Being open to a bird of any species

[M&M Ninja]

I've been exploring the idea of getting another baby bird to add to my one-bird flock. Before my current bird - who was purchased as a baby - we had a rescue TAG.

When looking for a new dog 1.5 years ago, I found her on a rescue site, had a strong sense that she was the one, met her, and adopted her. It has been an awesome match. She is an unimaginably amazing dog who came from one year living on the street and one year living in a rescue. She has very subtle 'baggage', but is intelligent, present, thinking, adaptable, and cooperative in our multi-species household. I love her, and we have incredible fun together.

So....Lately, I've been starting to reconsidering getting an older parrot. Since I found my once-in-a-lifetime dog by cruising through rescue pages and following a hunch, maybe this is possible with a parrot too?

I'd love to hear from others who went this route. If you did, were you open to any bird of any species (perhaps with a particular size restraint)? Or did you go out looking for one species only?

 

[Jcas]

I adopted one of my budgies, Fay Wray, in a similar way to how you described adopting your dog. Budgies are maybe a bit easier to integrate into a household than some bigger birds but everything worked out smoothly. I was intentionally looking for a budgie to be a new companion for my older budgie, Cooper and I found Fay online on Petfinder. I applied for her specifically as she was basically described as loud, energetic, and loving to fly outside the cage. I figured since I was an experienced bird owner that I could handle her noise and energy better than a novice owner. Plus, my birds spend all day with an open cage, free to fly all around the bird room!

I never met Fay before adopting her as she was almost three hours away but I did exchange some emails with the rescue coordinator and with Fay’s foster mom. I knew that my other bird, Cooper, is very laid back so I wasn’t too worried about how he would take to her and they get along great. Again, I know a budgie is a little different than adopting a bigger bird, but I just wanted to share my successful adoption story! Best of luck in finding a new bird and thank you for considering adopting!

 

[wrench13]

Babies will go to anyone! If using the 'let the bird choose you' route (best) it works better with fledged birds and preferably ones past puberty, where preferences can change a lot, and do a 180 turn!