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Looking to adopt a bird for the first time

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Looking to adopt a bird for the first time

Postby LoneSombrero » Thu Jan 31, 2019 6:03 pm

Hello! It's my first time adopting a parrot and I was wondering if I could get some advice! We live in a small one bedroom apartment close to the road so there's lots of road noise and we were looking for a small parrot that is affectionate, not too loud and can do some mimicking. We have limited experience handling parrots and would like to know what's the best type of parrot for our situation. We've looked at Budgies, Cockatiels and Quakers but haven't decided if these are the right ones for us.

Thanks!! :greycockatiel: :gray: :senegal:
LoneSombrero
Parakeet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 1
Number of Birds Owned: 0
Types of Birds Owned: Looking for bird advice and finding the right bird!
Flight: No

Re: Looking to adopt a bird for the first time

Postby Pajarita » Fri Feb 01, 2019 10:40 am

Hi, Lone Sombrero (great name, BTW!), welcome to the forum. The fact that you live close to a road and there is always noise means nothing to a parrot, they don't mind noise at all - the only thing is that the louder the background noise, the louder the bird will vocalize but that's a problem only if you like to play your music at a blasting level :D .

The size of the apartment is no problem either. You will not be able to keep a large bird -like a macaw or a cockatoo- because they need space to fly but any small to medium species will do just fine as long as it has access to the whole apartment -because they also need room to fly.

Now, all species have the capacity to mimic human speech BUT, for a budgie to do it would require a terribly lonely life for the poor boy (it needs to be a male) because only male budgies that have no other bird will learn to talk and, for a budgie, a life without another budgie is a terrible life! Cockatiels are also flock-oriented and need a companion but keeping two (male and female) is actually not hard at all and can work out. They are not the cuddliest but they are beautiful, smart, sweet-tempered birds that are not that hard to take care of (compared to other parrot species, that is). As to quakers... well, I love them but I might be biased because I grew up with them (they are from the country where I was born and raised). The females are excellent talkers and both genders are super affectionate, very intelligent and pretty. The problem they have is that they are very sensitive to a human light schedule a needy for attention so unless you can keep it at a strict solar schedule and give her hours of attention, you might end up with a screamer. I have a blue mutation (they are not really blue, they are turquoise and teal), a 4 year old female that was given up because her screams were upsetting the other animals in the house and the neighbors (they also lived in an apartment) were complaining. Her name was Gryphon -which she did not answer to- and she did not talk at all. I realized she was calling herself Keku so that's her name now and she is not only super affectionate, she gets along with the other birds (loves a male African Red Belly), hardly ever screams (she actually goes days without a single scream) and she has learned words/phrases and even several commands. I love her to pieces and my husband says she is the most spoiled brat/bird in the house - but it's not true, she is not spoiled, she is just a happy little bird and he only says that because he tends to be a bit jealous of my birds :lol:

So, if you can do the solar schedule and there will be somebody in the house for many hours every day, I would recommend a quaker BUT if you both work outside the house, I would recommend a pair of cockatiels.
Pajarita
Norwegian Blue
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 18701
Location: NW Pa
Number of Birds Owned: 30
Types of Birds Owned: RoseBreasted too, CAG, DoubleYellowHead Amazon, BlueFront Amazon, YellowNape Amazon, Senegal, African Redbelly, Quaker, Sun Conure, Nanday, BlackCap Caique, WhiteBelly Caique, PeachFace lovebird, budgies,
Flight: Yes


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