Having toucans as pets may seem like a wild idea, but Maria Stagliano couldn’t resist going down this road after Chester flew into her life. It was love at first sight, and she’s using the power of social media to share their incredible story with the world, while also getting 100% real about the ups and downs of keeping toucans as pets.
Stagliano wasn’t looking to adopt a pet when she ran into Chester at a local bird store in 2021. She went there to play with parrots, but Chester stirred something up inside her, so she started doing research to learn what it takes to own a pet toucan.
She had to make many changes to give him the life he deserved, from moving into a bigger apartment so he could fly freely to working from home so they could spend their days together.
He went on to become one of the most popular birds on Instagram, with 500,000 followers and counting, but sharing a home with him hasn’t always been easy.
“I am incredibly honored to have such a special relationship with a bird, but owning a pet toucan isn’t glamorous and it certainly isn’t for everyone. I created this website for a variety of reasons, but one of the biggest being to put helpful information up about how difficult toucans are as pets,” Stagliano writes on her official website.
