So for some reason, I decided it was time for another expensive hobby, so I decided on buying a parrot....so far so good. Expensive as all get out, but pretty rad. I ended up selecting a Pionus as the best species for my household. Overall he is pretty quiet, says just a handful of words, but is very inquisitive and already at home with our daily routine. Do any of you guys have any avian household members?

Needs more Hyacinth Macaw.

Birds are awesome. Was never able to get the wife on board so we visit the local exotic bird shop on a regular occuramce to get our fix.

Pretty cool OP! I shall live vicariously through you today so be sure to post pics.

I had a Norwegian Blue, but, alas, he started pining for the fjords.

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This is our guy, 6 years old, we’re his third home. Funny enough, both my wife and I got on the bird kick after seeing a Hyacinth on an animal er tv show.

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The CIA absolutely loves it that you spend large sums of money purchasing and maintaining personal surveillance drones that you allow into your house!

I had a conure as a kid. He was super cool, until he wasn’t.

Those birds have an infinite ability to be pricks.

I had a Myna bird, its vocabulary was crazy. He would mimic the doorbell, the cell phone and the microwave.

teach him some Chili peppers

Parrots are assholes.

I have three. There's never a dull moment in my house.
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With an African Grey and your Macaw I'm sure its a loud and rambunctious lot.

The grey isn't particularly loud, although she's full of personality. She talks a lot. The macaw, on the other hand,  is very loud when my wife leaves the room.

You must really insensitive skin to use OS body wash.

And either you like cheap shampoo or you have a gen Z girl in the house.

Teach him to say let's go Brandon

Eta That's a good looking Parrot!

My pals,

At one time I wanted one, but they live a long time and I don't know if I could do that to an animal. I'm hard enough for my wife to deal with.

Oh boy.

Don't stroke/pet its back.  Just don't.  It'll cause the bird to "sexually" bond with you and only you, and can cause a lot of negative behaviors like becoming extremely clingy of only you, and becoming extremely overlyprotective of you, etc..

Spend a lot of time with it.  Parrots are super social, and need a LOT of social interaction all day.  They're not really the kind of birds that can just be left in their cage most of the time.  They also live a very long time, so get ready for the long haul.  If you can't give it the stimulation and social interaction that it needs, find someone that can.

Get it a lot of toys for when it is in the cage.  They need a lot of stimulation.

Teach it not to bite.  We were told with ours to just ignore the biting (which is hard to do, those suckers can bite super hard), and it worked.  A painful few days, but it worked, the bird realized that biting just wasn't going to get what it wanted.

Learn to read the bird.  By the time it's bitten you, it's told you in two or three different ways to stop what you're doing.  Pay attention to those signs.  Body language is pretty big with birds.  If you pay attention, you'll learn how the bird tells you "I don't like that", "I'd like some scratches", "I'm about to go to the bathroom", etc..

Get your bird used to some things that it doesn't like.  For example, every once in a while, a bird needs to be just grabbed and held, even if it's just for a vet visit.  Ours (and probably most) didn't like that, and would bite the frick out of me, so I made it a point to just grab it and hold it 10x a day, and ignore any biting.   In a few days, it learned that if I grabbed it, there was no hope, and to stop struggling and just go with it.

Talk to it a lot.  It'll love talking back to you and learning to imitate what you do.

Teach it some sort of potty training.  We taught ours to go on command "go potty", and when it's with us, every so often we set it in an acceptable place and tell it to go.

Ours' favorite thing is to go meet even MORE people.  My daughter takes it to the park, to stores that allow it, etc., and universally she's surrounded by people interested in it.  And because we've taught it to interact well with humans, it'll go right to anybody that wants to hold it, and we don't have to worry about biting or other problems, it'll just jump onto their hand and start playing "picaboo" with them.

Great advice! My wife and I did extensive research before we took the plunge but more tips the merrier. Our guy would step up for us both immediately day 1. Amy touch us limited to head scratches. He prefers my wife over me hands down but will tolerate and interact with me just fine so far. We added a perch in the home office and living room where we spend a lot of family time. So far so good, he’s still settling in.

Beautiful bird, bro.

I've had a parrot over 19 years. I recommend against getting one anytime the subject comes up. Personally I wouldn't do it again.

Our family business is animal care, so animal husbandry is life in our household. I've heard the same warning quite a few times, but for us its just another mouth to feed in the pack/kennel/stable.

I was expecting a picture of a CZ race gun

beautiful!

ETA: not sure where my manners are, congrats OP!

ETAA: I relation-shipped into a love bird and he turned out to be a very good friend.  I think about him often.  He amazed me many times and was a truly cool animal.  I miss Ernie.  There was an understanding of emotion that reminded me of a tiny hand-sized dog!

You guys with large, long-living, even smarter birds have my admiration.  t's no small task.

We have a sun conure, he's a cool bird, great watch bird! We didn't want a bird, but one day I was out in my driveway and this injured bird was hoping along and came right up to me. I was thinking WTF! We did everything we could to find the owner and two years later the dudes still here.

What a story, that's awesome. Sad for the original owner I'm sure, but a neat addition to your household.

Very nice.

You know they aren’t supposed to be solitary animals, right?

Unless it’s a weird situation like the VIOLENTLY antisocial sun conure I took in a year and a half ago. She’s good with people, but I got her because she almost killed the rest of their flock.

It's not the feeding... it's the "it needs to be with you most of the day" that most people have trouble with.

So far so good, he's been a great companion around the house and we set up his cage and primary perch in our office for that very reason. Still quite a learning curve.

Quick update; seller was not exactly honest. They claimed Jasper had been DNA sexed. Well I had my doubts, so my vet did a blood draw and it looks like Mr. Jasper Bird is actually a female!

Ha. That happens with everything we get pretty much.

Most recently, my chameleon Jeff became Jeffrina when she had her first clutch of eggs. Our turtle Tim became Kim. We're not very good at sexing.

One of my birds fathers is names Melissa for the same reason. I've not had them sexed as it doesn't matter to me.

Going on six years with my green cheek.  I adore her but I wouldn't do it again either.

That's an awesome picture.

We’re loving Jasper, however I think this is going to be our one and only avian pet.

I've had my conure for about 20 years now.  He's outlived 3 dogs and a cat.

@-Obsessed-

You rang?







The most birds we had in our home at one time was 63. That's not including raccoons, opossums, and snakes.

Great looking parrot!

@Stitches1974

Is that a Catalina in the second pic, far left?

@-Obsessed-

Harlequin. Killed by a self cleaning oven.  Can read about the incident here:

https://www.geocities.ws/flockingbirdman/features3.html

Sorry to hear that.

Thanks! My mother was devastated, but it is what it is.

Back on topic with Bikes, babes, and birds.

Any reasons why? I think they're kind of addictive and I'm not much of a bird lover. I'd love a blue and gold. Maybe one day I'll have another.

Overall, the husbandry is manageable, but we also breed and show dogs. So, the combination of dog and other pets etc. in the home I just don't see us freeing up more daily time to adequately care for another avian pet.

I don't even know how many birds my mother has now a days. Father passed away new years 2020, so I'm sure she got rid of most of them. She also has 2 collies and works 2 jobs. No clue how she does it. I know she'll never get rid of her blue and gold and hyacinth.

I've got a African Grey he is 10 - I say he because I've never seen a egg. Extensive vocabulary that includes using words in context.
When I go out the door: "see you later"
I open chip bag: "I want a chip, cracker, treat"
It's getting dark: "It's bedtime"
It makes racket, corrects it's self: "stop that, shut up bird"
It will probably outlive me, if so one of my boys will take it. Entertaining but one is enough and I would not do it again. My dog dies, I get another. The parrot dies, not getting another.
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We're looking at rescuing a parrots. We had a rescue sun conure, he was an amazing bird, he had some liver issues and passed away a week ago. Still torn up about it, once you have a bird, the house just seems to quiet without one.

Congos are amazingly smart. Supposedly there is or was a congo with over a 700 word vocabulary. Depending on your age, by the time the parrot dies, you'll most likely be in the ground, as you said. Around 60, but up to 80 years lifespan for a captive bird.


Added a video, but not mine.


We had 2 in my household and would talk nonstop during the day.

I like the idea of a parrot, I’ll be buying one March 1st

Parrot

Same…that’s awesome