The cage-free pet parrot

[liz]

My situation is unique I guess. My kids cages are in my sunroom. Rambo for the most part hangs out around his cage or on his play patteo. Everyone knows when the pedestrian is on the floor because he talks on his way to where he is going. He doesn't come down and just wander around. He is going somewhere and lets me know where he is going. (I follow him with a tissue.) At first I worried about him running with the dogs to the front door but he does this to great people and just like the dogs he stops at the door to wait for them to come in.

Myrtle hangs out in the same area but also has a tree and is on it most of the time. She does not fly around the house. When she does fly it is to the floor near me and climbs up my pants leg.

My kids are not trained. They learned house rules on their own.

I do have to be on gaurd when the teils and lovebirds are out. They scare the Amazons because they are so quick. I have to put the Amazons out of the sunroom so they won't defend themselves against a tiel that lands too close. When the little ones are out they are busy investigating things in the sunroom. Very rare that one will come out into the rest of the house. When that happens I just follow it and put t back in the sunroom.

Women who come to visit call Rambo to them. Sometimes I have to cage him when men are here but he is learning, slowly, to behave when men are in the house. Myrtle just waits on her tree for them to come visit her.

[liz]

Rambo screams with excitement when he gets a new cardboard box. The first time I gave him a new box everyone came running to see what was wrong with Rambo.

I call it turning big ones into little ones. The tiels like to play in the mulch when he is done with it.

[Fayfay Goes Moo]

im planning to buy an african grey congo birdie and have like a tree set up in the corner of the room..... but the problem is how there is like no 'cage' so how do i prevent him to fly everywhere >...< since i also have 3 budgies in my room and i let them have 'outside time' and when they want to go home, they go home XD so for the COG idk how to like (if i have to) force it to go back to the tree since all it needs to do is fly off and i have to catch it over and over again >...<

Fayfay ^_^

[liz]

First of all how old is the AG? If it is very young it will accept the budgies as it's elders and grow up with them. Second: without a cage it is going to fly but just like the budgies it will go back to it's home area for food, water and toys.

From my experience, make sure the top most perches are at eye level. Myrtle gets an attitude if she is above me.

[Michael]

Well the point of a cage is so that they cannot roam the room freely when you're not there. The one and only reason you should keep it on a tree without a cage is because you have a bird safe room that you do want the parrot to move freely about (where the room is like a big cage). If you are doing this to save money on a cage, then please don't get an African Grey or do this. You can't make the parrot stay on the tree no matter what (even if it is clipped it could still jump off). So if there is any concern at all about the bird roaming the room or attacking the budgies, you must get a cage.

[Fayfay Goes Moo]

aw how cute :3 well in the pet store it says that it is well 1 years old and like a month. i had like one session with it where the store manager and i was well 'communicating' and petting and touching it. long story short, it was on her head, alot of squaking, scratches, biting, and well it wouldnt get off the fishie tanks XD

Fayfay ^_^

[Fayfay Goes Moo]

well its not the money issue its just that i want it to have like a tad bit more 'natural' sleeping place, since whenever i buy cages, the perches are plastic, or the perches are wood but not the ones thatt the birdie's toe nails can like get 'worn down'. so i wanted to try something new.

Fayfay ^_^

[Michael]

So why don't you just:

A) Buy a cage and "natural" perches separately to keep in the cage
B) Get a tree as well and keep the parrot out on the tree during supervised playtime

Budgie cages may come with plastic perches but not the bigger ones. Still the dowels they come with aren't ideal but can easily be replaced with Java or other kinds of perches similar to the climbing trees you can get.

[Fayfay Goes Moo]

thanks for the advise im thinking of doing ur 'plan B' XD btw can you tell me more info on COG besides all the same things that the internet says because all they are saying are how they are smart, etc, 2 yr old child etc, blah blah blah ive researched for hours DX and all they say are the same thing =.= thanks

Fayfay ^_^

[liz]

That one year old parrot is probably equal to a two year old child. He will become a 6 year olds equal. Get ready.