Think VERY carefully before you embark on this project. Parrots are a lot of work, and they live a long, long time. Depending on their age, you very well may be responsible for them your entire life – or until you get fed up and then you’ll have to subject them to the trauma of a new home.
Parrots are extremely intelligent – for animals. They are much like a two or three year old, so think about whether you would like to care for two toddlers forever. They need a lot of care and a lot of attention. Without it, they resort to destructive behaviors – screaming, self mutilation, aggression. By a “lot of attention” I mean several hours a day minimum. They are extremely social creatures.
They are also very messy. Their food, feathers and dust go everywhere, so you’ll be either living with a mess much of the time, or vacuuming your house twice a day. Their dust is death for vacuums, so you’ll be replacing yours once or twice a year, and you’ll want a really nice dual filtered one…another major investment.
Lastly, their cages, toys, vet care and food can be very costly, easily a hundred bucks a month. So think about whether this is something that you will spend a good chunk of money on, every month, for as long as you live or own them.
I am a former bird owner, so I speak from about 15 years of experience. I am now living bird-free, and feed and enjoy the outdoor birds (I’m cooking up a batch of hummingbird food as we speak). I went from loving having birds in the house, to believing that ALL birds should be left in their natural habitat, and that it’s a real crime (well, it should be!) that people imprison them in homes and in cages. Feel free to ask me any questions you like. I don’t mean to discourage you in particular with these particular birds, but I do mean to discourage bird ownership in general. I love all birds like crazy, just as you do – enough so that I want to see them all living free with others of their kind.