I am set on getting a parrot and wanted everyone's advice on what would be best for me, and what species I would be best for. Let me explain a bit about my situation. I apologise in advance for the detail, I figure it'll help get a better answer.
I live in Shanghai in China, although I'm actually British (not sure if that's relevant?). The apartment I live in is about 100 square meters, with a nice big open lounge/dining room which is where I intend to keep the parrot. Haven't spoken to the landlord but they shouldn't mind, if they do mind then I'll make efforts to hide the parrot and play loud music whenever they do come over (which isn't often). One important issue is noise, if the parrot gets really noisy then we probably wouldn't get any sleep.
I have the type of job that involves travelling a lot. Sometimes I'm flying around the country on a weekly basis, other times I'm in Shanghai for quite a few weeks. My job is also pretty flexible in terms of location, so sometimes I work from home. Most weekends I am in Shanghai.
I'm not very outgoing, I hate going out and socialising and so prefer to spend time at home when I have free time, or occasionally go round to friends' houses and hang out with them. This is actually one of the reasons a parrot is really attractive to me, because I can basically have a companion when I'm at home.
Even though I'd like a parrot as a companion, that doesn't mean I live on my own. I'm actually living with my Chinese fiancé. I've looked after her for the past 3 years so I figure looking after a parrot should be a piece of cake
! She has a full time job, but rarely goes away on business. She's at home pretty much every evening, so whenever I'm not at home she'll be there. She has a bit of a mixed attitude to animals. Sometimes she acts like she hates them, thinks they are dirty and wants to have nothing to do with them. Other times she is completely the opposite and wants to go and play with them, feed them and so on. We have two pet guinea pigs in our apartment and she frequently goes to hand feed them and pay them a bit of attention. When I first got to know her my flatmate had a cat, and my fiancé always complained about the cat hairs and how dirty it was, but then would sometimes demand it comes and rest on her lap so she could stroke something soft. Chinese women eh? So I imagine that when I'm not around, she probably wouldn't proactively play with the parrot, but she'd probably be ok with opening the cage door, giving it a bit of food and letting it hang out beside her or on her shoulder. Either way, she's not afraid of it and I am 98% certain she wouldn't eat it! Plus most importantly she has agreed to me getting one.
Unfortunately I managed to have a pet lovebird die on me after 3 days in my care, which I feel awful about. It was from the pet shop, and it was maybe only about 20-30 days old when I got it. The pet store owner said I needed to keep it somewhere very warm because it was a baby, he said over 15 degrees and I figured my apartment would be warm enough, especially if I put some old clothes for it to snuggle up in. Unfortunately he very suddenly got sick on the third day, one hour he was flying about quite happily, the next he could barely sit up straight. I took him back to the pet store for them to look after and he died the next day. I'm not going to blame the pet store, totally my fault, I didn't realise how much of a handful a baby lovebird would be and didn't have the time to look after it as much as I should have done.
One of the reasons I was so busy is because I am currently studying an MBA as well, so had a lot of studying to do during those 3 days. I was originally hoping it could just chill on my shoulder whilst I was studying but then it kept pooping on me and that got a bit distracting!
So I have decided to wait until about September when my MBA will be completed, and also when my salary will be a lot higher so I can afford to buy it a nice cafe with nice toys. Also, this gives me lots of time to do my research and be much better prepared for next time.
I've been looking at the sorts of species out there. A Cockatoo or African Grey are out of the question, simply too big. I very much like the size of Conures and Senegal Parrots, they feel like just the right sort of size to be cuddly. After having a lovebird, I would actually prefer something a bit bigger. Budgies sound pretty simple, although they aren't as attractive to me, and Cockatiels aren't that attractive either.
So based on what I've written, what species do you guys have to recommend to me? Also, please could explain the downsides of each species as that's pretty important.
