• Welcome to Avian Avenue! To view our forum with less advertisments please register with us.
    Memberships are free and it will just take a moment. Click here

Choosing a bird for apartment dwellers

SquawksNibbles

Rollerblading along the road
Joined
11/4/17
Messages
3,257
Real Name
Kiera
@THE_COURIER - Have you considered a rescue parrot? With adopting parrots from a rescue, you can go meet the bird and see if there is a connection between y’all and the bird. It’s not only about species but also the individual. Please keep this in mind. Plus the rescue/shelter will also know about the bird’s personality before they are adopted out. With a baby bird they will mature and as they get older their personality can change. Sure, many rescue parrots come from difficult and sometimes even heartbreaking past situations, but that’s an even better reason they finally deserve a loving home. All rescue parrots can be wonderful companions with lots of love.
 

MauiWendy

Jogging around the block
Joined
11/23/18
Messages
790
Location
Maui, Hawaii
Real Name
Wendy
Aloha, I have a single bird, my red bellied parrot, Keoki. I work full time, about 7.5 hrs a day M-F. I will leave the music on or YouTube to like 8 hrs of bird sounds. Keoki loves it. Also, my husband is an inspector so he in and out all day. When Keoki is home by himself he is in his cage. But if either of us is home, he his rarely in his cage. He’s either on it, on his stand, or on his bungee in the living room. Or he is on one of us. He doesn’t sleep in his cage either. He sleeps on a bungee in the corner of our bedroom. This happened because the cage he had prior to the one he has now, he absolutely hated, and just would never settle down in it. But when I’d put him on his bungee and within 30 seconds, he was beak grinding
and content. So it stuck. He’s ok in the cage he has now, but I really limit the time he spends in there. I don’t know where I was going with this information but oh well.
 

MauiWendy

Jogging around the block
Joined
11/23/18
Messages
790
Location
Maui, Hawaii
Real Name
Wendy
Now I remember. Ha! long day!!! I live in an apartment / downstairs. I’ve had no complaints, but my walls are also concrete so you don’t hear much unless someone is extremely loud or drop something. Keoki is of the poi family, sometimes his shriek remind me of a cape parrot. He has moments when he is super loud. Usually, if he is scared or super excited, and early evening at sunset. I am pretty sensitive to loud noise, if this bothers me at sunset I usually ignore it. Or if I’ve had a bad day I will feed him something inside his cage before sunset as the sun is going down. He’s usually quiet. He also contact calls. He does this for both me and my husband. And he will do it when he ready to go to bed. He will contact call in the direction of the bedroom. I’m hoping once he is flighted again, he will just put himself to bed.
 

Kodigirl210

Rollerblading along the road
Joined
10/13/18
Messages
1,403
Location
Cali
My kids are okay with the radio but they actually prefer the tv. Maybe it’s the people moving around and having actual conversations and stuff...not sure but there is a denifite difference between the radio and tv. I use a nanny cam to monitor them during the day for noise.
 

Kodigirl210

Rollerblading along the road
Joined
10/13/18
Messages
1,403
Location
Cali

Dartman

Biking along the boulevard
Avenue Veteran
Celebirdy of the Month
Mayor of the Avenue
Avenue Spotlight Award
Joined
10/20/12
Messages
9,254
Location
Portland Oregon
Real Name
Terry
My camera can use the cloud but I don't use it. It's a option but you can choose not to use it easily enough so keep that in mind. If you find a camera you like it probably will push using the cloud but most you should be able to disable or opt out.
 

Kodigirl210

Rollerblading along the road
Joined
10/13/18
Messages
1,403
Location
Cali
The internet the camera, phone/computer & router have to be next to each other in order to establish a connection. This prevents anyone in the area from casually hijacking your camera. It also prevents it from being hijacked through the web as a cloud based would be particularly vulnerable to that. I prefer not to have someone “steal” my stuff regardless of how little I own. It’s easy to do stuff on the web so I prefer to keep as much control for me and as little to anyone else. The camera is cheap & has a very low tech safeguard which I love. Lower the tech the harder it is to crack. Just sayin’ :)
 

THE_COURIER

Moving in
Joined
2/13/19
Messages
7
Sorry for not replaying for a long time and a lot has happened. First of all my fiancee will change her work and the amount of time where a parrot will be alone will decrease to 3 or 4 hours per day. There is also a possibility that someone will always be at home 24/7 and everytihing will be clear in upcoming months. Also we were able to see some of the parrots that I and you mentioned in this thread. Meyer's Parrots and Cockatiels didn't grab us by the heart unfortunately but after spending more time with certain birds there was one that took us by surprise and we want to do what we can to get that one... and that's an amazon parrot. We had a chance to interact with an Orange Winged Amazon and it just clicked with us that this is what we want and in the upcoming years we will try to make it all work out in terms of place to live, having enough time for a bird and the rest. And yes, we heard its loud voice but somehow we were able to manage it without a problem. So that's how we see things now and will work on getting more info about Amazons and then decided which one we would like to get.
 

THE_COURIER

Moving in
Joined
2/13/19
Messages
7
@MauiWendy in the future we stand between a choice: either an apartment (where we want to have soundproof walls) or doing something more crazy and go for a house. In case of apartment such walls should at least decrease noise that an amazon would do I think.
 

MauiWendy

Jogging around the block
Joined
11/23/18
Messages
790
Location
Maui, Hawaii
Real Name
Wendy
All I know is, I have a red bellied parrot and I live in an apartment. I am on the bottom floor and on an end. My walls and ceiling between apartments are concrete. I can hear nothing from my neighbors except when my upstairs neighbor drops something. Keoki’s vocalizations are no match to an amazon, but I still worry that he will disturb the neighbors. He is doing much more talking and whistling then screeching, but those moments when he has a hissy fit, oh boy! He sure can be loud. I hav asked my neighbors if they here him, they tell me they hear nothing. Maybe I’m just a worrier, I guess. I just couldn’t imagine what an amazon in an apartment would be like.
 

JaneLane

Walking the driveway
Avenue Veteran
Joined
2/11/18
Messages
287
@THE_COURIER I'm a little late here, but I dont think an Amazon would be good for an apartment even with soundproofing(But it could be for you every situation iss different) those are jungle birds if I recall. Cockatiels are usually very sweet and in comparison to a Amazon are very, very quiet but when ours are making homing calls you can hear them through a wooden door and into the living room, I'll try to post a sound file for you. Besides Cockatiels there are plenty of other delightful birds out there and if an Amazon is what you truly want then I am sure you will find a way to make it work out :) Sometimes there are houses for rent, or even rent to own, that might be a good idea.
 
Last edited:

AmyJas

Walking the driveway
Joined
4/4/19
Messages
267
Location
Philadelphia, PA
Real Name
Amy
@THE_COURIER Have you considered a Peach-Fronted Conure? They are more "parrot-like," but are supposed to be quiet compared to many conures. Amazons are very loud. Even if you sound-proof the walls, how are you going to sound-proof the floors?
 
Last edited:

Khizz

Rollerblading along the road
Celebirdy of the Month
Mayor of the Avenue
Avenue Spotlight Award
Joined
3/31/19
Messages
4,495
To an extent it also comes down to the apartment itself. I hear practically nothing from my neighbours now whereas in past apartments I may as well have sat in the room with them :laughing2:

So you might want to make sure you find out how thick the walls are before you get a bigger parrot. Even cockatiels can be super noisy if you have thin walls and a gobby tiel!

Incidentally, I have 2 cockatiels, and aside from it being practically the law here in Switzerland to have 2 of a social animal, I definitely made the right choice to get 2. Even if someone is around, when we go on holiday or have periods where we are around less, we feel less guilty for leaving them when we know they have each other. Plus with kids you might not always have the time and energy to spend as much time with the bird so it's nice if they have a little friend. So you might want to still consider getting 2 if you can accommodate for it :smug:
 
  • Like
Reactions: tka

Kodigirl210

Rollerblading along the road
Joined
10/13/18
Messages
1,403
Location
Cali
I will say this. I see a lot of Amazons in rescue. One of the main reasons is the noise. If you don’t mind the noisiness of the Amazons there are several looking for homes. In fact, there is a cutie right on this forum in the rehome section. His name is Tio !
 
  • Like
Reactions: tka
Top