Brand new hopeful bird parent. cape parrot (brown neck) in the lead but soooo little information. Help please!

[khidr]

I have seen and read through lots of posts like this. A lifelong dog person, I fell in love with birds months ago when my kids brought home a group of young chickens from their camp to watch over the weekend so we could continue socializing them. Turns out these were gateway chickens. I literally had no idea how smart and unique these creatures could be. I've been spending a ridiculous amount of time now at local shops and communicating with rescues trying to find the right bird

I think a cape (brown necked) parrot might be right for me but outside one YouTuber it seems like nobody has talked about these gentle sweet birds in about a decade. Are they just that rare? Is everyone with them too busy enjoying their lives with their perfect angels?

I’ve heard they are gentle and never bite or they are super head strong and only a professional parrot wrangler should dare bringing one home. I’ve heard they talk better than African grays but have literally never heard one speak online or elsewhere. I am looking at one young cape who is delightful and easy going but I know very little about who they might be when they become an adult. Are they territorial, do they go from an everyone loving happy kiddo to a one person terror?

Anyway when I compare taking this girl home to say a spicy little Hahns lunatic the biggest fear I have is this lack of real info beyond a very old post here, a couple of brief YouTubes and mythology that tells me she’ll either be the most perfect angel baby ever or quite possibly burn our house to the ground. Help from any happy or resigned owners would be very appreciated.

I’ve visited this individual probably close to a dozen times now, I admit that I’m being slow in the lifetime commitment I’ll be making.

 

[texsize]

I would recommend a YouTube channel #Parrot Bliss.
She has two Cape parrots and has made many videos about them.

I have heard they are similar in temperament to African Grey parrots.

 

[khidr]

Thank you. I think I have watched every video she has, which has been great. (And potentially expensive. She’s a great ambassador for golden conurea and Hahns macaws too!) She has a unique situation though with so many parrots out and about so hoping for some other owners direct experiences.

 

[wrench13]

Look lets face facts. If you own a parrot, there WILL be times he is a terror and loud and bitey. And then the next day he will do something to melt your heart and all is forgiven. It is a part of having a parrot, which is still a wild animal - they are still many generations away from becoming a domesticated animal, if ever. It is extremely hard to mold species this long lived, most breeders do not keep tabs on birds once they leave the breeders facility, and with some bird taking several years before their true post puberty personalities to emerge, breeders can't selectively breed for things like gentleness, etc.

A lot of temperament comes from the nurture side of the equation. Nurture as in training, treatment, environment and family/flock dynamics. And trust. Parrots are all about trust, in a way that most humans don't really understand. We are so used to doing just what we like and telling ourselves how good and nice we are. Parrots aren;t fooled. They see the real us, no hiding it.

And yeah, nature does come into play too; Greys and 'toos are prone to be neurotic, conures to be bitey, the Hot 3 Amazons to be a handful, etc etc. But really any parrot could be any of those! I say go into your parronthood with eyes open, ready to make changes in your life for the sake of this new life your about to invite into yours.

 

[khidr]

wrench you are so right. I've been not bringing in a parrot for months, but spending a lot of time interacting, getting to know individuals and researching the ever-loving poop out of this. I'm in my mid 40s with a 12 and 8 year old, who are both crazy animal people like me, and so this is probably going to be a companion that outlives me.

I hate the concept I've heard about a "beginner" parrot. That sounds like those little guys become disposable creatures, and I can't imagine adopting a parrot that I didn't connect with. It sets us both up for failure, and minimizes the gravity of this commitment. I know I'll be bitten, we'll have fights and we'll make up. Whoever I adopt is going to be with me and only in a cage when she needs to be secured for safety, sleep, or I can't be present to supervise her directly. I want to spend the time to make sure she is well socialized and sees people as positive members of her flock.

I guess my hope in seeing if anyone has adult capes specifically is that when I compare her to a hans macaw (my other main squeeze) there is just a wealth of understanding about the basics that form the nature part based on their adaptations. Some people end up with chill little couch potatoes, and some have sassy fire crackers because all birds are individuals, but there's more information about some basic traits. Capes seem like such a mystery. Maybe I just need to be the guy who painstakingly documents the heck out of my potential relationship. Or maybe I'll fall in love with another bird. The problem I have is it's not so much I love a species or want a certain kind of parrot, I've just fallen head over heels for an individual. Maybe that's the most important thing.

 

[khidr]

I pulled the trigger and brought home my little cricket. I know a lot of people say adopt don't shop. My experience was that most rescues, probably fairly, weren't keen on considering a first time bird owner. I get that. I visited this girl over many weeks and probably exhausted the (incredible, compassionate and true bird-loving) people at the store, but they never lost patience with me even if they teased me for occasionally cheating on my girl when I'd play with other birds. They cried when I took this angel home.

I can't even imagine what paronthood is going to be like. I know this sweet little baby will grow up and have strong opinions and remind me she was once a dinosaur. She may fall more in love with one of my kids than me, or have times that she's super annoyed that we're doing something, or that I'm telling her she can't eat that (whatever it may be). I know it's silly to say but I seriously feel like my heart has grown a size. She is sleeping on my shoulder. Yes I know not everyone is pro shoulder - I plan on making sure that she maintains her willingness to step up to my hand and off my shoulder when I ask, which so far she's been agreeable to. If she doesn't then she'll lose shoulder privileges, but right now, she is a sleep girl after a racous 24 hours and listening to her purr and chirrup in my ear is the most magical thing I've ever experienced. I'll deny this if my kids ever see this post

 

[wrench13]

Hey congrats!! Not too soon to start training for all sorts of stuff - step up, putting on a harness, recall - if he is to be flighted, etc. Your next big hurdle will be changing any foods he has been used to, if his current diet is not great. Do that very slowly over time. And the next hurdle, a big one, will be him going into and thru puberty. THat can start anywhere from 6 months to 1-1/2 years and last several if not many months. Puberty is different for every bird. Some have truly horrible puberty and some, like my Salty, are so mild you might not even notice it. Salty's was like that, really mild, but his first adult mating season was really bad.
Good luck and pictures or it didn't happen!

 

[khidr]

Hey congrats!! Not too soon to start training for all sorts of stuff - step up, putting on a harness, recall - if he is to be flighted, etc. Your next big hurdle will be changing any foods he has been used to, if his current diet is not great. Do that very slowly over time. And the next hurdle, a big one, will be him going into and thru puberty. THat can start anywhere from 6 months to 1-1/2 years and last several if not many months. Puberty is different for every bird. Some have truly horrible puberty and some, like my Salty, are so mild you might not even notice it. Salty's was like that, really mild, but his first adult mating season was really bad.
Good luck and pictures or it didn't happen!

Fair!

There will be more for sure.
I guess like the human babies, all the baby cuteness and cuddles are what lets us survive the adolescence.

 

[wrench13]

Start walk around tours of the house, show him by tapping on walls, windows and mirrors that these are SOLID - birds do not intrinsically know what these are. If you can get him to tap on them with his beak, he will really know.

 

[GoldenDaysAz]

Congratulations! I’m excited about your updates

 

[RavensGryf]

Congratulations! I’ve always loved how the Brown Necked parrots looked, with their adorable faces and oversized beaks. I’m also partial, as I have two Poicephalus myself. Red Bellied and Ruppell’s. I don’t know the temperament of the Brown Necked and if it varies much from the smaller Pois, but I can say that my heart bird (Red Bellied) who is 30 years old took until he was about 20 for his hormones to calm down and stop attacking out of the blue at times. Nowdays he’s the sweetest. The smaller Pois can be vicious when hormonal and they can bite a lot harder and deeper than other birds of same size. I’ve heard the Brown Necked are less apt to quickly use their large beaks in that way? But don’t hold me to that lol! With my Poi boys (plus my Pionus and English budgie, dogs and cat) I’m done buying any more parrots. But if I could? It would be a BN

 

[khidr]

Congratulations! I’ve always loved how the Brown Necked parrots looked, with their adorable faces and oversized beaks. I’m also partial, as I have two Poicephalus myself. Red Bellied and Ruppell’s. I don’t know the temperament of the Brown Necked and if it varies much from the smaller Pois, but I can say that my heart bird (Red Bellied) who is 30 years old took until he was about 20 for his hormones to calm down and stop attacking out of the blue at times. Nowdays he’s the sweetest. The smaller Pois can be vicious when hormonal and they can bite a lot harder and deeper than other birds of same size. I’ve heard the Brown Necked are less apt to quickly use their large beaks in that way? But don’t hold me to that lol! With my Poi boys (plus my Pionus and English budgie, dogs and cat) I’m done buying any more parrots. But if I could? It would be a BN

Totally with you. Found a fellow cape owner over on reddit who had some dreamy story of a pretty mild adolescence with some humor. I've decided to approach it assuming my girl will become the most vicious territorial monster ever born and I will love her anyway, and we'll work backwards from there. For now I have a few years to make sure she has lots of positive experience and training with everyone in the family and other fresh faces as often as possible.

Her behavior right now, if she's super into a toy and one of my kids would rather she step up is to babble like an angry old man, and my kids understand that no means no, so everyone is respecting her verbal cues and teaching her that using her words will reinforce the thing she wants. I'm probably ridiculous but she seems to get the difference so far. I'm sure any parrot is going to bite, but the general sense I get is Capes are less beaky in the wild and so more likely to give a clear opinion before just going angry tiny dinosaur.

The major caveat is the world of online Cape owners is somewhat limited, there are just fewer of them than mini macaws, amazons gray's etc... so I think it's harder to generalize her species, and so I'm going into this with my eyes open understanding that someday, I might do something wrong and she'll decide that my finger needs to come off. My goal is to respect her, and understand her needs every single day to make sure that I really earn that bite when it comes. Will never be her fault.

 

[RavensGryf]

Totally with you. Found a fellow cape owner over on reddit who had some dreamy story of a pretty mild adolescence with some humor. I've decided to approach it assuming my girl will become the most vicious territorial monster ever born and I will love her anyway, and we'll work backwards from there. For now I have a few years to make sure she has lots of positive experience and training with everyone in the family and other fresh faces as often as possible.

Her behavior right now, if she's super into a toy and one of my kids would rather she step up is to babble like an angry old man, and my kids understand that no means no, so everyone is respecting her verbal cues and teaching her that using her words will reinforce the thing she wants. I'm probably ridiculous but she seems to get the difference so far. I'm sure any parrot is going to bite, but the general sense I get is Capes are less beaky in the wild and so more likely to give a clear opinion before just going angry tiny dinosaur.

The major caveat is the world of online Cape owners is somewhat limited, there are just fewer of them than mini macaws, amazons gray's etc... so I think it's harder to generalize her species, and so I'm going into this with my eyes open understanding that someday, I might do something wrong and she'll decide that my finger needs to come off. My goal is to respect her, and understand her needs every single day to make sure that I really earn that bite when it comes. Will never be her fault.

From my experience and hearing over the decades from people, it seems in general it’s the males that are harder to handle in terms of hormonal aggression.

I’ve also had two females of larger species in the past (Eclectus and SlenderBilled Cockatoo) who grew to be mature adults. I had them for well into the age that they could’ve been terrors but they were both markedly more gentle than males I’d experienced or heard about. They didn’t exhibit near the problems my Poicephalus boys (or any males) have had.

 

[Inger]

Fair! View attachment 60393 View attachment 60394

There will be more for sure.
I guess like the human babies, all the baby cuteness and cuddles are what lets us survive the adolescence.

Well she is almost the cutest thing I've ever seen. No wonder you're in love!

 

[SammyAndyAlex]

Congrats!!
I don't have a cape but do have a Jardine and two CAGs.

Gotta say that out of all of mine Sammy (the Jardine) is both the sweetest and the biggest terror and worst biter.

Had I been able to get a cape I would have seriously considered one instead of a Jardine, but there are not breeders near me (and I am so thankful and happy that I went with Sammy).

I just want to comment on the speaking bit:
CAGs are generally speaking (pun intended lol) the most vocally talented. Sammy can speak and does so quite a bit but he has a distinct metallic voice (I suppose you could call it "robotic") whereas my CAGs don't. But I have heard of Jardine's that don't have the metallic voice.
But Capes should be pretty similar to Jardine's overall, but as you most likely know, it's so individual. Some CAGs never speak a single word and other parrots that are considered less "vocally talented" might be total chatterboxes.

I wish the two of you the best! Wish you many happy years together