Parrot People

What have you owned, what do you own, and what do you plan or hope to own someday?

opcorn:

I'll start.

I have had two lovebirds, one passed away from a tumour in October, and the other is still with me. The one that passed away was a male, SUPER friendly, hand-fed, etc... The one I currently have is female, not very friendly, and a rehome/rescue who I don't believe was hand-fed. Either that, or they did a super crappy job of it.

Photo: Hand-fed friendly male on left (Skittles), female on right (Peachy... Hate that name but never changed it )



I love lovies, but I want something a bit bigger for my next bird. I plan to get a Crimson Bellied Conure, hopefully not too far in the distant future. I have been drooling over them for about a year and a half when I stumbled across photos of them online, and they sound like exactly what I am looking for. Here is a photo:

http://philregalo.com/ProductImages/philippine-pets/crimsonconurebig.jpg

I may end up thinking about a second bird (once the current lovie is gone and I have the CBC), but am unsure at this point and will wait for the conure to mature. I am not attracted to the idea of having a ton of pets at once, but am still open to the idea of having another. Not sure on species but will do a boatload of research and think it through very carefully.

I've had a cockatiel, cockatoo, and two Quakers. My family was a bird family.

I will never have a bird ever again. The squawking(or screaming in some cases)....oi vey.

After a cockatoo... Don't blame you :rofl1:

I have a Senegal parrot named Magic who is... 23 years old now. Have had her since she was a wee baby. (Probably a her based on coloring, but have never bothered to sex her.) All of the dogs and cats who have ever lived here are terrified of her, she's basically a miniature T-Rex.

When she is gone someday I don't plan to have any more birds.

This.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRnLPDcLGHs

For hours. And hours. And hours.

The dogs went into hiding. The people were emotional wrecks. The cops were called.
It was a female, and she got attached to my mom's husband. When he wasn't in sight, she did this. Oh, and he worked night shift, and slept during the day. It was a nightmare.

Currently we have Lola, a Spanish speaking Double Yellow Headed Amazon, she is a sweet bird who adores all of us but LOVES my son... She belonged to an older lady who passed on, she has started speaking English but still says a ton in Spanish that I have no clue what it means!! She also sings "Oh Canada" in a shaky old lady voice, it's adorable!

I had an African Grey I adored... Total complete love affair.... Sadly we lost him at only 6 years old, the avian vet tentatively determined he had a heart attack

I also prematurely lost an Citron Crested Cockatoo, she was fine one day, sickly the next... They were not able to save her and her breathing was labored, though we can't prove it we firmly believe we lost her due to damage to her lungs from the house fire :-( my Avian vet saw her shortly after the fire and was worried about that, she also plucked and self mutilated after the fire, which she had never done previously, she did stop after a few months but was never quite the same..

We have had a few birds we took in and re-homed when friends or acquaintances were not able to keep them, one of the most interesting was a rainbow lory, he was a complete clown!

Pictures:

These are all I could find fast, the one of Dixie is when she was very young:

I baby sat an Umbrella for 2 weeks, EVIL bird!!! They are truly not always the best pet and seem to do the worst in captivity of all the parrots except possibly the Moluccan... Dixie was loud at times, and typically 'Too clingy but Snowbee the Umbrella.. Well it cured me ever wanting one!! Honestly I'll likely never own a 'Too again period, even Dixie who never, ever bit was way more work than Kenny or Lola... I'd like to own another Grey, but my heart is not over Kenny..

I have two cockatiels, a Caique parrot, and a Starling. All are very good birds, I love them to death. I am actually taking a 'developmentally challenged' Canary Winged BeeBee Parakeet, he is still being hand fed, but he is all mine .

I'm not sure about future birds..I really like Indian Ringnecks...maybe one day. I'm not a 'big' bird person, I just don't have the cajones to handle big macaws and amazons. And cockatoos are absolutely not, I'm really on the fence about if they should be pets at all.

My Mom has a Indian Ringneck we re-homed to her, her name is Chevy, she's a total brat, but has tons of personality and they love her!

I fully agree on the Cockatoo issue as well...

In her Temporary Cage, before we made the treck all the way to NS to deliver her:


A close up:

We have a lesser cockatoo named Napoleon and he is a small funny little spawn of satan.
Some guy sold him to us on the side of the road because he didn't have any change.

He has a cage but we never close it, he goes in there to go to the bathroom but other than that he simply walks around the house much like a dog would.

He is an enormous responsibility. He requires a lot of attention and is basically more like having a toddler than having a pet in many ways

He speaks quite a bit, but nowhere near as clearly as an african grey would (his voice is high pitched and squeaky).
He is friendly with everyone but can be sassy (like if he doesn't like what you hand him he throws it at you lol)

As much as I love him, I doubt I would ever own a parrot again.
They are fascinating but frankly, the more I'm around him.. the more I'm amazed how smart and sensitive and social he is, and the more I just..I dunno and please don't let anyone be insulted by this.. I just, I don't feel right having a large parrot in a cage in my home as a pet.
I look at him sometimes and really wish that I could find a way to reverse time and let him be born wild somewhere and fly free with a bunch of other cockatoos

I never felt that way about my parakeets or other pets...but he's just so different.

Fran I agree with you, I never felt that way about Kenny, or Lola... And they are "Large" parrots... But Dixie, and Snowbee (The U2 I babysat) always made me feel like they loved us, but were meant to be free... They just seemed, I don't know, like they were missing something...

NEVER AGAIN!
We currently have 1 sun conure. We've also had two Budgies, they were MESSY, cute, but MESSY!!! The conure, Bellissimo, is aggressive, loud, messy, "inappropriate" (why we give him boxes to "play" inside), and... just mean. He rules the house when he's let out on weekdays, he's not allowed out when my father is here because he attacks him.

I'm sure to bird lovers we are "just doing something wrong", I don't care, we wont be getting another exotic again. Because I'm sure you will all now attack me for "being a spoil sport" in your nice thread, I'll offer some pretty pictures, he sure is beautiful at least, and funny.

Beautiful Bellissimo by ~WelshStump~, on Flickr

Bellissimo by ~WelshStump~, on Flickr

And an old video of him "protecting his box", for whatever reason he HATES the little camera, doesn't mind the DSLR, just HATES this one:
http://youtu.be/waeoLNl2wkw

I am currently owned by a female Senegal Cleo. Who I believe is ahhh 14ish years old. I would own another one again. She is technically my 2nd, I had a male first and had gotten her Preferably one that is a little more hands on. She is what is considered a breeder fail. She wouldn't breed to any males beat the hell out of them basically wanted nothing to do with them. BUT she isn't supper cuddly like a hand fed baby would have been. I can handle her with out being bit, but she does prefer to not be held. I will open her cage up and once in a great while she will climb out and sit on my shoulder. But it is always her choice.
I will say she is a mouthy thing. She says some things you wouldn't want your grandmother to hear. She definatly has an opinion about everything and usually voices it. But I still love her.
She was umm feeling "frisky" in that picture. It was shortly after my other senegal had died.

I cant say if I will have caged birds again. I know you couldn't pay me to own a Quaker or parrotlet. I also don't know if I have the heart to own a large parrot that moay outlive me even if I live100 years.

I've got a Sun Conure named Calypso and I adore him but I don't think I'll ever have a parrot again. He's an absolute clown, huge jerk with a big attitude and a sweetheart if he likes you. He's also pretty well adjusted I think for a parrot. Outgoing, likes most people including strangers and takes most changes in stride, well, we do get a day or two of disgusted glaring sometimes.

But he's just too much work to be perfectly blunt. He's out a lot but that's pretty much irrelevant, he needs so much more attention and mental stimulation and physical work that I just can't find it in a day to do when I have the dogs too.

That's not to say he doesn't get attention, he gets a ton of it but I've just grown to really dislike the idea of caged birds in pet homes. For those that dedicate their lives to them I think it's wonderful, but I just don't feel like I'm fair to him.

But on a happy note, pictures!!

My brother taught Napoleon to say "YOLO!"
..and it's scary how he says it at the most appropriate times lol

He jumped off the side of his cage, which he knows he's NOT supposed to do (he is supposed to climb down and use the ladder) and RIGHT BEFORE JUMPING I hear him go "YOLO!"

I can't stop laughing!! LOL

such beautiful birds

I miss mine I had an orange winged amazon named Barney,,and two tiels, all hand tamed, allowed to roam around, they were fine with the dogs/cats and vice versa..They all passed at varying times.

So now to fill my bird void, I'm getting some baby chickens next month