Bird Suggestions Please!!!

[emily_bennett]

 Hi

Comments

[magicalmartha]

Before I got Dizzy, I thought seriously about what kinds of things I was looking for in my birdy companion. Size was a factor, because I had had budgies in the past and wanted something a little bigger (but not intimidating!), and so was personality. Obviously, that's going to vary between individual birds, but the keywords that decided me on a green cheek were: clowns, cuddly, goofy, and "like a big bird in a little body." Dizzy is, indeed, all of these things, even if she is also: bratty, nippy, clingy, and occasionally shrieky. But I think the good stuff outweighs all that

[ltdead]

Pre-requisite announcement for anyone reading this thread: please don't buy birds at bird fairs! Get (washable) toys, get packaged foods, get cages, get perches. Play with the birds.

Then go home, wash your clothes, and take a shower. Buying a bird at a bird fairs and birds marts is a sure-fire recipe for disease (psittacosis, polyoma, PBFD...)

(Not saying you were planning on that, magicalmartha. Just wanted to clarify for anyone reading).

[magicalmartha]

This is a True Thing! emily_bennett and I are going so that she can have a chance to interact with some different kinds of birds other than Dizzy - who is totally great, but not very good at imitating the behavior other birds. Any toys/perches/whatever purchased will be thoroughly cleaned before Diz can get her destructive little beak on them.

[emily_bennett]

Yep! We are just going for experience not for actual birds.

Also I'm sure Dizzy will be getting some lovely new (washable) toys ^_^

[angilla]

Haha, funny how we're opposites. You had budgies and wanted something bigger, I have something bigger (quaker) and after him I only want budgies! Though I am always tempted by the occasional tiel or white-bellied caique, my quaker's noise and beak remind me of why I'm so fascinated with budgies now. :P

[magicalmartha]

I would love to have budgies again, actually - but due to some personality differences, my live-in boyfriend is not that receptive to me getting more birds. But every time I go to the pet store I watch all the little guys. There was one I would have snatched up in a heartbeat if I was able - he had CLEARLY decided that a particular perch was HIS, and was chasing off all the other budgies. At one point, he lifted his little foot up and started kicking at the other birds and it was SO ridiculous and SO adorable.

[angilla]

Oh that is cute! I need a few things from Petco and I'm sending my boyfriend without me lol, because I know if I go, I'll be glued to the budgies, watching them. As it is I still obsessively check craigslist and kajiji for budgies needing new homes. Luckily my boyfriend, who never owned or even interacted with a pet bird before moving in with me, is now as bird-crazy as I am. Just two more months until we move to a bigger place, and then the budgie-madness shall begin! *rubs hands together* Teeheehee.

[magicalmartha]

Yeah, Dizzy...doesn't like my boyfriend. I'm working on it, and she's much better behaved when she's not molting (OMG she gets SO cranky when she molts) but he's the only person she's ever bitten like, seriously. So he doesn't really trust her anymore. So I really don't want to exacerbate the situation by being all, "Surprise! I know you don't like the bird that already lives here, but here are two more!" Even though if I got two budgies I would name them after breakfast foods and it would be adorable.

[bloolark]

I'm traveling, so can't comment so much, but all of my small parrots are named after food because I have big carnivore pets, and a sick sense of humor. :) (The dogs are terrified of the parrots, and also the cats, so it's not a big deal. I still find it funny. :))

[banshea]

Hurray, budgie madness! I loved having a whole flock of them to watch -- they had little budgie soap operas going that were better to watch than TV! Having three or four together is a lot of fun. I'm actually torn now, because I'd love to add to my current budgie flock, but my boyfriend and I would rather have our next bird be interested in us, and we're afraid that the current two would teach a new budgie to stay in the cage and never step up. :/

[emily_bennett]

As I previously said, budgies are super cute, but I would like more of a companion bird that will be interested in me!

Someday when you live in a bigger apartment or house I'm sure Billy wouldn't mind you getting some budgies, Martha. Then he wouldn't have to pay much mind to them!

[banshea]

Oh, I've had budgies who were great companion birds and very interested in people. It's just that they were birds who had started out as single birds.

Our current budgie flock consists of one rescue bird who we're pretty sure now suffered some permanent damage in his previous home, because his wires are kind of short-circuited and after years and years of working with him he can't seem to remember that hands aren't bird-eating monsters. Absolutely everything terrifies him, and he has to have another bird around to demonstrate what an appropriate response to a given situation is, because otherwise he'd panic himself into a heart attack at the sight of his toes. (No, really

[emily_bennett]

That makes sense. I guess I would have to play with a budgie to see what they are like.

Right now I'm leaning towards green cheek or pionus.

[zandperl]

And for me, although the same keywords as you made me consider a green cheek, the keywords bratty and nippy seriously turned me off to them. I ended up with a dusky conure, and she's much less willful and nippy than GCCs are reputed to be.

[magicalmartha]

Totally honestly, the final decision factors were availability and cost. I researched conures extensively, and once I was trying to decide between green cheekies, duskies, and maroon bellies, I found a breeder who I really liked and trusted and who had some green cheek babies ready for families. I knew that I would have to deal with biting more than if I'd gotten a dusky, but I feel like my awareness of the issues has made me better able to deal with Dizzy's (increasingly less frequent) bouts of brat-itude.

I have heard only good things about duskies, though. And Kappa is adorable. (She's in my thoughts, by the way! I don't have any useful suggestions re: your trip, but I hope you figure things out!)

[emily_bennett]

All of those factors make sense. You know what's hard to find? Pionus, that's what. Even if we find one to meet I'm not sure if I'd ever find one available to come home in the future.