Hello! I'm new to the forum, and new to learning about birds. I've been considering getting a bird for awhile, but I think talking to some real owners may help me more than me research has. Here are my current concerns:
My family has a cat and a dog, I will be going to college in a few years, it will be a lot more than I bargained for.
I have read many articles about why you should and should not get a pet bird, and most of them seem to be about parrots. Here's where my main question lies. Many articles say that parrots require immense amounts of time and effort to keep happy, and the cons can sometimes outweight the benefits. On this forum I saw a similar post about why you probably shouldn't get a parrot. However, I'm a little confused about what qualifies as a parrot that these people are talking about. Most pet birds are types of parrots, right? (parakeets, parrotlets, conures, cockatoos, cockatiels) Do they mean all those birds or the "serious parrots" like African Greys or Macaws. I can definitely see the last two requiring a lot more time, money, attention, and dedication; however, I'm not even considering getting those big birds.
If I were to get a bird it would be a smaller/medium sized parrot(?) like a conure or parrotlet. Is the amount of work similar? Should I not get a bird? I would appreciate help answering these questions. Currently, I go to school for about 8 hours a day. I am home most days for 1 hour in the morning and 5-6 hours in the evening. Extracurriculars might change that later in the year. I usually have all of my weekends free. I've read that birds require multiple hours of attention a day. What does this entail? Just hanging out, or hours of active engagement(not sure exactly what that would be).
Going back to my concerns, I've read that you can keep a bird with a cat. I would obviously be very careful about keeping it in a locked room when I'm not with it, and always supervising when it is out of it's cage, or locking the door. My main concern is that when I go away to college in a few years, I won't be able to take it with me, and it will be stuck with my family after bonding with me. In the best case scenario I would be able to take it with me, but I know this isn't always the case. Don't think I could get it classified as a comfort pet either.
Sorry if this was long and unstructured, I just have a ton of questions. Hope it's not too much. Thanks!