Greetings,
me and my wife are thinking about getting a parrot for many months and it would be our first bird without previous bird experience. Our only experience is taming a flock of street pigeons in a couple of months :-D. We are able to hand feed them, some of them can step-up.
We were already settled on getting a hand raised male cockatiel, but, couple of days ago, we visited a very small breeder of bluehead pionus and saw a female, who is less than a one year old aviary parent raised, which sort of stole our hearts :-D.
How i see it - Advantages of a hand raised cockatiel:
Smaller size (we have a small flat)
Smaller beak (possible biting, etc)
Probably not so difficult to cope with when hormonal? (i have limited knowledge here)
Easy start and trainable almost from the beggining.
Easier to travel - do trips with (because of hand raising. But also, i am not educated enought here, so thats why i ask
)
Maybe more entertaining? I am a music teacher and i
absolutely love their singing and rhytmical ability :-D.
Disadvantages:
Might bond "too much" to the point where he would be too sad for being alone for a period of time (couple of hours? We dont really have an exact time schedule).
Might get too noisy when go out and be too dependand.
Poops more often :-D
Dust.
Blue Head Pionus advantages:
She is just strikingly beautiful and has that special sort of
"aura" or how to say it.
Elegant and calm.
Very pleasant sounds.
Independent - from what i read, pionuses tend to be sort of ok on their own compared to other breeds.
Disadvantages: She is not used to people at all and lives in an aviary
with 2 cockatiels most of her life. She does not step up
for the breeder, she was never trained. So, i am afraid, it
might be super stresfull for her to suddenly move to a flat.
It might take a very long time to train her and to form a
bond.
It might be very difficult to take her on a trip, or just on a
walk.
Might be difficult when hormonal for a starter.
Afther all, i am a patient person and like the idea of a long process of bonding and training but on the other hand, we decided for a hand raised initially because we could include a bird to our lives faster and with less complications for us and the bird. And of course, we have basically zero experience.
So, there is this dilema beetween a small hand raised baby we could form it's beaviour from the almost begining, bond and train "easily" and is maybe more entertaing breed - or to go throught the long proces with a wild parent raised aviary bird who is bigger, might be difficult to train and bond but in the long run might be a superb calm and not so demanding "independent" bird.
Afther visiting the pionus, we were very emotional and almost confirmed that we will take her, but afther two days, cockatiel seems more rational.
I would be very thankfull for a feedback from experienced parrot owners, because we seem unable to decide and we have to.
me and my wife are thinking about getting a parrot for many months and it would be our first bird without previous bird experience. Our only experience is taming a flock of street pigeons in a couple of months :-D. We are able to hand feed them, some of them can step-up.
We were already settled on getting a hand raised male cockatiel, but, couple of days ago, we visited a very small breeder of bluehead pionus and saw a female, who is less than a one year old aviary parent raised, which sort of stole our hearts :-D.
How i see it - Advantages of a hand raised cockatiel:
Smaller size (we have a small flat)
Smaller beak (possible biting, etc)
Probably not so difficult to cope with when hormonal? (i have limited knowledge here)
Easy start and trainable almost from the beggining.
Easier to travel - do trips with (because of hand raising. But also, i am not educated enought here, so thats why i ask
)Maybe more entertaining? I am a music teacher and i
absolutely love their singing and rhytmical ability :-D.
Disadvantages:
Might bond "too much" to the point where he would be too sad for being alone for a period of time (couple of hours? We dont really have an exact time schedule).
Might get too noisy when go out and be too dependand.
Poops more often :-D
Dust.
Blue Head Pionus advantages:
She is just strikingly beautiful and has that special sort of
"aura" or how to say it.
Elegant and calm.
Very pleasant sounds.
Independent - from what i read, pionuses tend to be sort of ok on their own compared to other breeds.
Disadvantages: She is not used to people at all and lives in an aviary
with 2 cockatiels most of her life. She does not step up
for the breeder, she was never trained. So, i am afraid, it
might be super stresfull for her to suddenly move to a flat.
It might take a very long time to train her and to form a
bond.
It might be very difficult to take her on a trip, or just on a
walk.
Might be difficult when hormonal for a starter.
Afther all, i am a patient person and like the idea of a long process of bonding and training but on the other hand, we decided for a hand raised initially because we could include a bird to our lives faster and with less complications for us and the bird. And of course, we have basically zero experience.
So, there is this dilema beetween a small hand raised baby we could form it's beaviour from the almost begining, bond and train "easily" and is maybe more entertaing breed - or to go throught the long proces with a wild parent raised aviary bird who is bigger, might be difficult to train and bond but in the long run might be a superb calm and not so demanding "independent" bird.
Afther visiting the pionus, we were very emotional and almost confirmed that we will take her, but afther two days, cockatiel seems more rational.
I would be very thankfull for a feedback from experienced parrot owners, because we seem unable to decide and we have to.
But if this was a decision for myself, I'd put more weight on the practical side of the decision than on what my heart wants. 
