Greetings

[flying_landon]

Hello everyone. I guess this is my "Who I am" post.

Anywho, in the near future, I may be getting to a living situation that will allow me to finally get a bird, since I wouldn't inflict the possible trials of new bird ownership on an unwilling room mate, and mom would have no part of a bird in the house when I lived at home. So, anyways, I like to be well prepared for new things, so I'm trying to gather information to know what to expect.

So, in case you haven't guessed it, no I haven't owned a bird before. However I own / have owned a number of pets, and this wouldn't be my first time having to do with the upkeep of a contained animal. I've had a fish tank, hermit crabs, geckos and of course like many households, we had the family dog.

I've been looking into various birds, and I have my heart set on some species of talking bird. The two, so far, that seem to stand out the most to me are Quakers and Macaws. However, to be honest from what I've seen, I simply couldn't afford a macaw. Unless I've been looking a bum information, the macaws seem to go for well over a thousand dollars, and I simply can't afford that

So, I guess as time goes on, I'll probably be asking questions that aren't so easy to answer on-line, and get further insite to those that are. I mean, finding basic housing, feeding and behavioral information is easy. However finding out what to look for in selecting a bird, training (for lack of a better term for aclimating a bird to me being a constance factor in it's life) and the like I think I would learn much more through actual conversation with people with experience.

So, anyways, that's the short of it. Or not so short, but I'm at work and procrastinating, so there!

Anywho, hello all, and I look forward to sponging knowledge from you all.

 

[zarafia]

Hello and welcome to the forum. I think you will find lots of people here happy to help and share their knowledge and stories with you.
Its very easy to fall in love with macaws. They are beautiful and smart and live a very long time.
However before you jump feet first into a lifetime commitment you might want to explore your interest in some of the smaller parrots. A quaker can be a wonderful pet. They are affectionate, smart and can be good talkers. They will also introduce you to a parrots natural vocalization without the lung capacity of a macaw or cockatoo.
There are so many different kinds of hand fed baby parrots available today. Take the time to look at some of the different possibilities by reading through the different posts here.
I hope you enjoy exploring.

 

[flying_landon]

Thanks.

Yea, that's one of my considerations about a Macaw as well. That's a loooong time to have a bird. Of course, the upside is I'd probably kick the bucket before the bird did, so I wouldn't have to go through the unpleasantness of losing a beloved pet. I think a lot of it has do to with when I was a kid, my babysitter's mother bred birds and had a scarlet macaw, so I spent about 2 summers around that guy, and thought he was the coolest thing with feathers.

And also, that is what drew me to the Quakers is that from what I've read in a couple of different places is that they are noted for being...well, like you said, affectionate, intelligent and good talkers, which are three very important characteristics to me. But I agree, and I intend to look more and more into the whole slew of parrot species out there. Hopefully as I look, I can get some direction from others as to what species have those traits as well.

 

[Lori]

Hello !!!
Several birds have the ability to talk but some choose not to. I'm happy to see you doing research before jumping in. Ask all the questions you can. A Quaker is a good first bird there are many in that size that would be a good choice. Look into rehoming one. It will help with the huge expense of a first bird. Go to as many stores as you can to visit different breeds. Talk to as many people about them. I would not recommend a pet store bird there have been to many issues with sick birds in some of the larger chain stores and they are over priced. Keep asking and looking this will help you have a positive experience. I wish you luck.

 

[TexDot33]

Several birds have the ability to talk but some choose not to.

I wish more humans were this way ... sorry, I digress!

... this wouldn't be my first time having to do with the upkeep of a contained animal ...

Contained ... ... if you speak in the terms of I keep them contained in my house, I guess my birds are contained ... Only time my guys will allow me to put them in their "rooms" (we try not to use the word "cage" it's so, confining ... ) is if we aren't home, or they want to eat or go to bed ... otherwise they hang out with us (for the record, "yes" they are spoiled).

Now we have mentioned quakers ... I personally CAN NOT STAND the call of a quaker ... like nails on a chalk board (now that's coming from a person who has one of the loudest small birds around).

How about a Green-Cheeked Conure? All the personality of a quaker (even more, IMHO) as good, if not, better potential talker ... big birdie attitude, little birdie body!

There are lots of great potential first birds out there ... and everyone is going to have strong opinions about what they feel is the best choice ... but please feel free to ask us any thing that comes to mind, we love to offer advice ...

:50:

 

[Auggie's Dad]

GCC's are awesome. But I didn't know they were good talkers... never thought of conures as talkers, just screamers.

Auggie can say "good boy" thats about it. When he's in a really good mood he just runs around chanting "good boy, good boy, good boy..."

 

[TexDot33]

Christy and I didn't think that he was going to be a great talker but he just
turned a year old and his daily vocabulary includes:

"Step-up", "Gimme a kiss", "What's that", "HAMMIE" (yelling at Hamlet if she is too loud) "Good boy" and "thank you" ...

We have heard him say, "Merry Chirstmas", "Where's Mac", "Hammie's wet" (in the shower or after a bath while looking at Hamlet)

He also mumbles, a lot! One of these days he's going to come out with an explosion of new words ...

He also knows how to use words correctly:

The other day Hamlet tumbled from the top of her cage (again, bad clip job and she can't fly right now) and he sat on top of his cage saying "step-up" "step-up" "Hammie, step-up" until Christy picked her up off the floor.

I am sure that there are many other instances that I am forgetting about right now, and there are other words that I know I have forgotten right now. But yes, he's a great talker.

:50:

 

[flying_landon]

Contained ... ...

I mean contained by the fact that they generally have a specific place that is theirs only, and has to be highly maintained after as they're general bedroom, bathroom and dining room. Ideally, I'd like my bird to learn that if he/she needs to go do number 1 or 2, to go do it in the cage and not on like...my computer monitor. Somehow I doubt this is going to happen immediately.

But I will have to look into conjures as well (So THAT'S what GCC means...)

But that's what I'm here for is to learn. There's a lot I need to learn about general bird care as well, as information seems to be hit or miss as to how useful it is.

 

[Auggie's Dad]

Immediately no, but birds are quite potty trainable.

Some have even gone to the extent of teaching them to go in one particular spot such as a trash can/bag which makes for even easier clean up.

 

[danewillow]

Einstein is somewhat potty trained. He saves his big poop for when I take him out after work. I walk quickly to his play gym/perch saying "No pooping" and he holds it (or tries to, sometimes he doesn't make it) until I put him down. If I'm holding him and he starts to do his little poop squat, I tell him no pooping and bring him over to his perch (it has a tray under it with newspaper), tell him "Now you can poop" and he does. He's been known to proclaim "No pooping" right before dropping one of his little bombs. I don't find him to be very reliable though. Anyone getting ready to buy a bird should be prepared to clean up some poop.

 

[Tracy842]

I think I might be the only person that prefers birds that don't talk. I love Caiques, not talkers but you can not beat their personalities.

 

[RSRosey]

TexDot,
You said "Only time my guys will allow me to put them in their "rooms" (we try not to use the word "cage" it's so, confining ... ) is if we aren't home, or they want to eat or go to bed ... otherwise they hang out with us (for the record, "yes" they are spoiled)."

How long have your guys been like this. My bird (nameless at the moment, we just found out she is a he) likes to be in his cage. I try to get him to hang out with us more but he doesn't want to just yet. I would guess that he just isn't comfortable enough here yet and the cage is his safe haven. He loves to hang out on me in another room. Just not in the same room as his cage. We are thinking about moving his cage. It is in the living room right now and that is where I spend most of my time. If I could get him to want to hang out with me there it would be GREAT. I am trying to give him time and he is coming around some. What did you do to Spoil them?
Rhonda

 

[TexDot33]

Rosey to my understanding most male amazons tend to become very "territorial" with "their cages", "their toys" and even "their humans" and this behavior can become very problematic if not taken care of early (and will get worse with mating season, which you don't have to worry about for about 2 to 3 years). You could have problems adding to your flock (if you wanted to in the future) it can also lead to "disfavored person" aggressions displays (your significant other comes around you ... aggression from your 'zon towards him) and, (this is something that Christy and I have to think about) it can also lead to problems with increasing the size of your human family.

How can you nip this in the bud now? Well, YOU have to establish yourself as the flock leader, then you have to establish the fact that everything that he thinks is "his" is actually communal property of "the flock" and belongs to everyone ... ESPECIALLY his favored person, who IS NOT territory to be defended, but rather another member of the flock.

(This morning we had a little squabble over their morning almond. Hamlet finished hers and Mac hadn't yet, so she went over and took Mac's almond away from him. BIG BIRD (me) had to step in, take the almond back from Hamlet (that was a trick)and give it back to Mac, remove mac from the situation and then Hamlet got a "time-out" in her room (yeah, BTW, cages are used as "time out" places too - mind you, they don't usually "LET" us put them in there without a fight for that reason)

How do you accomplish this, well, I am not sure ... it just happened, I know that both of our birds picked us ... and they want to be with us, they don't like to be alone. This is a nice thing ... but also has it's down sides, ... I am not sure that Hamlet and Mac know how to "self-entertain" properly ... they chew, but they don't necessarily play.

The best person you can ask about amazon behavior is Birdman660 ... hopefully he'll pop in some ideas here on how to train down the territorial issues ...