canmitch1971

GaiGai you are absolutely right!!! Parrots are lovely but they require a lot of attention and they are messy. To have a well adjusted and happy bird you need to be able to spend lots of time with them and do some cleaning.

summerstorm

We have two macaws, large birds about two pounds and 30 plus inches with the tail.

The first one we got at 5 weeks, no feathers hand fed him, he cost $600 and the first vet visit was $600 plus. After a year and a half (he bonded to my husband the ungreatful retch) my husband got the second one for me at 8 months old he cost $1700 the first vet visit including DNA sexing was $210 because he came from an experienced breder who had already done wellness checkups and he was totally weaned, could say hello (very low sexy voice) and how are you. I feel that he was worth the difference in cost (truly felt he was a bargain)

He is as loving and gentle as the other one is hyper. Opposites in every way except for looks.

Birds are great pets.

Sharon

Deecee

Talk about messy! Rainbow lorikeets are nector feeders (they don't eat seed) which means liquid droppings that can travel almost horizontally not just vertically. If they didn't have such a great personality you wouldn't want the work involved. Being able to train them to "poop" on command in a certain spot helps too.

Seanette

Wish you could do that with a ringneck dove!

Deecee

Seanette - it would be fun watching you try!

Charity Quilter

I've had a few birds in my lifetime. The one I truly loved the most was a cockatiel. One year I had a bird birthday party and invited all of my friends over that had birds......they brought their birds and we had cake and gifts. What nice gifts we received......bird seed, and toys for the cage.....it was fun! Sounds a little wacky, I know...but it was truly fun. I had her for eleven years, but she got egg bound and died on me. I grieved so for that bird.

My hubby and I had a parking lot cleaning business in Ft. Lauderdale many years ago and one morning I found a white pigeon huddled in a corner of one of the buildings with a string attached to her little foot. I took her home and cleaned her up, boy was she dirty. I had Snow White for about 10 years. She was the sweetest bird. One morning I woke up and she was on her way to heaven. What a sweet animal she was.

Then I had a cockatoo my hubby bought me. We bought her when she was a baby. After having her for about 5 years she attacked me when I was about to put her food in the cage and I never trusted her again. We eventually gave her to someone. TOO loud for us!

At this time I have a cockatiel I adopted about 6 years ago. I saw a note on a store front window that someone was giving away Pepper. Came from a very abusive family, they used to pluck his little feathers out of his wings. Poor thing has terrible wing feathers because of it. When the women brought Pepper to my home that day, I will never forget it.....she was so upset to have to give up her bird but her thoughts were for the welfare of Pepper. And she told me that she knew that he would be very happy with me. I felt so bad for her. Pepper has been a good bird and I am glad that I saved his little life.

Jingle

All the pictures of birds are very pretty. I bought my last cockatiel from a pet shop, it is family owned and all are involved with it. The store is immmaculate and all the birds are very well taken care of and I buy the pellets for my bird and buy toys for him, he has two big Parrot toys I hung in the back of his cage and he sleeps on one. I'm sure it feels better on his feet. He gets pellets on the floor but, one toy poodle likes to eat an occasional stray pellet. I know he is cleaner than the cats, they shed most of the year. All housecats. I have a smaller cage I put Suky in while I clean his cage, I hook a ladder in the big cage and put little cage door to door and tell him to get into his cage and he climbs the ladder and goes right in.
He wakes up and dances every morning he is so happy. He squawks until I urge him on and talk to him. He squawks until I watch him, Hubby won't talk to him much and won't tell him to dance. He tries to get him to whistle. When Suky squawks a lot Hubby puts ear plugs in and both are happy. Birds are lots of fun.

Moppet

I have one that copies the ring of the phone. no matter what I set it for she learns it. and she does the alarm sound.

and yes they are LOTS of work not just keeping them clean and happy. but attention time also. and yes as a rule feather pickers are because of situation. however I have 2 that are not. my blue and gold was a picker to start with when I got her. and she is a nervous bird. she plucked her feathers out of her tummy and back nothing in the house changed when it happened. then my congo he does not let his red tail grow in. i swear he hates red. congos are more prone to pluck then the timneh grey. I have one of those also and out of the crew those two are the only pluckers I have the congo did it when he hit maturity. and tests showed nothing wrong with him. so I try to encourage the 2 of them not to pluck feathers.

Deecee

I notice a lot of the birdy pets seem to be cockatiels (an Australian native) and am curious as to why this was your choice over American native birds. I admit I am not very well informed about American birds as pets as I keep mainly Australian natives apart from some canaries and New Zealand kakarikies.

I am interested to hear your replies.

Rhonda

In our pet stores around here you can choose from song birds or parakeets or cockatiels or parrots. I would love to have a parrot but could never afford one. So my first choice after having parakeets all my life was a cockatiel. We have had several because I love the interaction with them. I wish I could afford a parrot but I don't much care for the song birds. I want something I can play with.