[katriord]

Help everyone.

Newbie here.

I'm a happy mother to a 4 1/2 year-old male Havanese puppy named Sweetie, who is the love of my life. I have not owned any birds as an adult, but had parakeets when I was younger that my grandfather kept for me, so I really have very little to no experience owning and raising birds.

I had the unexpected surprise recently of having a bird reach out and tug at my heartstrings, a little sun conure, and now I'm obsessed with trying to determine whether or not I could be a bird owner, and not just a bird owner, but a responsible, good bird owner.

I've been trying to do all the right things--read everything I can get my hands on, figure out the pros and cons, investigate cages, do research ahead of time, handle that bird and others, talk to other people who are experienced with birds, and so on. Which brings me to this board to solicit advice.

My husband is retired and we are both home much of the time, so amount of attention during the day wouldn't be a problem. We do, however, have other circumstances to consider. Currently, we live seven to nine months of the year in Florida, and go north to Wisconsin in the summertime (that could change in the future, but is our current reality). We have sometimes driven that, and other times flown. Our Havanese is wonderful in the car and has adapted well to travel, both by car and by airplane, and to staying in hotels. In fact, he thrives on that.

I wonder if it's irresponsible to get a bird knowing we live in more than one home. We've made our Havanese such a part of the family, and I would likely do the same with the bird, but wonder if I went out of town for the weekend if I'd take the bird with me or travel with it.

Second, I wonder about mixing birds with other household pets. I've had my Havanese around birds a lot the last couple of weeks, including that conure, to see how he'd do (and how the bird would do). Any advice in that department would be appreciated.

In the process of researching the birds and spending more time around them, I've also held two green-cheeked conures this week who were cuddly and adorable, so I'm wondering whether I'd be better suited to the sun or a green-cheeked. I appreciate input on the pros and cons of both.

At the moment I'm investigating cages. Everything I've read says to get the biggest cage possible. I saw a Prevue-Hendryx that I loved but it was only 18 x 18, which seems much too small for either breed of conure.

I'm really at the investigation and research stage, but am really captivated by these lovely birds and have been spending a lot of time in the last couple of weeks trying to be around them and learn more about them in order to find out whether I'm to be a bird's mom.

Any help and input anyone can give me here would be appreciated.