Need help with bird selection

[Minzer84]

*curling up in the fetal position and crying*

This is how I spend most days with Iggy, and he's no 'too!

 

[TexDot33]

Yeah, think about it ... I think of a 'too "in season" and it makes me curl up into the fetal position ... yeah, I will never have a 'too, man, want to talk about a Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde ... when those fluffy birdies hit maturity look out ...

 

[indigo]

Thinking about a hormonal 'too "in season" *curling up in the fetal position and crying* Yeah, they make GREAT pets ... for the deaf, who live by themselves -- without any neighbors for a mile and a half ...

You forgot something ...

-- without any deaf and muteneighbors for a mile and a half ... that way they can't hear or complain.


OMG I am so evil.

 

[Peta]

Well, some background information on me is that I'm 22 and live in an apartment complex. I also work at home. I've had pretty much every animal under the sun growing up, dogs, cats, hamsters, gerbils, rabbits, guinea pigs, parakeets, chinchillas, saltwater fishtanks, freshwater, and a pond full of koi. ALL died of old age but the cats, and the dog. The dog lives at my moms (16 years old) and the cats we had to get rid of cause i'm allergic. I've always had trouble breathing and had a stuffy nose all my life untill I moved out. The rabbit gave me horrible allergies, the dog also gave me allergies but I didn't realize all this till I moved out.

Another thing to think about here is the allergies, Greys have an awful lot of cuddle dust (not as much as some, but a lot) that could upset the allergies. Do you know anyone who has Greys that you could be in a room with for a while, to see how you get on. This may not affect you at all, but I know a lot of people it does affect. That may be something else to take into consideration with any bird you may be thinking about.

Also Guys it was me who mentioned a too, not brian, I only posted that as an example that a lot of websites will only tell you the good things not the bad.

 

[nzchickadee]

Hi Brian!
I came on here about, oh I dunno, a wee while ago with the same kind of questions. I found an email I sent to a Grey breeder in my inbox the other day, dated January (Peta I was completely convinced till i realized how much we have to pay over here!). And now its July, and Pete still rules the house. Its been 7 months at the very least I've been researching the next one, but at least the next will arrive to a carer confident she knows shes done the right thing.

Don't completely overlook a budgie! I have a hormonal aviary bred female (maybe not hormonal...my just attackabudgie), However she will play with everything for hours, and i mean everything. Toys yes, but also toothpicks, doorhandles, carrots (plays not eats, and gets it ALL over her face),fake flowers, picture frames, everything!

She has a somewhat large cage and is only a tad spoiled. She is hardly ever in it, instead perching comfortably on my shoulder or computer screen. We take her to the inlaws kindergarten tin the weekends so she can have a real stretch of her wings. She's unclipped and we have never had a problem. And if we do have to be away for an extended period of time? No issues. She can handle it.

The secret? Time. She may be little, and common, but I reckon she's the perfect wee bird.

 

[indigo]

Yeah nzchickadee!! Budgies are great little clowns birds. My flock began with two of them (Bonnie and Clyde) and at one point I had more budgies than I did lovebirds! The little guys are always being underestimated and thats a real shame. I also think thats why so many budgies, lovebirds and cockateils are bought in pet shops every year and never stand a chance of living their whole natural expected life span. People very very very often simply do not see them as parrots and therefor think they are like a flying hamster or something. A pet to have for 5 years at most and one their 3 year old can learn to take care of.

The last place I worked at was a large chain pet shop and one afternoon "some lady" dropped off a box with a cage in it and all kinds of stuff piled on top of the cage (the box of cheep seeds, a cheep plastic toy and that sort of thing) at customer service and simply walked out. The customer service girls heard moving around so they took the stuff out from on top of the cage and in there were two budgies.

They paged to make sure I was in my department (I was that locations' livestock manager - the department dealing with the furred, feathered, and scaled "product" and the small animal supplies, as well as cages etc). They brought the box over and showed me what had been returned. We took the cage out of the box and taped to the cage was a note saying "these are too noisy" and then signed (I promptly put them on a buy ban). Anyways, they didnt wait for a refund or anything like that so these were transient birds. I had already two budgies, and my then husband was tight about me getting any more birds so I did not bring them home but man did I want to.

There were two as I said; one blue and one green. The blue one was sort of a teal color and the green was so vibrant. The cage they were stuffed in was about 14x10x18 at most and they had no food or water. They got food and some water and I wrote off a toy and put that in there for them (I later got told off by the store manager for writing off that toy). They ended up in quarantine and re-sold, but thats the heartless that appauls me about the chain stores (this was the same store btw that I got my three budgies from - 2 before I worked there, and the third while I worked there and he was a rescue of sorts - thats pogo, the one legged budgie - he was up for being "returned" which really meant killed because he was not sellable).

To be honest, this is one of the reasons I stopped working in the pet industry (I keep saying that but I always return to it it seems). So anyways, thats my soapbox moment for today (I hope).

 

[birdcrazy]

PLEASE stir clear of a grey if you couldn't take the duskys noise you don't need another potentially loud bird.

 

[Peta]

Have you come to any decisions yet on what species of bird you would really like to go for.

I'm sorry I'm so impatient, but it really is exciting

 

[Evyllchyld]

HAHA Peta, not yet. The one I was looking into just don't appeal to me EXCEPT the african greys. They just all seem way to small, or they just don't appeal whatsoever to me. So my look will continue on I guess.

 

[Peta]

Don't get me wrong, Greys are wonderful, I wouldn't part with mine for the world, they aren't screamers but can get loud at times, Bucc was a lot quieter when I only had him, but even then he would at times compete with the telly, kids, just to be the loudest one here.

Mornings and evening there all vocal

I really do wish you luck, and please let us know as soon as you know.

(I'm not a very good at being patient as you've probably guessed )

 

[Evyllchyld]

IDK if this is a bad idea, but maybe a rescue will let me take one home on a temp basis to see how loud he is. Don't rip me about this idea lol, I just thought of it

 

[Peta]

Here they wouldn't allow you to do that, but they would allow you to spend time with a certain bird so you could then see what you may be getting into before you get one.

I don't think anyone would deliberately rip into you, they just want you to be aware that there is such a lot of conflicting advise out there, we have to take it all in and then try to work out what would work with us.

If your heart is set on a Grey then go to the breeder/rescue center, even if they won't allow you to bring one home just to see how loud they are, they would be grateful for help there. You will then get to see many birds and it can also help you to determine how loud you can handle. One thing to remember they are usually louder when there's more than one, they will try to compete with each other in the noise level. But hey you'll then get to see just what they are capable off. I'm really interested to see how you get on, so please keep us informed.

 

[Evyllchyld]

Peta, do you know of any places online where you can look for rescues? I've looked online all last night and have only been able to find dog and cat rescues. I'd like a grey, but of course my wallet is saying otherwise!! I'm not dead set on it though by any means, if there is another bird thats a little smaller and a lot quieter then I'll definitely get then one if I like there appearance.

 

[indigo]

Don't know if you've already said but where are you located?

 

[Evyllchyld]

Upstate NY

 

[indigo]

I have run across rescues all through NYS. I'll look see what I can find and post what I do.

 

[indigo]

In a few minutes of searching I have found http://www.parrotrescue.org/ ; they are not in your area, but they are in NYS (Long Island) and probably know of any groups closer to you.

Then there are the following:

http://www.birdadoption.org/groups.htm
http://www.liparrotsociety.org/adoption.htm
http://cockatiel.meetup.com/62/
http://www.birdadoption.org/news.htm
http://www.birdsnways.com/birds/bwadopt.htm
http://www.brooklynparrots.com/2005/07/diary-of-wild-new-jersey-parrot.html
http://www.manhattanbirdclub.com/adoption.htm
http://www.parrotclubs.com/parrothaven/

and there were more but I am not posting it all. I don't know why you did not get any results as I did a simple search for "Adopt a Parrot New York" and got allot of resources. These may not be near you, but contact them at least. I mean if you're serious about getting another bird you aught to have gotten these results.

 

[indigo]

This is the direct link to the search results ... http://www.dogpile.com/info.dogpl/s.../-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/302349/right

knock yourself out.

 

[Evyllchyld]

I think I didn't get any cause I was searching "Animal adoption albany NY" and stuff like that. Thanks for the sites.

 

[birdcrazy]

have you thought about an eclectus they are one of the quieter of the larger parrots.