Parrots, Cocaktiels, Conures etc..

DailyGeek

DailyGeek

DailyGeek

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Hi there folks.

My girlfriend has asked me to start a thread asking about birds...

She is after a tame (hand-reared) pet bird, she is currently considering a cockatiel but is also looking at parrots.

Essentially she wants to know what is good for a 'beginner' - although i think its a daft question as parrots live like a million years. :p

TIA!
 
Not that daft a question; larger parrots (especially African Greys) need an incredible amount of stimulation and will happily pull out all their feathers 'til they're bald and bleeding if they get bored. Which they do. Easily :(

A Cockie would be a great introduction as they're pretty bomb proof and make great little pets. They can be chirpy but I just taught mine to whistle and talk instead LOL Find some breeders in your locality and pay some visits, especially if you decide to carry on looking at the larger birds.
 
Rainmaker said:
Not that daft a question; larger parrots (especially African Greys) need an incredible amount of stimulation and will happily pull out all their feathers 'til they're bald and bleeding if they get bored. Which they do. Easily :(

A Cockie would be a great introduction as they're pretty bomb proof and make great little pets. They can be chirpy but I just taught mine to whistle and talk instead LOL Find some breeders in your locality and pay some visits, especially if you decide to carry on looking at the larger birds.
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Good stuff - she had a cockatiel when she was younger apparently (called Magic, damn timmy mallet!)

Was in a shop yesterday, 28.99 for a Cockatiel, 82.99 for a hand-reared one!! Very tame though :)
 
DailyGeek said:
Good stuff - she had a cockatiel when she was younger apparently (called Magic, damn timmy mallet!)

Was in a shop yesterday, 28.99 for a Cockatiel, 82.99 for a hand-reared one!! Very tame though :)
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:eek: Find a breeder mate. Round our way a 'normal' Cockatiel is about £10, hand reared would set you back £20 to £30 tops.
 
I'm no bird expert mate, I'm more of a working dog / reptile man. That said from the bird owning experience I do have I'd say this:

If you're really after a hand reared (and for the love of God don't pay >£80 for it!!) AND have the time to spend with it, get a single bird. That way it'll bond with you rather than its partner. Two birds tend to flock together so to speak, and that can get in the way of human/bird companionship.

The whole point of hand reared is that they're used to humans and treat you as their own. Get two birds and you essentially undo that.
 
get hand reared if you can
i used to have a conure that was hand reared very demanding it was though and needed a lot of attention also very noisey when it was not getting attention if you were in the house lol
 
If you get a young Cockatiel pair then they will spend more time playing with each other than the humans around them so probably best to introduce a 2nd bird down the line if you want to. The same reason it’s not a great idea to put mirror toys in their cage when they’re still growing from young because they spend more time in front of it and don’t tend to start talking or learn to later on.

You don't need to though because 1 Cockatiel will be perfectly happy making friends with the family, talking, running, flying to and from people and generally being awesome and learning tricks.

This is the family Cockatiel, Pika:


A guy on another forum has one which is 25 years old!
 
We have a african Gray, Hes a big house softy. He will just fly about and then sit on your shoulder or your head. He wasn't hand reared, but from a young age we used to pat him and chat to him, now he never stops talking - Hes only 2years old now.
 
I would definately recommend Cockatiels as first birds, a lot easier to take care of than parrots, mostly due to their size. We have 2 cockatiels ourselves, I never used to be a bird person before I met my other half, now I'm a total convert!! They're an absolute pleasure, but as i'm sure you've read before they take a lot of work and attention, so make sure you're prepared for that commitment.

If you don't spend a lot of time at home (work full time etc.) I would definately recommend getting 2 males, the birds need a lot of personal attention as they're very social creatures, but if you have 2 to keep each other company then the pressure will be off you a little.

Of our 2 cockatiels, Piper was from a pet shop and Coco is hand-reared from a breeder, http://www.handrearedparrots.co.uk/ (my other half made the website for them too, there's a heap of info on there about what to do as a first time owner of Parrots/Cockatiels etc.). Piper is now 10 years old and Coco is just over a year, but you wouldn't think he's so young as he's so confident! :)

My other half has quite a few videos posted of our cockatiels if you'd like to see them:


She has quite a few others on her account too: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ryiah&search_type=&aq=f

Cockatiels are lovely birds, I would definately recommend hand-reared ones for first timers as they're that much easier to handle - mind you if they aren't handled enough or correctly, they can develop the same behavioural traits as non-hand reared birds. Good luck!! :)
 
this pic is about 2 years old:

n510156187_422917_8830.jpg



Had him about 4months at the time,

Dad named him: Egbert. Dunno why. But hes a nutcase.
 
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A hand reared cockatiel usually makes a lovely pet, not good talkers but very affectionate. You should only be looking to pay about £30, so they are also nice and cheap, but live to about 15 or so. A male budgie can also be an awesome little pet, they become very tame and inquisitive and make incredible talkers a lot of the time. You tell a male by the waxy cere above their beak, if it's brown it will be female and not a good pet, you want one with a blue cere. Other than that conures are pretty loud and destructive usually, although hand reared again make nice pets. The best parakeet (other than a proper parrot) of all is the ring necked parakeet, will cost about £75. Hand reared a male ring neck will be an awesome talker, a decent size and very attached to it's owner. A proper parrot will usually live for at least 50 years, and require an incredible amount of care and attention. They easily get stressed, depressed and self destructive on their own. They also tend to bond very strongly with 1 owner and become agressive towards everyone else. We had an african grey some years ago however and he was absolutely fantastic. Stunningly intelligent to the point of talking in context, and friendly almost like a dog after a couple of years. Hope this helps :)
 
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A lady who used to live next door to us had an African Grey and she used to take it out in the car shopping etc. It was an amazing mimic, but she got really fed up when the roadworks outside her house had been going on for so long that the parrot got very good at pneumatic drill noises and wolf whistles.

Its best trick he learned over a series of months. First he learnt the telephone (a trim phone back then), which used to get the lady picking up the phone. Then he learned the 'hello', so started doing both and then he learned the mildly rude swear word that she used everytime she realised that she'd been tricked. He outlived the lady and was passed on to her daughter, whose husband he hated.

We ahve had cockatiels and they are great birds. Very chirpy, friendly and pretty to look at. Our hand reared one was hardly ever in his cage and just perched on whatever was handy ie. the side of my mum's glasses, the dog, even a wooden spoon sticking out of a saucepan.
 
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