Apartments

[Ran]

I wasn't entirely sure where to place this, so apologies if it's in the wrong board!

I live in an apartment at the moment and would love to add another fid to the flock. However, as we all know apartments are generally terrible places to keep parrots! Thankfully I'm on the top floor and have brick walls and a cement floor backing me up, but I'd still like to keep my parrot options on the 'not a macaw' kind of sound levels

I have been keeping an eye on various buy/sell sites like Gumtree and such for hand-reared cockatiels in my area but the pickings are extremely slim. I don't have a second cage or furnishings yet though so I'm neither in a rush nor going to fixate on one option when there might be some ones I haven't yet considered!

Any opinions/experiences/advice that might help me out?

~Caiti

[Cage Cleaner]

Lineolated parakeet. Quiet, sweet, bites don't hurt, cute as heck. I recommend them so much I might as well pick one up for myself at this next bird fair because it's getting hypocritical that I don't have one myself.

[HungryBird]

I have two budgies, two cockatiels, and a Meyer's in an apartment. They are very quiet. I may be lucky though. None of my neighbors know I have birds.

[laducockatiel]

I have a cockatiel. He is not noisy, but he just whistles nice songs. I think most cockatiels aren't real loud, they just like to sing

[liz]

Cockatiels are sweet little parrots. They tweet and chirp in little voices. The males sing and two of my males talk. I don't see anything offensive in a little tiel. Well fed and clean they are the happiest little birds and a joy to be with.

[laducockatiel]

Cockatiels are sweet little parrots. They tweet and chirp in little voices. The males sing and two of my males talk. I don't see anything offensive in a little tiel. Well fed and clean they are the happiest little birds and a joy to be with.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

[cml]

We live in an appartment, and have a white-fronted amazon (a species with loud screams). He can get REALLY loud sometimes, but our neighbours didnt even know we have him. I know this for a fact as I after having Stitch for about 3 months I asked my neighbours if theyve ever heard him and they had no idea we had a bird.

I think the whole appartment thing is exaggerated, I know many people who keep parrots in appartments, even macaws.

A barking dog, or for that matter a screaming child or crying baby is just as bad as a screaming parrot if not worse, and I dont see people writing everywhere that having a child in an appartment is a bad idea.

Sure, even if the parrot screams so loud sometimes that it is heard by the neighbours (as long as it isnt EVERYDAY constantly), that is life, and something you have to accept, just as other noises are, when living in an appartment house.

Note: I am perfectly aware that there may be exceptions and variations in rules and rent agreements depending on where in the world you live.

[Naurthon]

I've had a similar experience to cml. Nikko can get really loud for all he just weighs 72g, and when I was living in apartments I was worried he would disturb my neighbors. In the three different buildings I lived in, nobody complained, and when I asked some of my neighbors if they could hear my birds, they were surprised to learn I had any.

In one apartment I lived in in San Diego, one of my neighbors had a cockatoo. It was the wife's bird and the husband didn't seem to care for it very much. I constantly heard HIM yelling at the bird to be quiet (and frequently banging on the cage) but never heard the bird itself. (I ended up calling out the window, "Crazy man, yellin' at the bird!" every time I'd hear him holler at the cockatoo. It eventually put a stop to it! LOL)

At another place I lived in San Diego back in the '90s, a neighbor in the apartment building across the street had a parrot - probably an amazon - and I could CLEARLY hear it from about 150' away when it screamed. Bear in mind that in San Diego (proper) everybody has their windows open practically year-round, so house-to-house noises are easy to hear.

Maybe I'm biased, but I definitely agree that most bird sounds are preferable to most barking dog and crying baby sounds, especially since birds are not noisy at night. When the lights go out, they get quiet. That doesn't work with dogs and kids.

(As a broad generalization, I'd say African parrots are going to make less noise than American parrots or cockatoos.)

[liz]

In the summer with the windows open I worry about the sound of the amazons. My neighbors tell me they sound like little kids.

Before I knew Rambo I heard a kid talking in my neighbors house after she went to work. I am not nosey but I am a DEFENDER. I had to look in the window to check on the kid and came face to face with Rambo who said "hello".

[HungryBird]

Some birds might be too noisy though. Before I moved to this building there was a large bird that lived here, I think a macaw, and the owners had to get rid of it because there were so many noise complaints.