Whats your Caique like as a companion?

[Nathan1]

Hi everyone, I'm wondering what a caique is like as a companion parrot? I've got my eye on Senegals at the moment and am very happy with the way they sound as a companion, but just spoke to a breeder and he suggested a caique to me. I live in an apartment so the main thing of concern is noise really.... And of course I know every bird makes noise but the Senegal for example is ment to be a quiter parrot overall. I work mostly long hours on the wknd during the day say 7 till 6pm.... Wed n Thursday 12 till 6pm Fridays I work mostly from home. Are caiques good at entertaining them selves for hours at a time whilst I would be at work? Are they known to scream much for attention or when bored? (Eg when not home).

I love the way the look and how playful they are, but not sure on their noise factor. I am happy to trade the prettyness for a Bird who is still cute but not unapartment friendly, such as the Senegal.

All personal experiences would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks
Jaz

Lots of people say Caiques are "clowns", they're very comical, one thing they enjoy doing is hopping on the ground...Kind of odd, but it's funny lol...I've only had 1 Caique and I didn't have him very long, but even though he was aggressive(from a rescue), he kinda stuck with me and I think I may one day get a pair of Caiques. He was fairly quiet, he could be noisy at times but would have been fine in an apartment. However, some Caiques are louder than others so it's best to visit the bird you're adopting first and ask lots of questions. Caiques entertain them selves with basically anything, they're constantly doing things that make you laugh. Also, unlike other parrots even a bonded pair will remain very tame and sociable amongst human members of the flock, because of this they're often kept as pairs, if you did have a pair then even if you're gone all day they have each other.

 

[DanR]

Hi everyone, I'm wondering what a caique is like as a companion parrot? I've got my eye on Senegals at the moment and am very happy with the way they sound as a companion, but just spoke to a breeder and he suggested a caique to me. I live in an apartment so the main thing of concern is noise really.... And of course I know every bird makes noise but the Senegal for example is ment to be a quiter parrot overall. I work mostly long hours on the wknd during the day say 7 till 6pm.... Wed n Thursday 12 till 6pm Fridays I work mostly from home. Are caiques good at entertaining them selves for hours at a time whilst I would be at work? Are they known to scream much for attention or when bored? (Eg when not home).

I love the way the look and how playful they are, but not sure on their noise factor. I am happy to trade the prettyness for a Bird who is still cute but not unapartment friendly, such as the Senegal.

All personal experiences would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks
Jaz

You have a lot of feedback from Caique veterans here so I'll make this quick. Tango is an amazing companion, I love him to bits. My first bird so I can't compare him to other birds but he is full of life, hilarious and a sweety but will let me know when he wants to be back in his home (starts biting my neck). BUT he is not apartment friendly... it's actually not the alone part, it's when someone is in the house. He chatters and chitters and sqwaks away when he hears someone in the house and he only tones it down a bit when he's out of his cage. He's just so happy and having a good time he has to shout about it. As someone says, it's more cheering than screaming, but it would be easily heard from the hall and neighboring apartments if I was in a building, VERY easily.

Oh and my wife taught him to cat call... so he now does it any time he sees my wife. The only time he does it with me is when he's sees me in the buff when I take him along for a tandem shower he's been doing it for a couple of weeks now and my wife still bursts out laughing when all she hears from the bathroom is the shower running and Tango's cat call whistle over and over again.

 

[dskidd]

Jaz: As other people have mentioned, it's more of a "good morning!" kind of call. Eliza will make a series of very quiet "where are you" whistles at dawn. If I don't answer her, she'll stop for fifteen minutes to a half hour, then try again. If I do answer, we'll quietly whistle at each other (E&H aren't in the bedroom with me) for awhile; even if there was someone in the guest room, I bet they couldn't hear us. Of course, I pretty much have to get up at that point, or she'll start getting a bit more insistent. Henry stays silent.

Once I'm up, they'll chatter away, but it's not like it's loud. Eventually, when I have my coffee and watch the news, they just preen and quietly chatter. The only time they've really hurt my ears is when each of them are on a different shoulder. Unfortunately, since my neck is inconveniently (at least for them) between my shoulders, I will occasionally get the "Hey! Where'd ya go?!" "Whaddya mean, where did I go?! I'm right here on Dad's shoulder!" exchange, which can be a bit rough on the eardrums... [emoji6]

Dan, if by "cat call," you mean what I call a "wolf whistle," Eliza has that one down. Unfortunately, she'll do it from my home office window when one of the women in the neighborhood are out for a jog: my pointing at Eliza and mouthing "it's the bird! Honest!" doesn't seem to have much effect... [emoji12]

Derek

 

[Jaz27b]

Jowel: I shall most definitely post pics once I do get my next fid Still a few months away so plenty on time to keep quizzing everyone and maintaining my excitement!

DanR: Hahahaha that is hilarious that she cat whistles at you only when you take your clothes off LMAO Way to funny, love it!

 

[DanR]

Jaz: As other people have mentioned, it's more of a "good morning!" kind of call. Eliza will make a series of very quiet "where are you" whistles at dawn. If I don't answer her, she'll stop for fifteen minutes to a half hour, then try again. If I do answer, we'll quietly whistle at each other (E&H aren't in the bedroom with me) for awhile; even if there was someone in the guest room, I bet they couldn't hear us. Of course, I pretty much have to get up at that point, or she'll start getting a bit more insistent. Henry stays silent.

Once I'm up, they'll chatter away, but it's not like it's loud. Eventually, when I have my coffee and watch the news, they just preen and quietly chatter. The only time they've really hurt my ears is when each of them are on a different shoulder. Unfortunately, since my neck is inconveniently (at least for them) between my shoulders, I will occasionally get the "Hey! Where'd ya go?!" "Whaddya mean, where did I go?! I'm right here on Dad's shoulder!" exchange, which can be a bit rough on the eardrums... [emoji6]

Dan, if by "cat call," you mean what I call a "wolf whistle," Eliza has that one down. Unfortunately, she'll do it from my home office window when one of the women in the neighborhood are out for a jog: my pointing at Eliza and mouthing "it's the bird! Honest!" doesn't seem to have much effect... [emoji12]

Derek

LOL yep the wolf whistle... and suuuuuure, blame it on poor innocent Eliza

 

[dskidd]

LOL yep the wolf whistle... and suuuuuure, blame it on poor innocent Eliza

Ladies and gentlemen of ParrotForums.com, you are all witnesses to an historical, once-in-a-lifetime event:

The words "innocent" and "Eliza" appearing in the same sentence.

Mark this day on your calendars; it'll never happen again! At least not in MY house, anyway!

 

[Nocturnal]

Senegals are very quiet as a rule-- they also seem pretty independent. Think of them as tiny, non-talkative African grays. I've heard they can be extremely sensitive to change, but mine has never had that issue (she is an older bird too... A year older than me).

Caiques are very playful, busy birds. I certainly wouldn't recomend mine for an apartment; they are loud little boogers! Extremely loud for their size and much louder than a sun conure. My sunconure also doesn't scream for no reason.



Beware though Sennies have a tough time hitting puberty and a LOT of them get rehomed when they do because they switch what person they like and start biting (and they can really bite HARD, extremely damaging bites from mine). If you get a sennie I would enthusiastically recomend you try and find an adult bird that you like and that likes you back. I'm talking one that is 5-8+ years old.

 

[Jaz27b]

Senegals are very quiet as a rule-- they also seem pretty independent. Think of them as tiny, non-talkative African grays. I've heard they can be extremely sensitive to change, but mine has never had that issue (she is an older bird too... A year older than me).

Caiques are very playful, busy birds. I certainly wouldn't recomend mine for an apartment; they are loud little boogers! Extremely loud for their size and much louder than a sun conure. My sunconure also doesn't scream for no reason.



Beware though Sennies have a tough time hitting puberty and a LOT of them get rehomed when they do because they switch what person they like and start biting (and they can really bite HARD, extremely damaging bites from mine). If you get a sennie I would enthusiastically recomend you try and find an adult bird that you like and that likes you back. I'm talking one that is 5-8+ years old.

Thanks for your input, love how many people replied to my question ! Unfortunately, if i am to get a sennie, it will most likely have to be baby as there aren't to many available in Australia. None up for sale atm that I can find at all, Australia wide. Not that I'm ready yet, but yea, I would be very hard pushed to find an adult i think, even getting a baby isn't overly easy. There is only me and mypartner who the sennie would be living with, and my partner isn't into birds the way I am, he will of course help me out in getting his food etc when I'm at work, but he definitely wouldn't really voluntarily bring him out the cage to play etc, unless I asked him to.
Do you think that the bird could still change to wanting Steve to be his main mate rather than me if Steve was to give him very little attention overall?

If anyone else has experienced this with their sennie, feel free to discuss Or even what it was like when your sennie went thru the puberty stage.

If a sennie doesn't end up being my available companion, (I also only have pretty much one shot each year at getting one.which is around Decembe, according.to.the breeders i have contacted), I may have to 're consider one of the smaller conures, preferably a crimson bellied conure, same family as the green cheek.

 

[Nocturnal]

All birds are different, but that's my experience with the poicephalus genus--- I used to work at a bird store and my boss, after dealing with many Sennies and red belly parrots (not conures, poicephalus), she decided they just don't make decent pets and refused to raise/sell any more babies. Literally they would go from sweet handtamed and handfed babies to despising her and biting hard.

I think the most important thing would be to make sure they are raised very independently so they don't precieve either of you as a "parent"-- it's natural and instinctive for birds to decide to to hate their parents at puberty-- it helps make sure genes stay diverse and that they don't mate back to their parents.

 

[WhirlyBirdy]

i'm not sure if i am allowed to say this on this forum and I am probably get in rather big trouble for doing so but, just for the record, have you looked at petlink its a gumtree like website, mainly full of small time breeders (and some scammers of course) and I am pretty sure there are a few senegals for sale on it at the moment, mostly pairs but some older individuals. Anyway you may have already found this but just in case you hadn't. also i was in no way advertising or promoting petlink.