Red-bellied owners. Tell me your experiences.

[USSLancelot]

After months of trying to decide what poi was right for me, I finally settled on the red-bellieds. I've purchased a female that was born the end of Jan. from a breeder that I really like. She should be weaned and ready to go home by mid-April.

There doesn't seem to be a lot of information on red-bellieds, so I was hoping people on here who have them would be able to tell me more about their own personal experiences. Anything and everything you think would be useful would be appreciated, both the good and the bad. Would especially like to hear from people who have females. From what I've heard, females tend to go through the terrible-twos to a lesser extent than the males.

Anyway, please tell me everything you can about them. Thanks.

[Poicephalus girl]

I got mine when he was on the verge of turning 3.
He was somewhat nippy with me when I got him and had a preference for men. A year later and I managed to make him turn around.

He's my little clown bird. I couldn't imagine my life without him.

You can actually read about my life with him (and my other birds) here. (I try to update the blog frequently, but am not always good at it ;) )

[crystalusagi]

I don't have experience with other pois, but my Kelsey is a real clown. He can't seem to stay still when he's out of his cage. Loves to climb up and down the sofa, run across, chase his toys. During the evening he gets real cuddly, though, and will climb up and snuggle against my neck. He's not very loud compared to the sun conure I had before. The only time he gets a bit noisy is in the late mornings on Saturdays when he knows people are around the house and not paying attention to him.

Red-bellieds are known to be great talkers, some of them uttering their first words while they're still weaning. Kelsey is almost 7 months old now, and he still doesn't know any distinguishable words, but he does mumble and gibber a lot in a very cute voice. He also imitates the tsk-tsk-tsking sound my dad uses to get his attention. And kissy noises. He makes them every time I bring my face close to him from above.

[tracieerin]

I have a 16 month old female. She is a little clown, plays hard, talks well, and eats well. She is a clown and I love to see her little morning "happy to be alive" routine. This includes lots of talking and yelling while bobbing her head, standing up tall then rolling her head around with her wings out and flapping a little. If she is on the couch, she will grab a pillow with her feet, flap her wings while tossing her body from side to side and yelling. It's awesome. She also loves to wrestle fingers, which I am told a lot of RB's do, and it's a lot of fun now that she has learnt how much beak pressure is OK.

She is just getting over a period of time where she seemed to be testing everything, seeing what she could get away with, etc. During this phase she didn't want much cuddling which was lonely for me. I was also forever getting her off things she knew she shouldn't be on, and getting bit etc. She can be pretty headstrong when she wants to be. Thankfully she is settling down again.

I can't comment on behavior during hormonal/breeding season. For pois, LESS daylight hours triggers this (as opposed to south american species, for which MORE daylight hours = breeding season. not sure about australian species). Because I do provide 8-14 hours of full-spectrum lighting each day, I don't believe this would be triggered. Also, Penny wouldn't start that until she is 3 or so. I have a senegal, Jack, who is 8 and would be subject. He did go thru some behavioral changes, but he is rather new to my household and that may be due to the honeymoon period.

This is a personal tip, but I got acrylic nails put on and she seems to enjoy scritches more now. So, if you bite your nails - stop or get fakes or your bird won't let you scritch her much! :)