seed or nuts. It’s, honestly, as close to parenthood as I want to get and would be a good trainer for your kiddos for responsibility and emotional development.

Gregg’s also shockingly quiet--he's literally the quietest occupant in the house, even if you don't include that I'm on some sort of call most of the day. I've had him for almost 3 weeks now. I went to visit him nearly daily when he was in the pet store for over 30 days until the whole vet situation. I've heard him squawk maybe a handful of times—all after I got him home—and one of them wasn't even when a cat went after him in his cage on the first day. (Additional precautions, punishments, and alternative persuasions have since dissuaded them of going after Birdie Brother, even when he's out on me; but the orange cat is still traumatized at the prospect Gregg might get at him.) He likes to tweet at me and we're working on a tweet-for-tweet language (like, he has a certain tweet when he wants food, so I'll ask him, "Tweet tweet when you eat?" and he'll bob so I'll feed him, and if he doesn't bob he doesn't get food). He's not particularly musical but he does like to have a conversation, even if I don't get it haha. Heck, I've almost completely got him trained to only poop in the cage so hanging out is less stressful for both of us.

Like, I know I'm a grown-a@@ adult but if I had had a Gregg when I was young, I would have loved it. It would have been a little hard for me to understand why I can't yell from my room at someone across the house or that he's learning how to use his beak as his only hand to communicate basically in sign language but given the fact I haven't even had him a month and we're already doing the cuddles and walks around the house because he trusts me enough to keep him safe? Yeah, he's a buddy for sure. Like I said, cats in the tweets (because he wants your attention when he wants it, and he also wants his independence when he doesn't want you but please enable him and then don't look at him but then know when he's ready to play lol), dogs in the treats (because they love to play, do puzzles, and train), and ferrets in the sheets (ain’t never leaving). Everything being in such short bursts would have also leaned into my kid sensibilities because we would probably both be done at that point so we could just hang out afterward.

 

[Laurasea]

I don't know if they would join in. I have my own mayhem with having 7 birds abd 4 dogs mostly able to keep under control. Mornings are loud, breeding season is loud.

 

[Flboy]

Cockatiel and conure are probably at the top of our list for the moment, mostly because of the interactions we’ve been having with them at the stores. I’ve owned cockatiels before and really they’re spot on what we want in personality, but I have big concerns around the night terrors (the bird would be sleeping in my kid’s room) and the dust since my kid already struggles with allergies/asthma.

Hello and welcome!
Remove cockatiel from your list! Yes, they are a great household fid, but!
They are ‘old world’ birds! Meaning, they produce powder to protect their feathers! You are an asthma home!
What part of the world is home?

 

[Gardwyn]

Short answer to your question at the end: yes. Gregg has adapted very well to the noise in my life and I'm a sensory person, too, so we can watch each other's backs lol Seriously, though, I never thought in my life I'd own a bird and there's no other bird I can imagine other than a GCC now that I’ve had him. He’s uncomplicated. And, honestly, if I had been a kid this would have been a good grow-up bird because we would have been doing activities for roughly the same amount of time and the rest of the time could just be quality chill time. He’s fine with just being in his cage seeing me or on his little playground while I’m at my desk while he rolls around his Halloween eggs or goes through some dried flowers. (Could be an activity for your kiddos, too, is growing some herbs and edible flowers for your GCC.)


OMG, I don't feel so crazy now about the ceiling LOL I mean, they're canopy dwellers, right? They're upside-down all the time. Why not give them a little space up top where they can canopy crawl around and perch? I haven't been able to start his cabinet cage yet but I have designs laid out for it, with the idea of it will be expandable / attachable to something like that.

Gregg is mostly upset by the unexpected, like all conures, but the unexpected noise hits him worse and he can go full French if it gets too much, too close, or too loud. This house is noisy AF. With 2 shrill doges who can't stop barking at everything, 1 deep-throated doge that barks at what I assume are her diagnosed demented hallucinations anymore. My doge that **BORKS** mostly in reaction to what she thinks the other 3 are hyper upset about before chuffing for a long time afterward. Then two cats that if they sense any kind of food meow like the apocalypse is coming. The husband of the couple is redoing the cabinets on the property so there is constant banging, air compressor, and drilling noises. And a neighbor whose animals need to be liberated from her because they’re outside almost 24/7 no matter the season barking and meowing because they’re freezing, starving, broiling, hurt, and bored. He's In the less than 3 weeks he’s been here, he’s slowly gotten used to it.

Once he put the sound to the source he was completely fine. He knows there's doges barking in the background--he's over it because I think he's put together that my doge is like the other doges so that must be what those sounds are, and they're not for him. He knows the cats aren't coming for him--they're hunting cans in another room because he's seen them hunting cans in our room (and what happens to them when they start looking at him). He knows the other occupants are being loud somewhere else because he's heard them speak--he's fine with it.

Though, he does struggle with my Ampedphibian* listening to the news or movies or whatever is unwelcome so he'll attack it if it's nearby haha. He’s fine with familiar music like his morning or night music, violins, and Hozier (though, he picked the violins on his own). When it’s random videos like news or shorts on YT, the ever-changing voices and noises are a bit much for him unless I SPAM-watch one creator for awhile. He has the same issue with the phone (he hasn’t met the laptop), though he’s smart enough to be able to tell when the phone is recording him versus me showing him a video of another conure.

The other night when I was up with food poisoning I did figure out why he gets up at night for hours at a time. We’re not far enough away from the City construction site / former homeless campground where there are multiple gunshots a night (to the point the police no longer respond unless someone calls in a dead body). Whatever it is about that tone waking him up freaks him out and he can’t get to sleep for several hours. He won’t let me give him good boy grapes, cuddle him, or do anything other than turn on the light so he can look around from inside his cage. And then because he doesn’t sleep well, he has extended mad boi hours until he can get some substantive sleep. I’m hoping it’s just because it woke him up but I’ve had other things wake him up (like me dropping something in his cage) and he doesn’t react the same. It must sound primitively like something that bothers him =( .

Now that the weather is clearing and it's going to be semi-warm again, I'm going to get his cabinet cage sanded down so I can get his sleepy-time room set up separate from his playroom. The top of the cabinet I am going to line with cork board inside and out because it's safe for conures and is known for soundproofing. That should help him feel a bit more secure and get him through the night. Right now, he perches on his wood toy with the bamboo finger traps to sleep. I think it brings him comfort to be able to chew on something when he first wakes up freaked out. But he’s an emotional eater so I have to be careful about giving him too many pellets because he’ll go crunch them when he’s nervous about something just as equally as when he’s actually hungry.

Man, I never thought I would own a bird but Gregg is an absolute riot. He's still a baby so he's learning things. So, I'm watching him figure out how to use them to hold things he's eating, we're working on him taking things from me with his talons instead of his beak (because he likes to bite me when he just wants me to dump the food in his bowl and leave him alone and I need him to know that that's not acceptable but I'll meet him halfway), and him figuring out how to use them to clean his feathers like a good Buckbeak. Sometimes he'll figure out something then just stare at his foot like he just acquired it haha. Or how to use his beak to peck, not just bite, to get the eggs open so he can get to some millet seed or nuts. It’s, honestly, as close to parenthood as I want to get and would be a good trainer for your kiddos for responsibility and emotional development.

Gregg’s also shockingly quiet--he's literally the quietest occupant in the house, even if you don't include that I'm on some sort of call most of the day. I've had him for almost 3 weeks now. I went to visit him nearly daily when he was in the pet store for over 30 days until the whole vet situation. I've heard him squawk maybe a handful of times—all after I got him home—and one of them wasn't even when a cat went after him in his cage on the first day. (Additional precautions, punishments, and alternative persuasions have since dissuaded them of going after Birdie Brother, even when he's out on me; but the orange cat is still traumatized at the prospect Gregg might get at him.) He likes to tweet at me and we're working on a tweet-for-tweet language (like, he has a certain tweet when he wants food, so I'll ask him, "Tweet tweet when you eat?" and he'll bob so I'll feed him, and if he doesn't bob he doesn't get food). He's not particularly musical but he does like to have a conversation, even if I don't get it haha. Heck, I've almost completely got him trained to only poop in the cage so hanging out is less stressful for both of us.

Like, I know I'm a grown-a@@ adult but if I had had a Gregg when I was young, I would have loved it. It would have been a little hard for me to understand why I can't yell from my room at someone across the house or that he's learning how to use his beak as his only hand to communicate basically in sign language but given the fact I haven't even had him a month and we're already doing the cuddles and walks around the house because he trusts me enough to keep him safe? Yeah, he's a buddy for sure. Like I said, cats in the tweets (because he wants your attention when he wants it, and he also wants his independence when he doesn't want you but please enable him and then don't look at him but then know when he's ready to play lol), dogs in the treats (because they love to play, do puzzles, and train), and ferrets in the sheets (ain’t never leaving). Everything being in such short bursts would have also leaned into my kid sensibilities because we would probably both be done at that point so we could just hang out afterward.

Thanks for giving us such a great picture into having a conure – Gregg sounds like an absolute doll! And that’s an amazing name, BTW.

Yeah, I suspect we’ll be going overboard a little on the toy end of things. We’ve already found two playstands we want to get as well as the ceiling idea, and we haven’t even picked out a bird or cage!

I particularly appreciate the point about new noises vs familiar ones. I suspect any bird we get will probably do better if we make a point of showing them the source of noises. We have a lot of random yard workers come through in our neighborhood, and there are lots of slightly different sounding tools. Whenever there’s a new mower or something, our dog makes a point of checking it out to see if it’s worth barking over, and she settles back down once she sees that it’s same people doing the same stuff. A bird would probably benefit a lot from the same sort of visual training. Getting a chance to see the yard workers rather than left to wonder why there’s scary noises on some days. Maybe even a verbal cue. “Lawn day” or “trash day” or whatever. I’ve heard parrots are great at tracking time also, so maybe those sorts of noises can even be useful for helping it track the days of the week.

 

[Gardwyn]

Hello and welcome!
Remove cockatiel from your list! Yes, they are a great household fid, but!
They are ‘old world’ birds! Meaning, they produce powder to protect their feathers! You are an asthma home!
What part of the world is home?

We haven’t had much of a chance to spend time with cockatiels yet, and I feel that’s paramount before deciding whether we can keep them on the list. In our house, the asthma is due to physical lung problems and is completely separate from the allergies – but the allergies are still there. We’ve got good medications for both conditions, and the only thing that tends to trigger the allergies is pollen – everyone’s spent a lot of time around our dog, and cats and guinea pigs elsewhere, without any issue.

But I really appreciate the warning! And like I said, I think it’s on us to find a way to spend a couple days around cockatiels BEFORE “trying” them. I get that not everyone knows about allergies in advance, but it’d be devastating to have to rehome a new pet because you underestimated their dust/dander/ect.

We’re in the US, BTW.

 

[Kentuckienne]

I love it that you are going to rescues. There are so many birds in need of loving homes, because the first human(s) didn't research what they were getting into, got sick, or just got sick of having the bird. Some of them come from sad places, some are just unlucky, some have real problems they may never recover from, and some a perfect potential companions. You might have to visit a few for a long time until the right bird comes along.

Don’t rush! My partner picked a bird because he felt sorry for it, and that is one lucky bird. But it wasn’t the bird his heart desired. So he got a second bird, who was even less like that. And a month later the rescue had the sweetest BFA on earth, that would have been perfect for him. So take your time and go on lots of bird dates, and good luck!

 

[imouse1]

We haven’t had much of a chance to spend time with cockatiels yet, and I feel that’s paramount before deciding whether we can keep them on the list. In our house, the asthma is due to physical lung problems and is completely separate from the allergies – but the allergies are still there. We’ve got good medications for both conditions, and the only thing that tends to trigger the allergies is pollen – everyone’s spent a lot of time around our dog, and cats and guinea pigs elsewhere, without any issue.

But I really appreciate the warning! And like I said, I think it’s on us to find a way to spend a couple days around cockatiels BEFORE “trying” them. I get that not everyone knows about allergies in advance, but it’d be devastating to have to rehome a new pet because you underestimated their dust/dander/ect.

We’re in the US, BTW.

IDK if it helps with your brand of allergies, but I have a couple of the plug-in air purifiers with night lights near Gregg's cage and we're not seeing a lot of dust from seeds. I'm not sure how well they would work with Cockatiel dust, though

 

[StormyPica]

Though I adore budgies, I don't think they would be a great match for you. It takes a lot of hard work to gain their trust, which can be frustrating for a young child. And if you get two (which I definitely recommend), then they will most likely never be super bonded to you, because they have each other. I would stick with a bird that is easier to tame, like a cockatiel or a green cheek conure.

For sure!

 

[parrottoys]

Hello! I am not currently a bird owner, but we are hoping to change that soon, and I could use some advice.

My 10 year old has her heart set on a pet bird and would actually be great with one. We’ve been visiting local rescues/stores and watching her learn to handle the birds has been a real joy. But I’m very concerned about down the road when she goes to college/moves out since I know many of the large parrots are “one person” birds. If we got a bird, I’d need it to be one that can be socialized with the rest of us and would accept a "new" owner when my daughter goes to college. I know even the smaller birds usually have someone they prefer, but they can often adapt if that person becomes unavailable. Basically, I’m thinking of this as a bird for me that she’ll be able to do most of the training and interacting with for a while. We’ve been doing a ton of research, but I always find first-hand knowledge is usually more accurate than books and articles, so I’d love input on the species we’re considering. (BTW, I kept birds myself about 15 years ago, so I do know what we’re signing up for, but I also feel my knowledge is pretty out of date.)

The current list is: budgie (English or American), lovebird, cockatiel, green check conure, or jenday conure

We had pionus, brown-headed parrot, and Meyers parrot on the list as well, but they’ve been crossed out based off of info we’ve gotten from the local breeders.

Cockatiel and conure are probably at the top of our list for the moment, mostly because of the interactions we’ve been having with them at the stores. I’ve owned cockatiels before and really they’re spot on what we want in personality, but I have big concerns around the night terrors (the bird would be sleeping in my kid’s room) and the dust since my kid already struggles with allergies/asthma.

Other pertinent facts – the youngest kid in our house is 7 years old, and while I’d describe our household as happy and lively, there’s no getting around the fact that it’s loud. Right now we’re all home all the time thanks to covid, but down the road, the bird would need to be able to stay home alone for 2-3 hours a couple days a week, and for two 8 hour days each month. We are leaning toward getting a rescue/re-home bird although we all think the hand fed babies are pretty darn cute. And we are open to multiple birds if the species prefers it/we find a bonded pair we’re interested in.

So any advice would be very welcome! I’d love to hear why those species might be a good or bad choice or suggestions for birds we haven’t even considered.

Thank you! That sort of confirms some of my thoughts about budgies. I think my kid is drawn to them because they remind her of the wild birds that come to our feeders. And to her credit, she has managed to train several finches, chickadees, and hummingbirds to take food from her hand. But while I think she finds that a heady victory all its own, I don’t think she understands that it could never go past that. She of course would never want take a wild bird captive, but I don’t think she gets that even if we were to put one in a cage, it would never turn into a pet the way most parrots do.

I would not recommend a bird of any kind with a 10 and 7 year old. To be responsible at that age is not possible. Best to be kind to any potential bird and wait for a while. The possibility for forgetfulness and accidents is colossal.

The idea of a rescue is perfect as there are thousands and thousands of birds who desperately need homes. Let the bird choose her. They will do that.

When she's a teen, even then it can be dicy. Again, I would suggest a bird who chooses her. It is unfair to keep a bird in a cage under the best of circumstances. They are beings of flight and your home is too risky at this time.

 

[Skarila]

Its just my opinion on the white, but I have 7 birds, and I do observations. Birds do have a preference for well lit. If you can stick your head in a cage and look out of a white one and a black one there is a big difference i thought.

My quakers are full grown , mine run 107-125 grams. I love them. I do think you can consider one.

The thing is as a species they like to make noise, while the volume isn't as loud as a sun, not going to cause ear damage, but loud enough to drown out everything. They enjoy being vocal. If you can turn that to talking its a lot easier to take, most will learn a few words to a lot if words.

Quakers are very intelligent, social and active, and do like cuddling. Mine are very aware if bite pressure , so they don't bite hard but they will beak grab you, beak bang , beak scrape and beak communicate .

Quakers do not do well left in cage all day, while people work , or left in the cage while you are home. The first thing most do is turn to screaming , and they are happy to scream 8hrs straight without taking a single break. So they are rehomed by the hundreds . They also will quickly turn to feather destruction, and self mutilation if their needs are met. All 3 of mine were problem birds I took in.
One from a college student, Quakers are not dorm room parrots, one was neglected and was plucking and mutilation of feet, my newest was being sold at a pet store, and screamed 100% of the time and had started to over preen, after seeing her for months I decided to "save" her in fact the day I got the money I walked into a store meeting and they were letting staff know they sending her back. Thank goodness I was in time! She was hands down tge most difficult parrot to break from screaming!!! I nearly lost my mind with her screaming from sun up to sun down!!
We got past that , and now things are pretty darn good.

That being said , in a home where they are part of the family , where they don't spend a majority of the day caged , given stuff to do, abd a decent amount of contact time, cuddle. An utterly fantastic parrot. And likely to do well with interacting with everyone. They live in huge colonies in the wild, and are very social.

I dislike promoting them, because they are seriously not going to do well as an only parrot left in a cage for a working person. They are more like a cockatoo, incredibly intelligent, and social . So like a cockatoo they will turn to plucking and screaming and get passed around. ( there are some that do fine as sole burd left alone all day, but as a species no) they aren't for the most part going to make it to a parrot rescues, they are cheap, readiky available, people who get them are often first time parrot owners . When things go south the sell them on Craigslist, shove them outside or into a garage. I wish I could save more.

But I think what you described as your lifestyle, yes I think yiu could love them as much as I do.

Nearly all will be cage aggressive as adults. You can't stick fingers in cage, you nearly always have to have them come out if cage fir changing water and food and stuff. Mine are all cage protective and scream abd attack if I put my hands in. Once out of the cage , sweetheart!!
if you decide they would be the species for you, do look for a home breeder even on Craigslist , because they will be raised as part of family. I'm all for rescue or rehomes on there too. But you have to have a solid parrot understanding to get them over any issues like screaming, and if misunderstood and have become aggressive. They are a species thst can be rehabilitated from aggressive behavior or loss of tame. You can help them stop mutilation, but if plucking will likely pluck for life. Nothing wrong with a plucker they are still going to give love and be happy and wonderful company, just thst you have to accept they will be having skin showing.

Why the fluff lately I want a quaker SO BADLY these days... I just keep hearing from breeders that even they prefer them over GCCs, their main comment was they're not so nippy and actually quieter than the GCCs they were breeding.... But I simply do not know what to believe! I have never considered them, I already sold my heart to conures (the whole Pyrrhura genus), not that I'm planning or even can get a quaker into the flock, we'll have just too many different species (Upcoming senegal, budgie, tiny conure AND a quaker? Chaos ensured!), but I am seriously curious how well do they do as pets. I know I crossed them from my list before because I really didn't want a bird who can blow off my eardrums, especially not after an IRN, but if I'd be searching for a bird, I would really consider them. My little Pascal (Pyrrhura emma) is quite noisy for a conure, but not loud to give me headaches, but he can tune it up when needed (the alarm call can be deafening, but it sits at sole 87db which is still tolerable.). And he is VERY opinionated himself. He has an answer and comment for everything. He's a shy little thing but I love him so much.

What would be the main difference between Quaker and GCC, in your opinion? And if you'd choose all over again, which one would go for and why? And how well do they mix together (is the beak size similar?)? If I do want to acquire another bird, it will possibly years from now, but it's never too early to start learning about them. I know I was researching about green cheeks and pyrrhura genus in general 3 years before I got Pascal. And oh, we don't have any rescues here so it's impossible me to have first hand experience with different species...

BTW I love following this thread, it is so informative!!!

 

[imouse1]

Why the fluff lately I want a quaker SO BADLY these days... I just keep hearing from breeders that even they prefer them over GCCs, their main comment was they're not so nippy and actually quieter than the GCCs they were breeding.... But I simply do not know what to believe! I have never considered them, I already sold my heart to conures (the whole Pyrrhura genus), not that I'm planning or even can get a quaker into the flock, we'll have just too many different species (Upcoming senegal, budgie, tiny conure AND a quaker? Chaos ensured!), but I am seriously curious how well do they do as pets. I know I crossed them from my list before because I really didn't want a bird who can blow off my eardrums, especially not after an IRN, but if I'd be searching for a bird, I would really consider them. My little Pascal (Pyrrhura emma) is quite noisy for a conure, but not loud to give me headaches, but he can tune it up when needed (the alarm call can be deafening, but it sits at sole 87db which is still tolerable.). And he is VERY opinionated himself. He has an answer and comment for everything. He's a shy little thing but I love him so much.

What would be the main difference between Quaker and GCC, in your opinion? And if you'd choose all over again, which one would go for and why? And how well do they mix together (is the beak size similar?)? If I do want to acquire another bird, it will possibly years from now, but it's never too early to start learning about them. I know I was researching about green cheeks and pyrrhura genus in general 3 years before I got Pascal. And oh, we don't have any rescues here so it's impossible me to have first hand experience with different species...

BTW I love following this thread, it is so informative!!!

I watched a bunch of videos on quakers because when I was originally looking up GCC stuff they either were together with GCCs or natural segueways, I guess. They don't seem quieter in the videos but probably because they're encouraged to be more vocal since they speak. Not sure, though.

Edit: I was warned from getting a Quaker with my GCC, though, because of their jealousy issues. I'm not sure if wither of them can be trained out of their jealousy like with the other training suggested.

 

[Laurasea]

I adore my GCC Ta-dah, I have had 2 GCC and I find them very quiet birds. They can alarm call sure, but they never make noise all day long or just to make noise. At least mine have never. All the GCC I meet or see in stores are quiet. On the other hand quakers like to make noise, they are quick to turn to screaming if frustrated and stuck in a cage all day.

On nipping, my first GCC who I had for 17 years , went through a little nipping at 6 month old , then for her blessed life never bit.
My Ta-dah is more typical, ready to nip to defend her honor any perceived slight, or if I bump a feather, . That needle tip does hurt , and draw blood. But reading her body language i avoid 99% . Usually I just need to pause a few seconds, reassure her I'm not trying to kill her or insult her. Lol then we are right back to snuggle . Full of love and pretty easy species to live with.

My quakers are more like beak bullies. Unless I'm trying to work on their cage, or they are really mad then they can bite hard. But the rest of the time they are very careful with bite pressure , they pinch, beak hold, beak spar , beak smack, beak push. Recently they have all been beak bullies, , , not hurting, but trying to beak boss lol

The thing is if they are in the cage and you are home 90% of the time they will start screaming. Its not the ear splitting volume ( tho plenty loud enough) its the non stop...

I've taken in all of mine for behavior pretty much , screaming/ screaming plus plucking or over preening headed towards plucking . They are rehomed fir this all the time, or abused neglected stuck outside, stuck in garage.
Now if they are part of the family out of the cage all day, kept flighted, given things to enrichment, occupying their mind, they are really great parrots, they like to cuddle as much as GCC. If that's the kind of home you can provide, you would enjoy them. I'm home all day.

 

[imouse1]

I adore my GCC Ta-dah, I have had 2 GCC and I find them very quiet birds. They can alarm call sure, but they never make noise all day long or just to make noise. At least mine have never. All the GCC I meet or see in stores are quiet. On the other hand quakers like to make noise, they are quick to turn to screaming if frustrated and stuck in a cage all day.

On nipping, my first GCC who I had for 17 years , went through a little nipping at 6 month old , then for her blessed life never bit.
My Ta-dah is more typical, ready to nip to defend her honor any perceived slight, or if I bump a feather, . That needle tip does hurt , and draw blood. But reading her body language i avoid 99% . Usually I just need to pause a few seconds, reassure her I'm not trying to kill her or insult her. Lol then we are right back to snuggle . Full of love and pretty easy species to live with.

My quakers are more like beak bullies. Unless I'm trying to work on their cage, or they are really mad then they can bite hard. But the rest of the time they are very careful with bite pressure , they pinch, beak hold, beak spar , beak smack, beak push. Recently they have all been beak bullies, , , not hurting, but trying to beak boss lol

The thing is if they are in the cage and you are home 90% of the time they will start screaming. Its not the ear splitting volume ( tho plenty loud enough) its the non stop...

I've taken in all of mine for behavior pretty much , screaming/ screaming plus plucking or over preening headed towards plucking . They are rehomed fir this all the time, or abused neglected stuck outside, stuck in garage.
Now if they are part of the family out of the cage all day, kept flighted, given things to enrichment, occupying their mind, they are really great parrots, they like to cuddle as much as GCC. If that's the kind of home you can provide, you would enjoy them. I'm home all day.

Does yours kinda quack? The Sir sometimes will just...chat to himself really lowly with what sounds like quacks lol

 

[StormyPica]

I would not recommend a bird of any kind with a 10 and 7 year old. To be responsible at that age is not possible. Best to be kind to any potential bird and wait for a while. The possibility for forgetfulness and accidents is colossal.

The idea of a rescue is perfect as there are thousands and thousands of birds who desperately need homes. Let the bird choose her. They will do that.

When she's a teen, even then it can be dicy. Again, I would suggest a bird who chooses her. It is unfair to keep a bird in a cage under the best of circumstances. They are beings of flight and your home is too risky at this time.

I agree with this. I am a teen who is mature for my age and understands that my birds may not always want to do things with me, but most teens I know would be very frustrated if their bird didn't want to spend every living second with them, so just warning ya!