Hello, I am new and need some advice.

[InsanityShard]

Hello, my name is Jessie and I am Autistic. I may communicate very well, but I am lacking in some areas, but I'm good with others such as pet care. It can be hard for me to fully understand some things... My mum has some experience with breeding, raising and training parrots, however she is unfamiliar with the species I want to get. I want to get a Princess Parrot, but my brother, who is also Autistic, tends to tease my pets. I need advice on what I can do to help my parrot avoid him (He's 24) and if a Princess Parrot can take being mildly teased. If not, what kind of parrot would you recommend? I need one I can still train, but won't be big enough to harm my kitten sized cat or my dog. We're not sure how our dog will react (A mini sausage dog) but we know our cats will leave the bird alone. In fact, one time, when a budgie escaped, my cat Gonzo, who had never tried to get it in its cage, caught it and brought it back unharmed. It lived for a few more years after.
Again, I need to know if Princess Parrots can take mild teasing. My brother just can't get it through his head not to tease my pets, I already had to get rid of a turtle trained to bite by teasing.

[InsanityShard]

I forgot to add, this parrot will be a mostly indoor parrot by a window. This area has a lot of snakes, so I want an indoor bird. I will be getting a bird harness and finding nice safe places to take it outside, and will be feeding it a mix of seed, pellets, meal worms, and fruit. My whole room will be a bird paradise for this one little bird, to the point where I'm sticking hooks in my ceiling to hang toys. =D

[InsanityShard]

This is a strange thing to ask, but do any of you know any small native palms I can keep in a pot and convert into a bird playhouse? I'd been thinking about getting a fake one but I'm worried about the glue that might be used, the only one I can find that's the kind I want doesn't have anything listed about that sort of stuff and I can't find a way to contact the seller. I'm Australian, like the parrot I want to get. I just thought maybe one of you guys on here would know since you might have had the same idea. It would be an indoor playhouse, with things like a nice swing that had a sort of roof made out of half a coconut so the bird can sharpen their beak. =D I've got a lot of stuff picked out to buy first, so it'll be a while before I get the actual bird, so there is a lot of time before I'd buy, and I need to be sure on this kind of stuff. I have trouble researching things online. There's always so much conflicting stuff...

[InsanityShard]

Yay, reading other posts is giving me more ideas. =D I'll get a tub and make a mini bird bath at the base of the playhouse palm!
If you're not sure at how well I can take care of the parrot, I can certainly do better than the guy who works at the pet shop here with a galah. It was leaning over the edge of its cage and even though I was afraid of it I put my arm next to the cage thinking it would climb on like it did to his shoulder. It bit me pretty hard. Then the guy, while playing around with the galah, started putting his open mouth entirely over the birds face. I have enough common sense to know that is an incredibly horrificly bad idea that could cost him his tongue. Unfortunately, my brother is that kind of guy. I only recently convinced him to use the rubber tongs to pull out the toast from the toaster instead of sticking a butter knife in and stabbing the toast. And yes, we are both high functioning. He just lacks common sense and won't listen.
If you want I can give a list of all the stuff I want to get my parrot, including Iodine and Calcium bells and a shellgrit swing. It will be a very spoiled bird. Hopefully I won't make it fat like the canary at the pet shop. It looks like a yellow baseball with a black wart for a head. >_> On that note, I probably need advice on ratios for the nutrient enriched pellets and stuff.

[InsanityShard]

I'm sorry if you think this is spamming, this is the last message I will be posting here for now unless I'm replying to you guys or if I need another bit of advice, I have just about everything covered. This is just a list of all the stuff I'm getting the parrot before I get the actual parrot. (Note, I already have a cage from when I had budgies but it's old and needs new paint and stuff. I'll be using Rustoleom. I have found one single swing but everything else needs replacing)

A cage wrap, a fruity delight hanging treat bar (To encourage a specific perching place that's very safe) a water cup, a grass tunnel (as a nest like area for it to be warm in Winter), some treats for training, a bird ring toy, a rope curl toy, a calcium bell, an iodine bell, a dog outdoor water bowl (A portable bowl for when I take it outside for some sunlight), a bird harness from my local bird club, a shellgrit swing, a really huge ladder and some small ones for it to climb all over my desk, a joy ropetoy, a coconut swing (a swing with the top being a roof like half coconut shell for chewing), a big bell, a pedicure perch (It's painted concrete), a new feeder (It's one of those with the big tube that lets fresh seed and stuff into the bowl over time), and as for food... Dried mealworms, some high nutrient pellets, some seed mix for small parrots, some dried fruit, and I can give it fresh fruit like diced apple if that's okay. I know those last two would be more scarce than the rest of it, and I'll try to give it seasonal stuff to help keep it happy. I don't know if it can have mulberries, haven't checked yet, but I have two dwarf mulberry trees in the backyard amongst my fruit plants, it can get real fresh fruit, no pesticides or anything.
I will not let it free roam in my yard, even watched. This area is not good for that, but there are some nice safe parks. Seriously, one time shortly after we got a really tiny kitten, a kookaburra tried to fly off with her. My brother saved her. She's now fully grown and the size of a large kitten. I had to wear a motorbike helmet to ride to the shop because of the magpies (Until I started feeding them bread. That never seems to occur to people) and there's a serious midge problem here, I definately need to keep this as an indoor bird and just take it to the parks in town.
Before we moved to the other side of town (Less snakes here) while we still had budgies, we had a really tough female budgie named Tweety. She was so tough she didn't even puff up when a 12 foot carpet python wrapped her cage until mum beat it up with a broom. It went over the fence and started the neighbors Emu and it kicked down the fence and ran off. This place is full of unexpected dangers as well as expected ones.

[Pajarita]

Hi, InsanityShard, welcome to the forum. Now, let me see if I can answer some of your questions...

Princess parrots are beautiful birds and not hard to keep BUT they are not very good companion parrots, they do much, much better as aviary birds so I would think (I have no personal experience with this species) that teasing it would have a real bad effect on one. Actually, teasing any parrot is a real bad idea but I would assume that the depth of the bonding (much, much stronger in companion parrots than aviary ones) has a lot to do with how forgiving they are when bothered.

Now, as to training... aviary parrots are not as good as companion when it comes to this. Aviary parrots are very close to their human when they are babies but, as they become adults, they start becoming aloof and would much rather be with another parrot of their own species that any human so I think that, given what you want in a parrot, you would do better to get a companion species.

I would not use a palm or any living plant as a play station, I would use a natural branch but a dead one. I would also not get a grass tunnel or birdy hut (because it would depend on the species you get whether it's appropriate or not), a concrete perch (it can hurt their feet - I like sweetfeet, instead, like this: http://sweetfeetandbeak.com/12002.html) or any commercial treats (they have all kinds of bad things added to them), a bell is fine as long as the clapper is too big for the bird to swallow and it's made entirely of stainless steel. I also don't feed pellets, I feed gloop, produce and seed/nuts. I don't know about the iodine bell... we don't use them here in USA but I know that the Australian soil tends to be deficient in iodine so it might be necessary there.

Let us know if we can be of further help, my dear (I might have missed some of your questions).

[InsanityShard]

Okay, then what kind of parrot would you recommend? I don't want a big one as I'm afraid they might hurt my other pets. As for the treats, the treats I am getting are just more dried fruit. They come in big jars. As for the palm problem, what should I do instead? I want to make a more natural type of safe play area for my bird when I finally get one. The Cockatoos outside (Wild ones) love the palm trees and their seeds, like a few other birds around here, but I can't find any small palms of that kind. I'd have just hung some toys and that grass nest off there, it's not really a bird nest, it's only a grass tunnel I thought it could use as a warm bed when it's cold. If I can't use that, what should I use? I only want to make the bird comfertable.

[InsanityShard]

I was reading up on Princess parrots online and a vet review said they bond very closely with people, and stay bonded. Are you sure it's an aviary bird? I can't have an aviary because of the aforementioned stupid amount of dangers outside. Recently, some foxes got the neighbors guinie pigs.
http://www.concordvets.com.au/pet-blog/ ... ess-parrot
This is the review that said they bond and stuff. It also says they prefer people to other birds. This is why I don't like researching online. ;-;

I am home most of the time, and mostly in my room, so the bird would get constant attention. I figure when it comes to letting it around my house it'd be like introducing a cat. Leave it in the cage for a week, then let it into my room for a while, then into the rest of the house.
Last time I had a Budgie I tried to finger train him. Mum had trained budgies before. But he got out of the cage and flew into the wall. I learn from my mistakes. I'll at least be getting a hand raised bird. The Princess Parrot at the pet shop likes me. It was scared of me like a budgie at first (Puffed up and shivering) then I offered it the rope toy I had just bought. =P It was a lot less cautious of me after that.
You know, no matter what kind of parrot I'm gonna get, I'm going to follow the potty training guide and train it to use a miniture toilet. You can buy those easily online.

[InsanityShard]

You know, it'll take me a couple of months to fully set up, but when my room is parrot ready I will post pictures of the set up so you can tell me if anything is too dangerous. There are many things to act as perches, such as the top bunk of my bunk bed with its rails or the curtain rods, but some things have me a bit worried, such as my fish/frog tanks and my computer desk with its full gaming set up and many cables. The big fish tank is a particular worry, while I can just close the hood the water does stil have salmonella in it from when I had a big turtle. And my cats get fed in here since we can't feed them outside and the dog steals their food.
I don't know if this'll worry you guys or not, but while I do have enough common sense not to tease my bird or anything, I will be teaching it 20 pirate puns and also to call my mother Fart Magician whenever her colonostomy bag is visable. She agrees it's funny. I have good common sense and maturity, usually, but I hope to go around dressed up as a pirate with this parrot on my shoulder spouting many many pirate puns in tandem with me. It will be a pet, but it will also be part of a stunt- I have a miniture pirate chest I am filling with gold coins. I will one day take it to the bank with this parrot, including with it having an altered bird harness to allow a pose skeleton action figure to ride it as long as the bird is fine with it. If not, no action figure, but still puns and pirate cosplay. I may act childish and be childish in needs and wants, but I do care for my animals and I do understand the set up for this one cosplay opportunity will take me a good 2 or 3 years of intensive parrot training. It's a good idea to me, I get fun and a lifetime pet. I can just go around with the bird with me on the few times I actually go out. =P I want to be able to do that. But I also have enough maturity to know if the bird doesn't like it then I'll leave it at home. Simple as that, I still get a good pet either way. I want to be able to pet it. Birds have such soft feathers.

[Pajarita]

Well, I would not go by anything written by a vet in terms of parrot diet or behavior for the simple reason that they don't study either subject - they know about anatomy, diseases, conditions, medicines, etc but not really nutrition or behavior in any depth.

All parrots are social and, as such, need the company of other parrots or of a human but companion parrots bond deeper than any aviary parrot would. This does not mean that you cannot an aviary parrot as a pet, it just means that you have to be knowledgeable and spend a huge amount of time every single day to keep them bonded to you -and even then they still would not be as affectionate as a companion parrot or learn tricks as well.

As to your expectations... well, I think that they are not realistic. Not all parrots learn to talk and, although you can always teach them a trick or two, it doesn't mean that they will do them - and not all parrots like to go outside among strangers.