We have a green rumped parrotlet. She is small, sort of parakeet sized, but ALL parrot. (their closest relatives are Amazons). We've had her for 8 years now, and really enjoy her. She's got a large powder coated cage (and it's hard to find big, sturdy cages with spacing appropriate for small birds) but as other people have said, she really needs to spend a LOT of time out of her cage.
The only thing that's a bit of a pain about her is that she definitely considers our family her "flock", and looks on all guests as interlopers. She's definitely not trustworthy with anyone outside the family. She'll land on them then bite them! With us, she's a snuggle bug.
She makes more noise than a parakeet, but she's not ANYWHERE near as loud as cockatiel. She technically belongs to my son, and he go her when he was 11, and tired of the short lives of his beloved string of hamsters.:icon_cry: they supposedly live about 20 years, so he'll still have her when he's finished with college and out on his own.
We bought her from a local breeder shortly after she fledged. (I guess hand feeding these tiny ones can be tricky). She tamed down very quickly, though. I think parrotlets are a great into parrot. Cute as the dickens, definite "parrot personality" and a moderate life span. Plenty of time to develop a great relationship, but not a (human) life-time commitment. More like a dog or cat commitment. She's also small enough that she's very portable, and isn't destructive as big parrots can be.
As others have said, we buy her LOTS of toys, and change them regularly to keep her interest. Her FAVORITE toy, though, is a set of metal measuring spoons that she "beats up" daily. They are in her cage all the time.
I haven't seen any dust to speak of, but first, she's very small, and second, she bathes almost daily if given a bowl of warm water. So she probably keeps the dust down pretty well herself.
She did break a pin feather once, and we had to take her to the vet to have it pulled. I knew, intheory, what to do, but she is SO small, and was struggling and bleeding SO much, I didn't feel like I could handle it myself. 30 seconds in the vet's office (he's a bird specialist) and she was fine again.:smile: