Cockatiel, Blue-headed Pionus or White-bellied Caique?

lac575

New member
Aug 16, 2018
24
1
Talent, OR
Parrots
1 Senegal parrot (Poicephalus senegalus)
My husband and I have the opportunity to add a baby cockatiel, baby blue-headed pionus or baby white-Bellied caique to our family. Our birds will be housed separately. The new addition will also be quarantined before introduction. My question is, which species should we get?

We adopted our 3 year old Senegal parrot about a year ago. He wasnt trained or socialized much. We have worked with him a lot over the last year so he has come out of his shell and is becoming increasingly affectionate(in his own senegal parrot way). He will let us give him scritches on the cheek, wants to ride around on our shoulders constantly, steps up pretty much 100% of the time and likes to take showers with us. He has picked my husband as his main squeeze though- definitely one person birds.

We love our little guy so much, however, we would like a slightly easier species next. We understand that all parrots are a lot of work and that any species we get can turn out to need a lot of work...if that is the case we will deal with it as we are completely committed and devoted. Just wondering which of the 3 I listed will be a little bit easier in terms of training and affection?

Thanks!
 
Last edited:

munami

New member
Apr 13, 2019
223
4
Ottawa, ON
Parrots
Luna // F // Whiteface Pearl Cockatiel
I can't say for Caiques or Pionus specifically because any information I have on them is through word of mouth. For cockatiels though, I find them very endearing. Here's a post from another thread I just posted in!

I am also biased but I second cockatiels! Mine is female and very quiet. She loves her head scritches and just likes to hangout with me. She enjoys stepping up to new people. She does get cranky sometimes of course but it's really easy to distract and redirect any aggression she has. She does prefer me more but loves my husband as well.

She's also a hand fed bird. Her bites can be kind of hard sometimes but we're working on bite pressure.

I'll add onto this that Luna is fairly easy to train but it can take her quite a few sessions to get through her head what behavior I am asking for. Sometimes I will repeat the behavior up to 10 sessions until she finally understands.
 

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