keeping parrots (merged)

Jellicat

Hiya Feather, at the mo I have only rats and reptiles and the bird(s) would be in a seperate room, so not a prob. Yeah I had planned to go with a specialist insurer for a birdie. However I can only find places that will insure birds "worth" (I really hate the idea of judging animals in terms of monetary value hence quotemarks) over £100 so probably wouldnt be able to insure a tiel if I chose one of them.

Kr he's lovely! Its no surprise to me that parroty birds are very high maintenance, giving him plenty of time and love isnt going to be a problem, just wanted to make sure I could afford to keep them before I get one. Probably will go for trio of tiels to be honest (there's some lovely handreared babes for sale where I work), they seem to be a bit more manageable than parrots (I know technically they are parrots, but you know what I mean).

Orlao sounds like his owners were real jokers lol!

Fran

I would recommend a visit to the Parrot Zoo & Sanctuary in Friskney, Lincolnshire and joining their forum where you can ask any questions about parrots.

Just a thought but 3 cockatiels? Won't one be a "gooseberry"? Perhaps you could ask that question...

Jellicat

I cant think why one would be a gooseberry TBH, they are all very close in the shop, they all preen each other.

kr15snw

Jellicat how old are these ones in the shop? And what colours are they?

Im asking because you will need to work out the sex of them.

Males and Females will breed even if they are brother / sister which is a no no.

Please also be warned they may turn on each other when older, so make sure your prepared to split them and have seperate cages if this happens.

Jellicat

Males and females breeding when kept together??? Surely not .

They're boys and yes I had considered what will happen if they have to be split.

kr15snw

Not that I doubt the petshop (ok maybe I do a little, just from experience of my local ones... lol) but how can you tell they are boys? Have they had them DNA sexed?

Could you explain what they look like and how old they are?

Jellicat

Um...they look like grey cockatiels?

I'm unsure of age, I would guess at least six months. I am going on the owner of the shop (although they also fit the description of male normal cockatiels which I have found in several places), which I work in, by the way, who has two decades experience keeping birds and has several, small and large, of her own. Prior to this they were hand-reared by a parrot breeder. They are handled daily and are extremely tame.

I appreciate the concern here but I am not an idiot and would plan on having the birds DNA sexed to be absolutely sure if I bought them anyways, so there would be no accidents. What I wanted to know about was the costs of keeping parrots, I am armed with plenty of other info.

Fran

Jellicat wrote: »

... on a day to day basis, how much to parrots cost to keep would you say...just taking into account food and so on and so forth? ....

Jellicat wrote: »

...
I'm unsure of age, I would guess at least six months. I am going on the owner of the shop (although they also fit the description of male normal cockatiels which I have found in several places), which I work in, by the way, who has two decades experience keeping birds and has several, small and large, of her own.
I appreciate the concern here but I am not an idiot and would plan on having the birds DNA sexed ..... What I wanted to know about was the costs of keeping parrots....

Errrr why don't you ask the owner of the shop you work in with her two decades of keeping birds?

Jellicat

:rolleyes: Um...Because she has rather a few of them and they are mainly flight and aviary kept, especially re the smaller birds, she has one or two bigger birds inside. She buys everything in bulk because she has so many (wastage with parrot food, especially larger birdsm can be pretty high), so her costs are going to be drastically different from a single or a pair or trio of pet birds kept inside as pets in a small cage??

Fran

Jellicat wrote: »

..She buys everything in bulk ....

As you work for her why not ask if she will do you a deal...