Will by bird be happy in my home

[Cheewee29]

Hi, I am hopefully going to get a indian ringneck. I am sure I can look after him well, however I have three children aged 7, 5 and 2. Do u think he will be happy with them? He is 6 months old, tame and can be handled. I have seen him for sale and I am going to visit him today. He's going to live in our living room most of the time. I was wondering can I also keep him in our conservatory when the weather is a nice temperature. I would be happy for him to fly in there but I don't want him flying into the windows. What do you think? Thank you

[MissK]

It sounds like you're mainly asking about kids and birds. The bird will probably be OK so long as it can chose to be away from the kids, but the kids are in a great age range to get a disfiguring facial bite. I'm not saying it has to happen, just that you should be aware. Ringnecks, though "tame", are still subject to their instincts and might bite. Children, though "tame", frequently don't remember to follow directions accurately.

[Donovan]

Something else to consider isn't the kids' ages now but years from now when they're 12 year olds. Boys in particular can be mean to animals. That's not to say that they would torture the bird but a young boy is very capable of tormenting an animal if he's alone with it. My mother had a cockatiel when I was very young and I was guilty of being kinda mean to the bird. It wasn't an ongoing thing, but there were a couple of times I was mean to it simply because I -could- be.

So that's something to think about.

Otherwise, it stands to reason that the bird may very well enjoy the chaos as long as he is not directly involved in it. And as far as flying into windows, well, there will always be the occasional mis-flight, but they learn and adapt, so in time I'm sure that those little accidents will become few and very far between.

Recently my own bird was trying to fly away with something too large to carry. Instead of landing on his perch he ran into it with the object and he fell... He landed on his feet like a boss without flapping and going crazy.

Another thing you need to do is to imagine any possible danger and not be sloppy about fixing it. If there is a way for a bird to get hurt he'll certainly figure it out.

[SunniDai]

When I for my first ringneck, Skyelar, I ran an in home daycare. As you could imagine, the children and the birdie came into contact on a daily basis. Luckily for all involved, and because I was on top of it all the time, the experience was good. The children knew that when he was out and about to watch out for him and he could get away if he needed to, which never happened. They knew not to touch him and I told all of them and their parents that there could be a bite. They were all okay with it since they knew I watched over Skyelar like a mother hen
Point is this : be aware AT ALL TIMES that birds are animals and their instinct will always win out. It could be a great experience for all, or the biggest challenge.
Dana