Bourke's Parrot as a pet

[murphy91]

Hey everyone, new member here, live in Australia.

I am really keen on getting a Bourke's Parrot as a pet bird, and I would keep one in a cage most likely inside, not an aviary. There are many different opinions on whether Neophemas should be kept in cages as pets, and I can't really find a solid argument for either side. Has anyone here ever kept one as a pet, or know someone who has, or even knows something about this topic and can shed light on it? I do not wish to breed them or any of that.

Thanks

[avinet]

Hi and welcome to the Forum

I have kept Bourke Parrots as pet bids and also hand raised a few. Both those I kept as pets were as a result of problems that made them unsellable in the pet shop we owned at the time.

Both lived in their own cage in our family room along with our various other birds. Both were not hand raised but became quite tame, not keen to step up but they would return to their cage when all the birds were being put back in the cages. Lovely whistling call, but basically not interested in human companionship. Not nervous around humans but just not interested in humans.

That attitude was also apparent in those we hand raised. I guess we probably hand raised around 10 Bourkes over the years, and all hand raised easily, but once weaned showed no interest in us humans at all. They were much much happier keeping to themselves rather than sitting on a shoulder or hopping on a finger.

These babies were hand raised due to parenting problems, and since they showed no promise as pet birds we always sold them as aviary birds when it became time to move them on.

So I don't really recommend them as a companion pet bird. They really have little to offer as a pet bird, certainly they offer little in the way of companionship. They would also be much much happier kept with another Bourke, in fact I would never ever consider keeping a single Bourke on their own.

If you do decide you want a Bourke be sure to get a pair - ideally opposite sex pair but that isn't essential, and keep them in a fair size cage such as the Avi One 604 cage - petone.com.au/avione/avi_cages.asp - or bigger. If bigger make sure the cage has budgie wire spacing.

Keeping a single Bourke would in my opinion would have distinctly bad welfare concerns for the bird. They really need the companionship of their own kind.

I would have included a photo or two of our Bourkes but they all date from the pre-digital age and are amongst a mountain of several thousand prints and slides I have to digitize one day

cheers,

Mike

[murphy91]

That is very very imformative. You have certainly cleared some things up! Sounds like the Bourke is not the way to go. Everyone keeps telling me to get a budgy or cockatiel, but everyone has them here!! I want something a bit different you know.

Thanks again

[anzac]

I'm sure there are loads of other parrots like lorikeets and princess parrots etc that would make great pet birds, Mike is the expert in all things parrots. For my two bits, I also used to breed bourkes and had to hand raise a few and found that they were not particularly bonding type birds. Once you put them back in the aviary, they were not particularly social to humans.

[avinet]

Some good small parrots to consider other than cockatiels and budgies are (and always as hand raised babies, never as parent reared):-

Quakers - great birds with lots of personality. Often good talkers and affectionate when hand raised - see for an especially cute one.

Green cheek conures - small parrot that come in a variety of attractive colour mutations these days. Not especially noisy but rarely talk. Can be very affectionate but some can become a bit nippy.

Kakarikis - very active, pleasant cackling call, can be talkers, not a cuddly bird but enjoys being around people, can be quite mischievous. Ours used to love to hide when it was time to return to the cage - and he was quite inventive with finding places to hide. If you had spent a few minutes looking without finding him he would fly back to his cage cackling away in happiness at winning the game.

Princess Parrot - happy cheerful personality - every day is a new exciting prospect. Males especially can be very good talkers. Again not a cuddly bird but enjoys people company. They can have a loud call that some will find a bit piercing, others don't mind it at all so if you look at a Princess check out the call first.We have a pair as pets - now around 16 years old and we still find them as entertaining as when they were babies.

hope that helps,

cheers,

Mike

[meandem]

I agree with Mike. But I do own an exception. I have had my little Rosa Bourke (Musky is his name) for 12 years. And he is an absolute delight. Very friendly, and very loving. Just can't get enough of us. Of course, as I said though, I think he may be an exception to the rule. In his twelve years of life so far, Musky has had three different women! He is quite the stud muffin. Constantly producing babies, but never losing site of the fact that he loves us just as much. I hope whatever bird you decide to get is one you will love and cherish as much as they do you.

[murphy91]

Thanks everyone for you replies, I'm grateful. Birds are amazing animals and I'm glad there's so many people here who care about and understand them.