Not a parrot owner. Yet.

Hello, everyone!

My name is KC and I found this website during research on my future companion.

I live in central PA with my husband (JC), Welsh Corgi (Mollie), and cat (Madeline).

Don't tell my dog and cat, but birds, wild or pet, have always been my favorite creatures for as long as I can remember. I have always planned on having one in our family, but we haven't come across the proper timing yet. I've been waiting anxiously for several years and don't know how much longer I can take it, though this gives me plenty of time to research and make sure that everything is right when the time comes!

I look forward to getting to know everyone and learning from your collective experiences.

Edit:

It just occurred to me that I should probably give more information!

My husband and I are both young adults, going on 5 years of marriage. We just bought our first home and do not have plans of moving anytime soon, if ever. He works in the IT department at a major chocolate company here in PA (I won't drop names!) and I am caught somewhere between homemaker and self-employed artist.

Welcome to the forum KC. What type of parrot are you interested in?

Have you and your husband spent much time around parrots and do you know if either of you may be allergic to the dust from their feathers? It is a problem that is coming up quite often on the forum.

The other thing that you must also think about (I am sure you have already) is, what will happen when you have a baby? There are lots of parrots up for adoption because the owners do not have time for them any more due to the new baby.

Lots of knowledgeable people here that are always willing to help.

There is a good information in the general parrot forum called "so you think you want a parrot". One of our members took her time to write about the negatives of bird guardianship. This is something that is not talked about much. Birds are wonderful, unique, wild animals that will forever bless your life if that is the way you choose to go. Thanks for joining us here.

Thank you for the warm welcome! I sure do appreciate it.

I suppose now is as good of a time as any to delve further into what a parrot would mean for my (and my husband's) life. Much of it revolves around the fact that I am disabled.

As part of my disability, we are not able to have children. We both love children (I help out at my sister-in-law's daycare and her Sunday School classroom when I am able.) and it was rather devastating for a while until we came to peace with the fact. I've heard that a parrot is not unlike a perpetual toddler. I have to say that this excites me to no end!

Before my disability worsened to the point where I was no longer to work outside the home, I worked at several pet stores where I got my first exposures to parrots. I never experienced any allergic reactions to handling them or cleaning their areas, nor did JC when I forced him to sit in the parrot room to be with them for hours on end after my shifts. I hope that means we are clear in the allergy department!

As for the type of parrot I am interested in... well, I have my heart set, but input from the community here is more than welcome to make sure we get a perfect match.

Six years ago, I fell in love with a sun conure. His name was Quincy. It thrilled me to open the store in the morning and hear him screaming for my attention! He would talk with me and ride around on my shoulder while I went about my tasks. When shifts were over, he'd cuddle up on my chest or lay down on his back in my hands. I would have loved to give him a home, but it just couldn't be done. His quadruple-digit price tag was out of our range, and we knew that we would soon be moving to a new state. It just wouldn't have been fair for him.

In the new state, I worked for another pet store. Surprise, surprise... I fell madly in love with another sun conure. I'm not sure what gender it was, but its name was Skittles. Skittles was a quieter conure and never screamed for my attention, but loved to ride on my shoulder and give me kisses. I'm not sure what you call this action, but when I asked for a kiss, Skittles would "nibble" on my lip. I hesitate to call it a nibble because there was no pressure at all, rather just mouthing at my lip.

Obviously, I developed a pattern of falling in love with sun conures. I did have the pleasure of enjoying company with other conures like green cheeks and Jendays, but we never seemed to connect like I did with the suns. The sun conures just reached the deepest level of my heart like none of the other parrots could.

Anyway! We are back in our home state and finally settled down. I'm not sure when we will officially be on the hunt for our addition will be, but the rough estimate is anywhere from 2 months to a year from now. Plenty of time to get it all straight!

At first, we were looking at planning for another pet, like our dog and cat, until we discovered that people with disabilities similar to mine have specific companion animals to help them get through the day. Kind of like service dogs that you see helping those with physical disabilities in the public, only these kinds of companions stay at home and aren't limited to a certain kind of animal.

That got us thinking. Perhaps a parrot, for us, could mean so much more than another family pet. Perhaps it could be a bonded companion to me that could be trained to assist me with simple things. I suppose I should put details on that on the conure or training boards?

Sorry for being so long-winded. I want to make certain that all the right decisions are made.

Spiritbird, thank you for that! I just got finished reading over it. I was aware of most of those points, thankfully. That is a lot of the reason why I have been waiting over six years to have one of my own. The time just hasn't been right yet for us to be able to cater to all of those negatives.

Hopefully all will fall into place soon, and in the meantime, I can learn from you all on how to deal with that list of negatives.