I have been sneaking around the forum and decided to join and post. It seems to be a great place here. I am looking for some advice and will introduce myself as I ask so everyone kind of knows my background. I currently do not have any birds. I have a couple of older dogs and a cat. I also have snakes and a crested gecko. The reptiles have their own room. The dogs are limited to the main level of our house minus the living room which we rarely use unless we have guests over. As I said I currently have no birds. When I was younger my grandma had canaries and my cousin had a budgie. Those little birds are what started my fascination with all birds. My sister got a Cockatiel when she was pretty young and her older brother took care of him. I loved that guy and even though I took care of him he was my sisters bird. I was raised on a farm and took care of horses, cows, pigs, chickens, ducks etc...... Then I went through my party years then child raising years and now at 46 I would like to officially have a bird in my life. I work from home and my wife is a stay at home mom. We have one child left at home who just turned 17. My dream when I was young was to have a Cockatoo. It still is but after researching a lot of different birds they seem awesome but I am worried I some how wouldn't give the bird enough time. From what I have researched they seem to be very needy and I fear I would mess up. I am leaning more towards African grey or Amazon. I might be totally on the wrong path with those and would love to hear some advice. I have a coworker that has 2 Amazons. I also work with her sister and brother who also use to have parrots I think they also had Amazons but I am not 100% on that. I also have another coworker that has an African grey. So I guess my very first dilemma is which one is right for me. Dilemma number 2 is where do I get the bird once I figure it out. I live in northern WI there are no breeders near by that I am aware of. Minneapolis is only a couple hours away though so maybe there? I have looked at rescues and at Craigslist for re homing. The issue there though is that everyone says must have experience so I am forced to look at breeders it appears. I guess that is a quick glimpse into my life. Any advice or insight would be wonderful. Thank you.