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How many birds do you own in total and what types?

5K views 55 replies 23 participants last post by  Misstiel 
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#1 · (Edited)
Sorry if this has been asked before, I'm curious how many birds you own and what types of birds? I think the max I could ever handle is 2 birds... I'm not sure... curious to hear what others have :)
 
#7 ·
I have 7 birds I actually own, plus 2 fosters and the chick I'm hand feeding. That's 7 cockatiels, plus the cockatiel chick, a green cheek conure, and the lovebird :)
 
#10 ·
I have two tiels, both males named Sammy and Pickles. I also have 8 finches (four gouldians, two blue capped cordon bleus, and two red breasted parrot finches). Next Saturday is the local bird mart so the number of birds I have will go up depending on what I fall in love with at the mart. :D
 
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#20 ·
Wow OMG! :) 17 tiels??? Why is that making me feel like a chicken to be worried about whether I can handle 2 tiels and one GCC. LOL.. wow that is a lot birds you have. I would probably, no wait... I would definitely end up in a nuthouse with that many birds hehe.
 
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#14 ·
OMG, I didn't realize so many here have so many birds! How on earth do you manage to deal with all that POOP!?!? :eek: =)

I'm am a HUGE clean freak. I currently have one tiel and thinking of getting another bird next year.... I'm trying to figure out if I could handle having 2 tiels and one GCC... but I'm very concerned about having 3 times the amount of poop everywhere lol. I don't know about that one :(
 
#18 ·
You get used to the poop and the seed and pellets. I jokingly say my native american name is 'Stepping on Birdseed' :D
 
#19 ·
I am a one-bird owner right now. Although I'd love to experience rescuing other parrots I can't see myself getting any soon. There's the money, the space blah blah, but also the fact that Murray is currently an amazing only-bird. She and I have got a great bond and I'd hesitate to upset that balance unless I was totally certain, which I'm not...yet!
 
#21 · (Edited)
I have two cockatiels - a male and a female. It's a perfect number for me. Not too much mess and noise, they keep each other company and yet they still want to be with me.
I don't think I would like to have a single bird. Too much pressure to be the only buddy.
Same thing with more than two - a lot of mess, expense and constant cleaning:blush:
 
#22 ·
Having outside aviaries makes it easy having too many tiels lol. I have two inside right now but that varies. I had the opportuniy to buy a lot of 10 from a breeder with lots of splits so they caused the sudden overpopulation. My aim is to have a smaller group of all tame birds.
For cleaning I have my vaccuum plugged in and sitting next to the birds all the time and I go through and sweep and clean my outside cages once a week.
 
#23 ·
If Oscar pooped like my tiels and gcc, I would be much much happier LOL.

Cleanup is pretty easy though. Just a quick paper change every day and a thorough clean once a week. All of them are mostly potty trained, when they're out they'll wait to poop until I put them in/on their cages or on a piece of paper towel. That's my responsibility though and if I forget or i'm not quick enough they'll do it wherever they are. Most of them do give me a little squeak or chirp to let me know they need to potty so I just have to listen for it.

And the seed eaters have hooded bowls so they don't flick seeds everywhere. That keeps everything a lot cleaner.
 
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#24 ·
What type of bird is Oscar? Just think, it could be a lot worse... I ride horses and now you are talking HUGE poops with horrendous aroma LOL. My tiel is also "potty trained"... if I say "go potty" he will be potty... but if I forget he has NO problem popping on me... that is for sure. He pottys wherever whenever.. it is my fault if it ends up on me.
 
#25 ·
Oscar is a rainbow lorikeet and he does not like to poop in his cage, so like most rainbow lorikeets, he will shoot his poop out on a 45 degree angle lol. And lorikeets eat an all nectar/fruit diet so their poops are crazy acidic and it's not particularly easy to get off walls and stuff if left for too long LOL
 
#27 ·
I rent too, so I have to be extra careful. My husband made a plastic hood to go over Oscar's cage so that it covers the back and sides, and we bought a box of floating floorboards to cover the carpet in the bird corner of the living room. Cleanup is a cinch!
 
#32 ·
Oscar is a total cuddle bug when he wants to be, but he's mostly just a clown and would rather be off exploring and getting into stuff lol. He's only bitten me once, which was when I tried to get him to step up off my shoulder. No more shoulder sitting after that.
 
#33 ·
I've got fourteen birds as of tonight.

Freddy, a young gray tiel, and his flockmates, three male budgies - Arthur, Sydney, and Sam. Sam is completely tame and LOVES people while Sydney is tame on his own terms and Arthur is a bit of a fraidy cat - he will land on your arm for treats though. We actually found Arthur outdoors last September lost, so his history is unknown, while Sydney was a rescue and Sam was bred here (we had his parents until recently). The four share a large flight cage and really get on well. Freddy must be with his buddies at all times or he is not a happy camper! (He is hand-tame, but he wants to be with birds, not people, unless you can help carry him somewhere he can't reach or have treats, then he has no problem hopping aboard an outstretched arm and using you lol.)

We then have, across five other cages:

- 2 little diamond doves named Dilly and Dally, who are siblings. Don't know their genders, they're still very young.

- 2 canaries, a grey male named Weaver and an orange female named Sierra. They're both about 8 months old, they're an unrelated pair and very much bonded. Weaver was raised in our home and I hand-fed him past 8 days old, when his mother was killed in a very tragic household accident and his father was too distraught to fully care for him. Sadly, though he was tame for a while as a result, once he met his female companion he went pretty wild again.

- 3 Society Finches, Apollo and Cirrus and Claire. Lovely, quiet, ever-so-sweet little birds that cause no trouble and love everyone.

-2 orange-cheeked waxbill finches, a female named Trixie and a male named Tango. These guys are gorgeous, beyond adorable, but they're not a domestic species and are DEFINITELY hands-off pets. They're beautiful to just watch and listen to, but there is no bond with this type of bird.

And finally, a big male brown ringneck dove named Sparky who've we've had since he was just a chick. He's tame and lets himself be petted but he's not really bonded to anyone and just sticks to himself mostly. The other birds all love playing with Sparky and sitting on his back and he's very tolerant lol.

Tomorrow though it will be fifteen birds! I will be adopting another hand-raised baby cockatiel from a local breeder and can't wait to meet him or her. Freddy gets along well with the budgies, but I feel he'd really be happiest with another of his own kind, too, so another bird will join the flock soon!

This is actually just a few birds to me - not long ago, we had more than forty, mostly finches. I bred them and had a beautiful large open aviary and loved it, but circumstances changed and it became less doable and increasingly harder to keep maintained as I liked it to, so many of the finches were rehomed and sold with just a few of the favorites staying around, plus of course our little parrots and doves. Fifteen is thus, to me, nothing at all to keep up with, and since our birds are all housed in groups they are not especially needy, meaning they keep each other company and play by themselves just fine when I can't be with them, so it works out well. They all share a large, sunny spare room now and get time out of their (very large) cages almost every day. Our budgies and tiel (soon to be tiels!) have an enormous f40 flight cage full of toys and enrichment, too, so they always have something to do.
 
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