@Ellen:
I bird-sat a Senegal for a week and found she was much needier than the Senegal I gave up when I moved abroad, so I will concede that point. Not necessarily on the hands-on time they need (since I had my own birds to care for as well and they didn't get on with her, I probably averaged only two hours a day of personal time with her), as because she got upset when I was out-of-sight, and needed constant, non-stop scritches when she was with me, meaning I needed to do things one-handed at best. My Senegal was much more independent than her (he averaged around four or five hours a day on my shoulder but was OK with occasional scritches and maybe half an hour to an hour of play and cuddle time), but he may have been unusual. Also, both my Senegal and this one had people around a lot, even when they weren't being interacted with, which likely made a difference.
Well you just made my point. O told the original poster that he needed to keep a bird in the main living room of his home so that the bird would at least be around people and around him, even if he didn't directly interact with it. I didn't know at the time he worked from 8.a.m. to 10 p.m. and it wouldn't matter where he kept a bird cage. Socialization is very important for birds, but the fact is that it doesn't matter if this person had a Senegal, a macaw, a cockatiel, a budgie, or a Cockatoo, his schedule doesn't work. I also have a cockatiel in my family, and she is one of the most loving birds I've ever had, but she was this way when I got her, her breeder did a wonderful job raising her. This poster admitted he was working on a project building something for his laptop, that it took him a year and a half to complete (no doubt because of his schedule), and this is why he wants a bird now, because he needs a new "project" to keep him busy when he wants to pay attention to it. But he obviously isn't thinking of a pet bird as a living creature with the intelligence and emotional needs of a 3-4 year old child, and that includes a cockatiel. He also admitted that his turtles are sliders (I've owned 2 red eared sliders myself, quite a while ago, I now have a bearded dragon) and they are not friendly to him unless they are getting fed, that they only come to him if he has food, they aren't cuddly and don't even notice him when he walks in the room. Well, that's how turtles are. So he thinks a bird will just be loving to him when it's convenient for him and be alright being alone in a room with lots loud noise, hearing people talking, and with 2 carnivorous turtles that would no doubt make the birds sick, as birds have a very sensitive immune system and do not ever cohabitate with turtles in their natural habitat. He just doesn't get it.
A cockatiel, Senegal, macaw, budgie, African Grey, Pionus, Lorie, whatever parrot you're talking about needs 12-14 hours of sleep to be healthy, and any of these birds that are in a living environment such as his with such little interaction with him or with people in general, and then add in that he's gone for weeks at a time on top of working daily from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. is going to become scared of people, become aggressive, become nasty and start biting any time he goes near their cage. And if he leaves them free in a room with turtles that are carnivorous and carry many bacteria naturally that will make the bird sick (because apparently he just can't put a bird cage in his living room) he's going to have a sick bird as well, with absolutely no avian vets near him. But we both know that the main issue is that he absolutely cannot keep any bird, not a cockatiel or any other bird, with his schedule. He didn't even know enough about parrots to know that cockatiels do not "come in the same colors as an Eclectus". He's choosing bird species based on colors! He hasn't researched them at all, that's pretty clear, but he comes on here and has every person tell him he should not get a bird and they then list the reasons why, and he still thinks that he knows better.
He's going to do whatever he wants to do, that's evident because every time he goes to a pet store he almost comes home with a bird or birds (I just had to laugh when he said he was offered a pair of Macaws at a good price, what a disaster that would be, he'd have 2 Macaws locked in a room with turtles 24/7 every day). So I nor anyone else can stop him from buying a bird, he just doesn't get it, nor does he care to get it, he is a child that wants what he wants and that's it. He is actually looking for a hobby or a new project to work on, not a living creature. But he's going to do what he wants to, and it will be only the poor, neglected bird that suffers. Well, that's not true, he will suffer too once his bird becomes horribly aggressive and mean to him, then he'll have turtles and a bird that he can't take care of properly and that will not pay him any attention except to attack him, bite him, and no doubt this will be the bird's fault I suppose.
I'm just advocating for the bird he buys, as it cannot speak for itself. Someone has to.
"Dance like nobody's watching..."
happy parrot talking.
