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| | | From: snugglbutt (Original Message) | Sent: 2/15/2006 1:16 AM |
Hi everyone. My husband and I are discussing getting another parrot in the future (next year or so maybe) and we are trying to decide which parrot would be a good choice for a family pet/companion. We currently have 2 quaker parrots, 3 dogs, and a cat. We also have a 7 yr old daughter who has been raised around several different types of animals (I volunteered with a no-kill shelter and she would come along to help clean, feed, and give lovings). We have discussed a grey, umbrella cockatoo, and the eclectus parrots. We are looking for a larger bird that would enjoy cuddles, but can also play independently. We are a working family, however either myself or my husband is usually home, and we both enjoy hanging out with our birds out of cage. We have seen the blue and gold macaws in petstores, and have heard wonderful things about them, but have never owned one and are just beginning our research. Can anyone tell us the good, the bad and the ugly? Thank you. Stacy |
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I would LOVE the sites....Thanks!! Stacy |
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| Hello Stacy. I would like to offer some observations. Lean toward the medium birds on your list. For fifteen years or more I wanted a pair of greenwings. My wife and I agreeded they were Too large to share our home with us. About a year ago I brought home a young female. Luna cost over $3,000.00 in accessories and examinations before I brought her home. Every thing to support her will be from two to three times as expensive as your smaller group. Luna reaches a two foot radius and her "tree" must be in the centre of a room. I want her to have full flight but this will probably be impossible do to her destruction potential. I don't recomend this to others but all our parrots are allowed on my shoulders. I can walk for an hour with an Amazon and often no one notices. I walk a couple of miles with Luna and it takes three times as long because of people stopping you to ask questions. We don't go were we are not wellcome but even there you have to be much more carefull. Last summer while paying for a nursury purchase I discovered small pices of a hanging windchime falling around me. If the macaw bites someone there will be more damage. My wife doesn't want to handle Luna if I am in veiw. However recently When I was not present Luna stepped up then reached down a bit barb pinetrating the skin with all three eigths inch width of the lower mandible. I have never had a noise problem with any parrot but many aquantances seem to. If you did the macaw has much more volume to each call. It may be partly because she is still a child but I have never had a parrot as active as Luna. It would be very cruel to force her to live in a cage. Luns is almost unbelievably destructive. Eg. I have a plastic crate for an 80lb dog that the manufacturer recomends and sells accessories for shipping birds. Luna has been in it approx 20mins. at less than 2second intervalls you hear a snap and another fingernail size peice is removed. If she were shipped to BC she would be out examining the rest of the shipment. we have several "Parrot Tower" perches she will destroy the normal perches in a few hours. She destroys many of the chains and quick lings sold on large parrot toys. If you buy quick links large enough to withstand her beak she simply undoes them. If she watches you assemble something she reverses the proceedure and works untill it comes apart. I was offered a greewing several years ago by a neighbour who had dogs, cats and parrots and just found the larger bird too much. Don't consider the larger parrot unless you are comfortable with it spending much of its life in a cage. Or if you are going to be dicouraged by some bloodletting and a few unforseen problems. Remember it will be much harder to find a macaw a suitable keeper after you are too old to provide for her. I have a friend who is a vet tech who sees this last problem often. She has taken birds in herself some times with heart breaking results. Her most recent addition is a blue and gold that at only 35yrs had to find a new home. Our circumstances are very different but in mine aquiring Luna was probably not a good decissionfor her. Good luck D.D. |
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