# newbie advice on keeping love bird or other bird



## guangzhou (Oct 6, 2013)

Hi,

I want a pet bird, and what I'm hoping is if I put the details of my situation below, someone can tell me what might or might not work.

My preferences are love bird (smart and cute), then canary (cute and nice song), then gouldian finches (cute and easier to keep), based on what I've seen so far. The pet market in Guangzhou is incredible, and much more is available there.

I've put my info below. Any advice or comments are warmly encouraged!

Thanks!

Phil



info:
I live in a flat provided by the school I work at in china. Just me and my hamster in a two bed flat.
I'm relatively settled here.
The floors are tiled and tables glass topped, so relatively mess proof.
Noise for neighbours is a concern, so no full-sized parrots.
Mess/smell is a bit of a concern, because it's warm and humid, plus I don't want to attract cockroaches. This led me to ruling out myna birds and generally anything big.
I have some time to exercise a bird (minimum hour a day, generally more), but can't have it causing destruction to a place I don't own. I can put throws on sofas, but can't have stuff ripped up.
My flat is on the 17th floor, directly facing a forested hill (the unused back of a forest park 2x1 miles). the thought of exercising a tame love bird off the balcony, is very attractive! based on what people say about them, this could be realistic. The road below has slow moving traffic and is just for access to my building and the neighbouring ones. it'd be nervy, and I'd maybe bottle out of doing it, but it potentially could be amazing me and the bird. either way, I can close the drapes and let it fly indoors a bit and would do this at the start irrespective.
For a cage, I'd just buy the biggest rectangle one I can, with perches to hop between. Space is not an issue.


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## poohdog (May 16, 2010)

I wouldn't let any bird fly free outdoors it's asking for trouble.(if that's what you mean) 

If you want quiet ..gouldians are very quiet but not suitable to release in the room.
It's really up to you...but you will find lovebirds can be very noisy.Parrotlets or Rosa Bourkes might be a better choice.


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## guangzhou (Oct 6, 2013)

thanks for the tips. people say different things about love birds and noise. birds that smart obviously have a range of personalities. there was a video on youtube of someone exercising their love birds outside at a park. I guess that if they're attached then you can be pretty sure they'll come back. it's the 1/1000 chance they it goes to play with someone's dog and gets chewed, or the risk from cars, etc, that's a worry.


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## poohdog (May 16, 2010)

I'm giving you advice about not free flying parakeets and yet I've done it myself...admittedly 50 years ago.
As a lad I had a conure called Henry that used to go everywhere with me and never made any attempt to fly away...but he was one in a thousand.

A very old grainy picture...










Can you take any pictures of that bird market...some on here would be interested to see it.


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## guangzhou (Oct 6, 2013)

Flying a bird outside like that is clearly a risk and an outlying possibility, and shouldn't be an expectation. Just as you should by a parrot to hear it talk.

I have a pictures of the market, and can take a few more when I'm next there. People here would be fascinated by it, as well as probably disapproving of a lot of what they see. many animals can be seen there eating sponge cake and left over rice, but the caveat with it all is not just the different culture, but different economics here. Without a welfare state people really play hard ball and put themselves and their families first. flickr doesn't work here, so people are welcome to PM me and I'll email a few.

Here's a little description: the English name of the market is either huadiwan or fangcun pet market depending on who's translating. fangcun is that district of the city and huadiwan is the name of the subway station directly beside it. I'll post a couple of Chinese search times for people who want to google a few pics. I think in Chinese it's called fangcun flower market, and the confusion is because it simply has every kind of plant and animal. There are areas for fish/fish tanks/related equipment, dogs/cats/turtles/crocodiles/tarantulas/scorpions/snakes, plants and trees. The birds on sale range from the common to the obscure, and despite having been there a dozen times, I've never failed to see something new there. I've seen 15" wide stingray, pheasant and obscure poultry, crocodiles, giant tortoise and lots more for sale there, which gives you some idea of the sort of variety they have. It seems to function as the wholesale pet market for this whole area, and I bet most of what's on sale in any local pet shop has been through there.

search terms:

huadiwan (metro station) &#33457;&#22320;&#28286;
fangcun (district) &#33459;&#26449;
Guangzhou &#24191;&#24030;
market &#24066;&#22330;
flower market &#33457;&#24066;&#22330;
pet &#23456;&#29289;
parrot (probably also parakeet) &#40550;&#40521;
bird &#40479;

this selection works okay: &#33457;&#24066;&#22330; &#33457;&#22320;&#28286; &#40479;


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