First time potential bird owner

[BeatriceC]

What pets do you have now?
What pets have you had in the past?
What happened to those past pets?

You need to be around birds to know if they are right for you. Rabbits make great quite easy pets. Why do you want a bird?

There are days when I don't feel like walking the dogs but I do anyways because I love them and they need it. Same goes for my conure. There are days I just don't feel like dealing with his nips. I still let him out because I love him and don't want to be a selfish jerk.

With any pet you are going to have to take the time to care for it. Even my fish are work. Sure there might be a day that is really crazy and you might not have time. But to just not feel like it....

Our 2 parakeets are really easy but messy.

Oh, boy do I know that feeling in the part I bolded well! Just today I had a 30 minute stare down with the bird cages wishing I went to Hogwarts so I could have learned to magically clean the cages. In the end, my failure to be a muggle born witch made itself pointedly clear and I cleaned out the cages.

 

[SirEdwin89]

What pets do you have now?
What pets have you had in the past?
What happened to those past pets?

You need to be around birds to know if they are right for you. Rabbits make great quite easy pets. Why do you want a bird?

There are days when I don't feel like walking the dogs but I do anyways because I love them and they need it. Same goes for my conure. There are days I just don't feel like dealing with his nips. I still let him out because I love him and don't want to be a selfish jerk.

With any pet you are going to have to take the time to care for it. Even my fish are work. Sure there might be a day that is really crazy and you might not have time. But to just not feel like it....

Our 2 parakeets are really easy but messy.

Oh, boy do I know that feeling in the part I bolded well! Just today I had a 30 minute stare down with the bird cages wishing I went to Hogwarts so I could have learned to magically clean the cages. In the end, my failure to be a muggle born witch made itself pointedly clear and I cleaned out the cages.

Need to borrow the sorcerers hat from Mickey.

 

[Tsali]

I don't feel experienced enough to make any suggestions, but I can relate my personal experience as a newbie bird owner. I apologize for the length of this post, but perhaps it will give you a small insight to the starting point of one person's journey with an African Grey.

I am a one parrot owner. Tsali is a Congo African Grey. Yep. I started and finished with one of the most difficult breeds. I can honestly say that Tsali fulfills ALL of the reasons why I chose a Grey and why I am a one parrot person.

The very first time I even knew about African Greys was when I was talking to a friend and heard one talking in the background. We started talking about parrots in general and Greys in particular -- this was close to 15 years ago. Kids were still at home in school, we had a very busy life with the horse farm and traveled with them a good bit.

I decided right then and there that I WANTED an African Grey Parrot. It took months to bring hubby on board with the idea. I spent another several months trying to find one, went to visit, fell in love and put a deposit down. It was then that reality set in -- do I have enough time to devote to this highly intellgtent and sensitive being. The questions that kept pounding in my head were 1) Did I know enough to be a successful caretaker, 2) Did I have enough time to devote to his care and 3) Would hubby and the kids take an interest. Combining those questions and the fact that Greys are a large financial investment I truly panicked.

I couldn't answer a positive YES to any of my major questions so I contacted the breeder who gladly refunded my deposit. Under the circumstances, it was the right thing to do. BUT I couldn't get the first little "Tsali" out of my head. He was there etched permanently. Skip forward 10 years - yes 10 years. I still had the want/need to have an African Grey in my life. A lot had happened, since the refunded deposit. And I had continued to research Greys throughout those years.

The kids were grown and on their own, we had slowed down with our traveling with the horses and were more home bodies. So once again I decided it was time. Took a year to find a breeder I was happy with -- this time my breeder was a small in home breeder rather than a pet-shop breeder. Then the wait for an egg, and hatching. After hatching we drove the 50+ miles to the breeder's home to interact with the little one every week until he was ready to come home at 3 months. That's a lot of traveling...

And all the while ll I was accumulating more knowledge and stuff for Tsali.

I KNEW that Greys had a tendency to be phobic, one person birds. I was determined that Tsali was not going to be phobic and he definitely wasn't going to be a one person bird. So as soon as he got home and settled in we started introducing him to everyone and everything we could think of. Once he was harness trained, he started going with me to anywhere and everywhere that was pet friendly, and a few that weren't .

So far, so good. We have a well adjusted, happy, healthy, non phobic Grey who is extremely intelligent and talks up a storm. I know that any and/or all of this could change a he matures, but I am going to continue to regularly take him out in public around strangers and introduce him to anything and everything I can think of that is bird safe/friendly.

If I am a good parrot parent, he will far outlive me. I feel it necessary to continue working at keeping him non-phobic and well socialized so that his adjustments to life after Cindy will be as smooth as possible. I have given a lot of thought about this and have assigned a care-taker to follow me. This is someone he knows and spends time with on a regular basis. And as time ticks on I will continue to reevaluate my decision about his care and make revisions as I deem necessary.

Having a parrot in one's life is a full-time, life changing event.

 

[Firstgoatsnowthis]

I'm not a very experienced bird owner, but I'll share this to give perspective on the time commitment:

Yesterday, I felt a little low so I worked from home. I sat on the couch, typing, and my Patagonian Conure was very happy to sit on my shoulder and cuddle for most of the day. When she got loud, I put her down to work on her cardboard "project area." That said, I wouldn't count on her being quiet and easy all day, every day. Birdies feel that they have to do some shouting most days. I have also noticed that Lucky is calmer and happier the more out-of-cage time and attention she gets, and more sullen and nippy if I go somewhere one evening and can't let her out.

On work days, she gets 5 hours of out-of-cage time, approximately and on weekends she gets at least one full day out-of-cage time and usually two. In terms of time and supervision, I would describe their needs as comparable to a very athletic dog. She's more work than my flock of 20 sheep to keep busy and happy! Birds aren't goldfish.