I Had a Parakeet as a Kid (parrots, cage, budgie)

[goldengrain]

He was a single bird. We allowed him out of the cage all day. He would come and go as he pleased. At night he would go to his cage and tweet until we put the cover on.

He played with us, related to us in so many ways, talked, danced, etc.

He would hang by the door around three thirty when I came home from school.

My husband, as a boy in England, had a bird that was treated and acted similarly.

Both of our birds came from the islands and not pet stores.

The people whom I know with birds that they have currently purchased do not seem to have birds that are as interactive.

I like small birds because the droppings are not hard at all to clean up.

Just for conversation's sake, I am wondering what the good people on this forum think of my comments here. Were the keets from years back smarter? Are any birds trainable to go to their cage to eliminate?

Are there places where a person could get a corvid(blackbird, bluejay, crow, etc.) as a pet? They are smart birds. I thought they were illegal as pets, but maybe I'm wrong.

It was my understanding that if you get just one bird it will interact with you a lot but if you get two they will ignore you for each other's companionship. Is that right?

[foxywench]

the only corvid species leal in the US wothout a permit is the african pied crow, you cant own any native species without a permit so jays american crows, ravens, jackdaws ect are all illegal without special permits

in terms of multiple birds it realy depends on YOUR interaction with thebrids, multiple birds can bond just as well with humans IF the human takes the extra time to ebcomepart of the flock. a single bird NEEDS human interaction for its own mental stabulity so it tends to be a little easier to get a single bird to bond to you, but when he has another bird as a companion you as the human need to work a little bit harer to be a part of that flock.

i think the reason your eeing a difference in birds now compared to then is probably a combination...
1: the bird you and yourhubby were introduced to were probably the english budgie...while the same species as the american version sold as a parakeet (there actually all budgerigar not parakeets in the true sense of the world) the enlgish budgie is much more selectivly bred, a larger bird and tend to be better talkers than the american strain.
the budgies (american parakeets) being sold in petstores today are not as selectivly breed (most are bred in bird farms) they are pulled for hand feeding and then shipped to pet stores unweaned...this would be fine is 1: they were being raised by people experienced in hand feeding, 2: had the time to properly socilize and 3: had the time to properly wean. instead these birds sold in most per stores are simply taken form the brooder to feed them then imediatly put back, then they are weaned on the STORES schedual rather than the birds schedual, they dont get neer neough handling and are often weaned long before they are truly MENTLALY ready simply because they are physically ready. this forced weaning and lack of socilization tend to make for problems leater.

i personaly do whats called abundance weaning with my linnies (and the ame with jack jack) i let the baby bird tell ME when they have had enough...and the differnece between an abundance weaned parrot and a store raised parrot is insanely different, the birds that are abundance weaned tend to be much more interactive, alot more balanced, less prone to be nippy
and of course the more socilization a baby bird gets the more social it is with people.

combine that with todays much busier "go go go" lifetyle and you get birds who dont get neer enough human interaction, bought on a whim spent plenty of time with for a few months and then forgottn as life gets in the way and they get cast asie, these highly flock orientated and inteligent birds then develop "issues" and can beocme depressed and noneinteractive , none itnerested ect...

i dont nessicarily think birds of days gone by were "more inteligent" but instead simply weaned slowly, given alot more interaction and given alot mroe time and attention during the day...people worked less and "lived" more spending more time at home with the family and the bird was usually the kids pet so got lots of attention and playtime.

and yes birds cna be trained to poop on command or return to a certain spot to poop, even tiny little budgies are HIGHLY inteligent.

[goldengrain]

Thank you for the information. I understand, since I've had cats and there is a huge difference if they have been handled a lot before the legal age to sell them.

Not that I am in the market now, but if in the future we wanted to get two budgies, how would we get in touch with a responsible breeder?

We plan to take some trips to England. Would we do best to purchase there, when we are ready? Are there laws there that regulate breeding methods?

I found this about the Pied on the net:
They require a whole prey-based diet (think whole mice and rats or bird of prey diet), a large, heated flight (not a cage), are unspeakably messy, and require far more attention even than most parrots. In addition, they can be very predatory in their behavior, and are not suitable for households with cats, small dogs, young children, or non-bird-savvy adults. Unless you have extensive experience working with other wild predators at a zoo or wildlife rehab center, you probably don't want one for a pet.