First-time bird owner in VA, USA

[Zathura]

Well....hello!

So, first things first. I've never owned a bird in my life (unless you count a parakeet I vaguely remember my family having when I was about 7 years old. I don't count that).

I am a sucker for animals though, and have wanted a bird for a long while. About a month ago, I was taking a road-trip to see out-of-state family when I passed a yard-sale with a fantabulous birdcage sitting out front. I contacted the owners a couple weeks later and ended up bringing it home because it was too good of a deal to pass up. At that point, I started doing some research on what I might be able to put in there, and what kind of bird would suit me best. After a couple days and many hours of reading, I settled on a cockatiel.

Joining this forum is a bit of a "pre-emptive strike", because I'm sure that at some point I'll have questions, so I figured I'd go ahead and get this set up. I will, however, hold off on doing too much to fill out my profile and such until I figure out what kind of community this is. Open? Friendly? Militant? Discriminatory?

My life is not going to revolve around my bird, just as it does not revolve around my dogs, or even my plants, which is my primary hobby. If anyone has a problem with me not rearranging my entire life-structure to suit every whim and nuance of a pet, though I am endeavoring to provide it with a safe and higher-than-average quality of life, you need not bother responding to me.

That being said, I do make time for my animals, and treat them well. This bird (which I don't even have yet, btw) will have plenty of out-of-cage time, human interaction, a varied and balanced diet, etc.

I'm also a bit of a DIY'er, and enjoy creating things. To this end I have also joined this forum in order to both share and accumulate knowledge that may very well save us all some money, if not -time-.

While I wait for my chosen breeder to let me know when her babies are weaned and ready to be sold, I have started a project, for which I am creating an online tutorial, for a DIY concrete perch. I'm also interested in finding a suitable recipe for home-made mineral / calcium blocks.

I've been doing a lot of reading at birdsnways.com, but the site is severely dated, and many of the recipes include toxic substances (plaster of paris) that I would rather not use for my own projects.

From my own research, a mixture of calcium carbonate and bonemeal should provide the proper available calcium to phosphorous ratio...the only question left is how to translate that into dry weight measurements.

If anyone is interested (and depending on the quality of responses I get), I'll be more than glad to share the tutorial for the perch, if nothing else, and if anyone can point me in a direction for good mineral block recipes I would be grateful.

Cheers for now.

[Wolf]

Wow ! I don't believe that I have ever seen so many rule ,just to talk with someone.

[Zathura]

*Shrugs*

Just being honest. If people are going to jump down my throat for not taping up my air vents, giving my bird one brand of cuttlebone over another, mixing veggies into birdy-bread as opposed to feeding raw, etc...I'll go ahead and skip out on the admonishments.

[Wolf]

Since I am a member of several different parrot forums, I understand some of what you are saying, but why even bother if you are not open to free discussion about birds, their welfare and how our husbandry practices affect them both positively and negatively. It seems to me that this is the nature of a forum and its purpose is to increase our knowledge of our birds and to improve their lives through better husbandry.
I don't understand why you are passing judgement on us for what you may or may not have experienced on other forums. Well you can say don't talk to me if you aren't going to say what I want to hear if that is what you want to do, but from a logical standpoint it makes no sense.
If you are going to have problems with someone saying that you need to improve your husbandry for your birds well being then I don't know what it is that you want from a forum. We ask question we research to help provide answers as accurately as possible, we say things poorly at times or make an effort at humor that sometimes backfires because some one doesn't get it. We agree and we disagree and if these are posted on an open forum then everyone gets to say what they want to say and share what they want to share. When we disagree we are expected to be adults and keep our disagreements to the topic and not go off the deep end and start attacking each other.
If you are after open, honest and truthful responses to your posts and are interested in what is best for your birds then I for one would love to hear from you and have the opportunity to share with you.

[liz]

I agree with Wolf. I do most of the time.

http://www.rescueme.org/VA I am also in SC and FL rescueme.

[Zathura]

We agree and we disagree and if these are posted on an open forum then everyone gets to say what they want to say and share what they want to share. When we disagree we are expected to be adults and keep our disagreements to the topic and not go off the deep end and start attacking each other.
If you are after open, honest and truthful responses to your posts and are interested in what is best for your birds then I for one would love to hear from you and have the opportunity to share with you.

Good point. I did come off a bit harsh, but after nearly a week of browsing various forums, the bird-keeping community as a whole just didn't look very....friendly. I guess that was my way of bracing myself for any militant fanatics who think I don't deserve to own a bird if I'm not going to turn my entire house into a free-flight aviary. :/ Just wanted to make it known up-front that some of my care methods, and what I choose to, and not to do, will probably rub some people the wrong way, as I've already seen on this very forum in regards to wing-clipping.

I do apologize though. Shouldn't have judged the entire community based on a few. I'm definitely open to opinions and advice, so long as others don't get their feathers ruffled if I choose not to take it for whatever reason.

[Wolf]

Since you brought it up to illustrate your point, lets continue with it so that I can do the same. I am one of those that do not believe in clipping a birds wings unless there is a valid medical reason for it. The reason for my stance on this topic is based on numerous scientific documents showing how beneficial flight is to a bird and how removing this ability negatively affects nearly every system in their body as well as their mental well being. Now if you choose to clip your bird there is little that I can do about it other than to share with you what I have learned about this in hopes that you would reconsider this, but I am not going to get upset with you if you chose to continue to clip your bird, as in the long run this doesn't help either of us nor does it help your bird. It is something that we can discuss or not as the case may be, but by and large I am well aware of the futility of trying to convince anyone of anything. I am willing to share what I have learned, but it is your choice to do whatever you do whether I agree or not and I am not going to ignore or berate you for this, If I have the right to disagree with you then you also have the same right and we can still become friends and not agree.
That is my thoughts on this, but I don't speak for anyone else, and I don't always agree either and that is what a forum is about, being able to discuss that which we don't agree on.

[Pajarita]

I do apologize though. Shouldn't have judged the entire community based on a few. I'm definitely open to opinions and advice, so long as others don't get their feathers ruffled if I choose not to take it for whatever reason.

Welcome to the forum. Actually, it's more than just 'a few' so you were not that far off the mark about the 'weirdness' of the parrot keeping community. And, personally, as long as you choose not to follow somebody's advice because after researching the issue you arrive at the conclusion that this is not in the bird's best interest, I am all for it!