New from pennsylvania

[DJ4180]

Hello everyone, new member here from Pennsylvania. I have been doing alot of research lately and alot of Internet searches have landed me here. Little about me. Me and my fiance have 3 children ages 9 2 and 1. We have a 2 year old great dane and a 7 year old cat. We have some experience with birds. We had two cockatiels
Which both passed away within 3 months of each other. We have been talking recently about adding a larger parrot to our family. And have been researching the different kinds and things about them. We are starting to lean more towards the amazons and African greys. Although nothing has been decided yet. Any and all help I can get from this forum will be awesome. Thanks in advance. See you guys and gals in the forums

[Wolf]

To be honest with you, I try to not get involved to any great degree with recommending birds to people. The reason is that I don't know enough about the people to give any sort of accurate opinion about which bird would most likely match their lifestyle or what they are looking for in the bird. But I can say that with this many young children to contend with that an African Grey would not fit in very well as they would not deal very well with the level of excitement that the children will produce for years to come. Not only that but when they bond with a person in most cases they will not allow others to touch them or their chosen person when they are on that person.

[DJ4180]

Thanks for the advice. And the more I read the more I keep seeing that. May be a good idea to cross that one off the list. Thanks again

[Wolf]

If you want suggestions for possible birds that might fit I your family, it might help to make a list of the traits that you are looking for in a parrot and then rate these items for importance. Also helpful is telling us a bit about your lifestyle, and what you can offer the bird such as how much out of cage time daily, will you be able to get up before sunrise to uncover the bird, are you going to be able to interact with the bird during the daylight which is its normal time of being awake, are there other animals or people in the home, are any of these people going to help with the bird or interact with it, these are some of the things that would help with finding what species of bird might fit your family.

You can also forget about Quaker parrots as they are illegal in PA. I know that we have other members in PA and that there are several bird rescues there as well and depending on your location they may be able to tell you about some of them and where they are. The reason that I mention this is that if you don't have much experience and really want to boost your understanding of parrots in general as well as to meet some of the different species and get some practical experience you could volunteer at one of them. Even just one day a week would help both you and the birds at the rescue. I hope that this will prove to be helpful and useful in your quest for a new family member, happy hunting.

[Pajarita]

Welcome to the forum and my sympathies for the loss of both your birds!

Wolf is correct about grays, they do better in quiet, adult households (they are naturally high-strung birds and commotion is not their cup of tea). He is also right in telling us a bit more about what you want and, also, what you can offer the bird (things like whether you are home all day, if he will need to be in the middle of the family hub all the time, etc) so we could give you pointers.

Another thing you need to consider is gender because, for example, male amazons tend to be quite aggressive during breeding season while hens are much sweeter. Age is another consideration. A baby is a wonderful thing BUT babies go through puberty and that's not an easy time for either the bird or the humans. Another problem with babies is that, in truth, they are a lottery... so many things that they go through when they are first hatched and hand-raise influence their behavior as adults that, in my personal opinion, it's much safer to adopt an adult because, basically, what you see is what you get - know what I mean? Lots of wonderful birds out there that need a good home! Not all given-up birds have issues - that's nothing than a misconception, I can assure you. All my birds are rescues or adoptions and they are all wonderful birds! They don't scream, they don't bite, etc. I have one that plucks but he hasn't been here very long, is 25 years old and was already all plucked in 2009 when he was adopted by his previous owner (who was not the original one) AND he is a cockatoo (VERY prone to plucking!). Now, if you are going to go the adoption route (which I wish you would, if nothing else, consider), go to a good one. There are many that are nothing but flippers even though they call themselves rescues (I know of two in Pennsylvania -I lived there for 6 years- that are like that).