new to group with (long) question

[god61021]

Hello my wife Amy and I are looking into getting a smaller bird. She use to manage a pet smart (so her experiences are with younger birds that love everyone) and ive had a couple of birds in the past. A quaker parrot who needed me more then I could handle and screamed 24 hours. so i gave him to my parents where he lived a long neurotic life. I also had a redbelly parrot who was amazing and I miss him very much but I was in my early 20's and had better things to do then stay home with a bird. so off to a breeding colony he went. more recently we adopted a goffins cockatoo who loved my daughter, me, and kids in that order. all others would be visciously attacked depending on Their perceived rank. (if my daughter was home even I would be attacked, if Kori was gone and i was home those "below" me would be attacked etc.) The wife who is very submissive always got attacked.
I dont know if we just dont "get" birds or what, but we are horrible at working through their issues.

My issues are with birds who can do serious damage. if it can remove body parts or leave me needing several stitches I wont touch it. So I want a smaller bird that cant hurt me. not bad anyway. I dont mind pain, I just dont want to lose anything.lol

my next fear is an aggressive bird that will attack the wife for getting close to me. she is horrible at being "the boss". just ask the dogs. hell if I was a bird i'd pick on her. A bird that dive bombs, and especially if it bites the dogs probably wouldnt live long either. (disclaimer: I can control my dogs and they would never be unsupervised but, a bird that flys off its playgym and visciously latches on to the dogs face would be dead be for I even knew it happened)

my last worry is screaming. I love the noises birds make but the screaming drives me crazy and I dont trust my ability to work with a bird to prevent it.

So...I'm looking for a small non-aggressive quiet bird. that enjoys my company but not too the point of being neurotic about it.

my favorite is Parrotlets but reasearch suggests dive bombing the wife and dogs would be an issue. though I think me and a parrotlet would be great together. (I really really like parrotlets)

Lovebirds dont seem to fit due to being too needy, I work ten hour days.

Cockatiels were crossed off the list when research suggested they are screamers.

Now the wife swears up and down that a hand reared Budgie is exactly what im looking for but I've never seen anything but petstore budgies that hide in corners in terror so I'm skeptical.
plus personality wise they remind me more of a finch than a parrot.

So I'm wondering if you folks might have any ideas on a breed that might fit my household?
Is Amy right? is a budgie the way to go? will a parrotlet fit? is there a breed I havent thought about?
any help would be appreciated.
thanks Dave

 

[Mayden]

Although you don't seem all that keen on a budgie, they're fantastic little chaps! I've got both hand reared and parent reared, scared little buggers from petstores to the tame playful things that want to give you kisses.

Would you like a run down of all 6 personalities of my budgies? Maybe that might help convince you how brilliant they are.

 

[mrob]

I wholeheartedly agree. there is a LOT more to a budgie than what you would think. specially hand raised little guys. They are adorable, funny smart and happy little clowns with tons of personality!

A handraised Teil might be a good choice but they do tend to make a lot of flock calls if they cant see you or if they want out, but its not particulary loud, just a bit irritating. Mine is absolutely awesome but she is way noisier than my eccie and a little emotionally dependent, but man she is cuddly and a bit nuts. A fantastic bird!

 

[god61021]

I'm not against a budgie in fact ive contacted a breeder in milwaukee who hand rears budgies and "garantees" me a wonderful sweet baby. Its just hard for me to picture since ive never seen a calm one

 

[god61021]

I guess I was really just hoping someone would tell me Ive got parrotlets all wrong and one would be a great fit, barring that maybe I would hear some good stories about budgies that would convince me.

 

[brianlinkles]

How about a Linnie? They are wonderful little birds. My daughter got one a couple of months ago for an early b-day present (she is 14) We have all fallen in love with her! She is slightly larget than a parakeet but acts in many ways like a larger parrot. She plays and plays. She is starting to make kissing noises. We finished weaning her and now she is just a wonderful family member. She is quiet and seems to be happy to come out and play with us or to hang out on her play area. She loves to be held and cuddled. I would definatley look into this breed!

 

[suebee]

lets start with not a sennie! as i have one an thought we now have finally found a routine that works, it was rather hard to get the right routine!

it really depends on what level of interaction you want with your bird, because the level of interaction i have with nut, took alot of time to create a bond of understanding each other

my nut did flying attacks, biting etc we had to work on that as a family

but from what i have read with the smaller birds they will need regular interaction, or they become skittish

but a resident has a budgie at work an that is louder then my nut! so you can never garentee a quiet bird

 

[mrob]

Hey! If your heart is set on a Parrotlet, thats the bird for you.
Just make sure you do your research and spend time with the little guy at the breeders/petstore first. Make sure he is hand raised, tame preferably a baby (better to get them used to everyone young) or if not a baby then at least handled daily so you dont have to retame.
Just so******e him to everyone early when hes young and he should be fine!
In my experience its always best to get the bird you really want, as long as you do your research it should work out fine!

 

[Pedro]

Dave, I am sorry but your thread gave me a few giggles & being of the older generation I think i have heard every myth out there about Parrots. And you have mentioned a few. I believe that any parrot can be a great companion as long as you don't have great expectations of what you bird should be. If you want a bird that doesn't do all the things you have listed above, don't get a bird at all.

To be honest a parrots behavior be it biting screaming or whatever is all learned behavior & i am sorry to say we humans teach our parrots every bad habit in the book. I have 30 to 40 birds at my house, some are pets, some are breeders & the rest just hang out here. I can honestly say i don't have any behavior issues with any of my birds. You can't expect to buy a parrot & expect it to be on its best behavior, you as a carer should be responsible for the training of your bird, you have to be able to read it's body language. So those are the areas i would recommend you reseach, educate yourself & the whole family on the do's & don't of owning a parrot. Set yourselves up for success, know how to identify a problem & stop it before it gets out of hand.

I read over & over the same problems people are having with their birds & to be honest i don't know why. Yes i do get bitten sometimes but it's usually because i didn't read the body language right. I have a breeder eclectus hen & i have to watch her because she will bite if i am not watching her. I avoid getting bitten at all costs.

So i would suggest you get some good books on Parrot Behavior.

http://www.naturalencounters.com/im...ng_Parrot_Behavior_Naturally-Steve_Martin.pdf


Parrot Behavior Problems | Positive Bird Training

Here is 2 links for you to check out. There are many more like them & they are all free you just have to google them.

Hope you find what your looking for.

 

[badbowtie08]

Now sure how small you are looking for but for our family we got a baby hahn's macaw his name is Nico so far he is only 11 weeks old and has been simply wonderful we have had fed him he loves all of us my husband me and both our girls who are 19 and 18 and can be noisey but not obnoxious we talk to him just like a kid and he loves it he also gets along just great with our minature schnauzer we are having a wonderful time with him. Not sure if this will help but he will be about 12 inches from head to tail and that was the perfect size for our family, good luck with your search

 

[god61021]

We ended up going with an english budgie named nuggie. so far he/she's amazing.

 

[suebee]

We ended up going with an english budgie named nuggie. so far he/she's amazing.

congrats on your new baby pics please