Hi
First I would like to excuse spelling mistakes...english is not my native language.
I am the proud new owner of two young female bronze-winged pionus parrots.
They were not hand-raised (banned in my country) and are not tame.
I choose pionus parrots as they should be some of the more easy parrots, not loud (someone please tell my budgies, that they are also not supposed to be loud or mimic loud sounds...) and they are middle sized. And - if I'm honest - because I find them beautiful.
Most important is, that they should get a lot older than my cancer prone, short lived budgies. The last female that died, was 9 years old and a daughter of Isley which died previously at almost 14 years. Both were born here and I knew them from the first moment. I'm always heartbroken when they die and I stopped breeding them because of this several years ago.
I asked in rescue centers but there were no pionus (they are rare). The birds from the rescue center were mostly macaws/cockatoos (which are forbidden for me to have due to the current laws) and african greys. I took care of my neighbors' African greys several times during their holidays and I thus I knew I did not want African greys. Otherwise they had some other parrots with aggression issues which I did not feel confident enough to own.
I also own 10 budgies that live in a separate part of the flat to prevent injuries (their cage is only mandatory during the night - otherwise they are wherever they please). My tamest budgie (only here under supervision and of course outside of their cage) does not know what to make of these big suspicious birds. But she has very good nerves and lot of trust, so she is putting up with it....from a safe distance.
The two ladies are still nameless and do not yet know what to think of their know home / living conditions. And if I'm honest I also do not yet know what to make of them, as I do not yet know neither their body language, how pionus "should" behave or what their personalities are.
Right now they are in the cage - but I also bought some playstands. They have daylight lamps, sunlight (but only for 1-2 hours), an air cleaner with hepa filter and the humidity is controlled. I thought I will wait until they are more relaxed to let them out - I think I have time (?) and don't wish to stress them (or me) out more right now. They can fly a little in their cage but of course not as much as when they would be outside their cage (and yes...I have a slightly bad conscience that they can not yet fly more).
Right now my focus is that they get used to the daily routine and to humans being around a lot.
My budgies already pre-trained their human servants and I'm sure the two ladies will be up to the task of finishing the servant-training.
May I also ask my first question?
I wanted to prepare as good as possible so I asked a lot of questions to a lot of people... but with the feeding, I'm still unsure.
...of course I have a lot of other questions, but I think food is very important.
I asked several people (breeders, rescue center workers) if I should buy parrot food with sunflower/nuts or without or only pellets...and I got as many different answers as I asked people.
Right now they have 3 possible choices: parrot food without sunflower/nuts - pellets - vegetables/fruits (apples, melone, carrot, pea, salad and so on)
As of now they almost exclusively eat the vegetables and fruits. They treat the pellets as toys and mostly ignore the seeds.
From the breeder they are used to seeds with sunflower/nuts but they also lived outside (with heated shelter...if that is the correct word).
But I thought that with cold outside temperature they needed a lot more energy than they will need at my home (inside a heated room).
What is your advise?
Anything you think I do extremely wrong right now?
First I would like to excuse spelling mistakes...english is not my native language.
I am the proud new owner of two young female bronze-winged pionus parrots.
They were not hand-raised (banned in my country) and are not tame.
I choose pionus parrots as they should be some of the more easy parrots, not loud (someone please tell my budgies, that they are also not supposed to be loud or mimic loud sounds...) and they are middle sized. And - if I'm honest - because I find them beautiful.
Most important is, that they should get a lot older than my cancer prone, short lived budgies. The last female that died, was 9 years old and a daughter of Isley which died previously at almost 14 years. Both were born here and I knew them from the first moment. I'm always heartbroken when they die and I stopped breeding them because of this several years ago.
I asked in rescue centers but there were no pionus (they are rare). The birds from the rescue center were mostly macaws/cockatoos (which are forbidden for me to have due to the current laws) and african greys. I took care of my neighbors' African greys several times during their holidays and I thus I knew I did not want African greys. Otherwise they had some other parrots with aggression issues which I did not feel confident enough to own.
I also own 10 budgies that live in a separate part of the flat to prevent injuries (their cage is only mandatory during the night - otherwise they are wherever they please). My tamest budgie (only here under supervision and of course outside of their cage) does not know what to make of these big suspicious birds. But she has very good nerves and lot of trust, so she is putting up with it....from a safe distance.
The two ladies are still nameless and do not yet know what to think of their know home / living conditions. And if I'm honest I also do not yet know what to make of them, as I do not yet know neither their body language, how pionus "should" behave or what their personalities are.
Right now they are in the cage - but I also bought some playstands. They have daylight lamps, sunlight (but only for 1-2 hours), an air cleaner with hepa filter and the humidity is controlled. I thought I will wait until they are more relaxed to let them out - I think I have time (?) and don't wish to stress them (or me) out more right now. They can fly a little in their cage but of course not as much as when they would be outside their cage (and yes...I have a slightly bad conscience that they can not yet fly more).
Right now my focus is that they get used to the daily routine and to humans being around a lot.
My budgies already pre-trained their human servants and I'm sure the two ladies will be up to the task of finishing the servant-training.
May I also ask my first question?
I wanted to prepare as good as possible so I asked a lot of questions to a lot of people... but with the feeding, I'm still unsure.
...of course I have a lot of other questions, but I think food is very important.
I asked several people (breeders, rescue center workers) if I should buy parrot food with sunflower/nuts or without or only pellets...and I got as many different answers as I asked people.
Right now they have 3 possible choices: parrot food without sunflower/nuts - pellets - vegetables/fruits (apples, melone, carrot, pea, salad and so on)
As of now they almost exclusively eat the vegetables and fruits. They treat the pellets as toys and mostly ignore the seeds.
From the breeder they are used to seeds with sunflower/nuts but they also lived outside (with heated shelter...if that is the correct word).
But I thought that with cold outside temperature they needed a lot more energy than they will need at my home (inside a heated room).
What is your advise?
Anything you think I do extremely wrong right now?
Your girls are gorgeous
