Choosing between Green Cheek Vs Quaker

[cerz]

I currently have a baby 3 week old grey cockatiel. i wished to free flight train him/her but have seen various advices from people online and friends saying that cockatiels get spooked easily, too small a target for larger birds predators and are not as attached to owners in the great outdoors compared to other birds eg conures that respond very well to free flights n recall. i dont wanna lose my cockatiel!

Hence, i was recommended conures. i would love a sun conure , but found out that they are very noisy. You see, i work from home, which involves me having to speak on the phone all the time conversation with my clients even weekends. i cant have a bird that is screaming in the background and i dont want to leave him away or outdoors as he may disturb the neighbours as well. (its a terrace link house)

I have been trying to read up the most suitable next companion bird for my cockatiel,
- one that doesnt scream excessively,
- one that respond well to free flight
- one that will get along with my cockatiel
- preferably not a big bird

my only option is between a

-baby Green Cheek Conure /or/
-baby monk parakeet (quaker)

as it is readily available now or (another baby cockatiel??) i cant find any senegal babies for sale here. and a sun conure is definitely not on my list anymore =( because it screams too much.

Breeders always tell me their most expensive bird for sale is the best. so their advice is not an advice if they are trying hard to push their stock!

Please help! Your advice is most appreciated! thank you

[Wolf]

While I don't think that I can be much help to you in this due to my own lack of knowledge, I still wanted to welcome you to the forum.

[cerz]

Thank you Wolf! NIce to meet you! have been searching all over long for a forum like this! found this forum while looking for answers to my questions...

Great to meet you too! im from malaysia , kuala lumpur btw.

[Chantilly]

Hello and welcome to the forum!
I would like to start by before I say anything else share my insight on freeflight- I have read way to many stories and a lot of birds are lost by being taken outside for freeflight sessions, for this reason I can not reccomed enought that you buy a harness and train any bird to wear it before any outdoor freeflight sessions. If a bird foies away, it is not a discredit to the owner and rather as you have said they were spooked. My little green cheek conure will take flight just because of little house swallows -so harness training is definately something to keep in mind.

As to getting a quacker or GCC:
Both of these dont scream to loud. A Quaker sort of makes a screechy 'WAA-AAA' noise while as the green cheek screams 'WAKE WAKE'. Both are much much quieter than the sunconure whos scream can be heard from up to 200m away.
Green cheeks have a beautiful personality and are very playful, cuddly and lovely pets in general.
I have not got any actual experience for quakers so I cannot say for them, but I am pretty sure a few members on here have had quakers before.

One last thing, if you think you would rather a different kind of bird to a quaker or green cheek but it is not available right now, I really recomend that you wait till you can get that species (even if that means to wait till next season.)
What you have said is right, breeder will do anything and say anything to get the money coming, so in reality there word is not worth much, because they are just going to to try to get the money.


Best Wishes

[cerz]

Hi chantilly,

Thank you verymuch for your insight. yes i have gotten a harness for outdoor use, i dont wanna lose my bird and i should be getting him to wear it until he comes to me 98% of the time. otherwise not taking the risk at all since my current 1st bird sleeps with me on bed. so in love with him!!

senegals are not common here because they say that ppl dont really like them due to their colour. so they only breed those that are worth more bucks then those which are not in demand.

really thinking hard for a green cheek. One question... if i dont cage my green cheek (let him loose around the safety of the room while im working) will they scream even if not in cage?

Tq

[Wolf]

One of the reasons for my not saying much is that I do not really know much about the personality of a Quaker parrot, so it would have not been fair of me to attempt any comparison of the two birds as I could too easily be wrong in my assessment.

This topic holds some concerns for me that after having given much thought to it, I will share with you what I do know, even though I still can't do any sort of comparison. What I would suggest that you do if it is possible is to locate a parrot or bird rescue if there is one in your area that you can visit or maybe even volunteer at for a time before making any decision. This would give you a chance to become better acquainted with the birds in your area and help you to see their personality differences as well as to know how loud they can and will scream. This would be a win- win type of situation as it gives you more knowledge and actual experience with a variety of parrots and it would be helping the birds at the rescue as they are always short on help to interact with the birds.

What I do know about cockatiels ( I don't have any) is that they are among the gentlest of all of the parrots and that they are very flock oriented. This does not mean that your bond with yours would be broken by the presence of, say, another cockatiel that it would also very likely bond with. Yes, the bond you have would change somewhat but it would not be lost. As far as putting a cockatiel with bird of other species, I would have to recommend a certain degree of caution as even a budgie can intimidate and push a cockatiel around and make its life miserable. This is not to say that this is what would occur but it is enough of a possibility that you should be aware of it.

GCC's are a whole different type of parrot than what you are accustomed to if your experience is just with cockatiels, although I must again confess that I do not have any GCCs in my flock of birds. I am limited on what I know about them, but I do know that while they can be extremely sweet birds, they are also much more aggressive of a parrot than a cockatiel and that if they did not get along the GCC would be very capable of killing your cockatiel and that is where my concern comes in.

It is very likely that the GCC would bond with you and they need a huge amount of personal time with their chosen human, They may even be responsible for the phrase " Velcro bird" as they almost live to be on their human. They are also very protective of their rights to their human and would probably not be very happy with sharing you with any other bird. They can get very bitey if they feel that they are not getting enough attention from their human and have been known to bear a grudge if they are unhappy.

In all honesty, this is the extent of my knowledge of these birds and for more information we would have to depend on other members that have these birds to join in on this conversation.

[Pajarita]

Well, the problem with your question is that, normally, tiels bond only with tiels so if one of the requisites is that the new bird must be a companion to the tiel (a requisite that I applaud, by the way) neither the GCC nor the Quaker are likely to work out. Then, if you need a parrot to be quiet (which I understand this to be only in relation to parrots and not 'real' quietness because no parrot is actually 'quiet') and the choice is between a GCC and a Quaker, you would have to go with the GCC because quakers are VERY loud and, like sun conures and jendays, tend to vocalize for no other reason that they like to hear themselves 'talk' . GCCs can be very quiet and very noisy. It all depends on the care they receive. A GCC that is content with its life will be relatively quiet (they do have a high pitch screech) but keeping a GCC happy is not an easy thing to do because they are extremely needy little birds which require A LOT of one-on-one time.

If I had to make a recommendation, I would say get another tiel as companion for the one you have now and get a GCC - but only if you are going to be able to keep it happy.