Pet Parrots Blog

Pet parrots are not generally in the news so often, but this is my second post in one day because I found another news story about Pet Parrots that I think is of benefit to you, my readers.

In the Marin Independent Journal today, I found another news article about Pet Parrots. If you have been reading my blog you will realize that although I adore pet parrots I am also quite unrelenting in my advocacy of learning all you can about pet parrots before you go out and buy one. Too many people see the sign “Pet Parrots for Sale” and don’t do the due diligence to find out all that they can about Pet Parrot Care and what it entails.

According to the article in the news story, Pet parrots are the 4th most popular pet being outranked by cats, dogs and fish. Sadly it goes on to tell us that the pet rescue missions are finding more and more pet parrots that are given up by their owners or let loose in the open because pet parrot owners get fed up with them. What a sad state to be in. These poor pet parrots didn’t ask to come into our lives, how can people be so heartless as to let them loose to fend for themselves? Obviously the ones that are let loose, very seldom make it in such a drastic environment. Please read this story and read our blog posts so that you are educated about pet parrots and pet parrot care before you decide to buy one.

The news article can be found here: http://www.marinij.com/lifestyles/ci_13424518

Technorati Tags: Pet Parrot Care, Pet Parrots

Pet Parrot owners will find this article really interesting so I thought I would pass it along to you. I am assuming that Heloise must have made a comment about buying a pet parrot and someone responded to her article.

The woman made some extremely good comments that you should read if you are thinking of buying a Pet Parrot. She is a girl after my own heart and feels strongly about people buying pet parrots on a whim. (read my other blog posts regarding this)

I especially liked the comment she made when she said “And that’s what a parrot needs to be — part of your family! Not part of your decor”

I don’t know how many people I have heard of that buy pet parrots just because they think they are nice and would look nice in a corner with some plants around them. HELLO!

It really is necessary to know what you are getting into before you go out and buy a pet parrot. Please be informed.Pet Parrot Care involves much more than giving them food and a few parrot toys.

You can check out the article here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/16/AR2009091602140.html

Technorati Tags: buying pet parrots, Pet Parrots

When thinking about pet parrots there are so many choices one can make. Just walk into a pet store and you will see a very wide variety of pet parrots to choose from. The question you need to ask yourself is: Which pet parrots are the best for me? Should I choose a small parrot or a large parrot?

Firstly, I would like to mention that whether you decide to own a small parrot or a large parrot they will both require a good amount of attention given to them. Generally the rule of thumb is: The bigger the pet parrot is, the more attention that pet parrot will need. This doesn’t include the goffin cockatoo though. He is a much smaller parrot than the rest of his cockatoo family, but like all cockatoos even this small parrot will require lots and lots of attention. A cockatiel, on the other hand requires about as much attention as a pet budgie.

I am not talking about run of the mill budgie that can be picked up at the local pet shop for a dime a dozen. Many of these small parrots are bred only for the money and not much care has gone into familiarizing them with people to be sociable. Here again though, I don’t want you to think that these small parrots cannot make good pets. They too need attention and the more attention you spend with your pet parrots, the tamer and more sociable they will become.

When choosing a small parrot the first thing you should make sure of is that the small parrot is hand-fed. Many breeders will take the time to hand feed their fledgelings until they are able to eat on their own. By hand feeding these small parrots, they get used to being held and have very little fear of human hands or faces. They will willingly come up on your hand and spend some time chatting away with you and playing silly games.

Small parrots should be chosen if you meet the following criteria:

• You are young -under the age of 21. Small parrots are best for this age group as they are easily handled and if the young person gets bored with them then it is not such a hassle to either take care of the parrot yourself or find a good home for it.

• You are older – over 50. Remember that large parrots can live a very long time and may become heartbroken if you were to pass on before they do. Small parrots have much shorter life spans and so the chances of you being well enough and able to care for him is greater.

Which small parrots would be the best choices for you?

• If you want a talking parrot that is small then I would suggest that you choose a male, hand-fed budgie from a reputable breeder or pet store.

• If you don’t care if your small parrot talks then love birds are cute little birds. They can be a little devilish at times though. They tend to try and escape every time they get a chance.

• Cockatiels are lovely little birds and the males can generally learn to talk a little. Their speech is more like a whistle but it is identifiable.

Remember

• No pet parrots are guaranteed to talk, whether they are small parrots or large parrots.

• You will be much happier and it will be easier to teach your small parrot to talk if you find yourself a male bird rather than a female.

• It is much easier to keep a hand-fed bird tame than it is to tame a non hand-fed small parrot.

• A large parrot may not be advisable depending on your age bracket.

Small parrots are adorable

Remember: Good things come in small packages.

Technorati Tags: Large Parrot, Pet Parrots, small parrots, talking birds

Many people think that pet parrots are not very intelligent but science begs to differ with you. Apparently being a bird-brain is no longer an insult due to research done by the University of Florida.

According to their findings, Mockingbirds were able to pick out specific people out of thousands who they felt threatened to harm them showing the birds ability to be incredibly perceptive of everything around them and to respond appropriately.

Just think, if this is the case with Mockingbirds, how much more would this be associated with what are tame pet parrots?  Makes you think huh?

The full story can be found here: http://news.ufl.edu/2009/05/18/mockingbird/

Technorati Tags: bird research, mockingbirds, Pet Parrots, university of Florida

Have you been considering buying pet parrots lately? It is so easy to get excited about them when you see the sign “Pet Parrots for Sale“. I know, I’ve gone through it many a time. Believe me I can emphasize when people tell me about the sweetest pet parrots they have seen in the store and how they get all excited thinking about buying one to take home for a family pet.

It is always a very good idea to think about buying pet parrots before you actually buy them. Research is always a necessary part of the process if you want your pet parrots to live a good, long, healthy life. There are many things to take into consideration before you actually bring your pet parrots home to roost.

Some of the obvious things that need to be considered of course are the cage for your new parrot. Whether you plan on buying a large parrot or small parrots this will play into the equation. Obviously the larger the parrot the bigger the parrot cage you will need and the more money you will spend.

The same goes for parrot toys. The larger parrot toys will cost more money and be chewed through much more quickly than if you were to purchase parrot toys for smaller parrots.

The cost of food and parrot care will also be less exuberant if you were to buy a smaller pet parrot. They don’t eat as much and the smaller parrots tend to do nicely with seed.

The large parrots have large beaks and will break through their parrot toys easily and of course, because of their size will need more parrot food. This just stands to reason.

Another thing to consider when thinking about purchasing pet parrots is your location. If you live in a house then it may not be a major problem, but large parrots tend to scream a lot and therefore are much more likely to disturb  your neighbors. I don’t know of any apartments that will allow a large parrot as a pet. These dwellings are just not suitable for large parrots such as the African Gray Parrot or Macaw, or Cockatoos.

If you are purchasing the parrot for a pet for a child then beware that a large parrot can do more harm with it’s beak than a small parrot can do. If children are involved I generally suggest that you stay with the small parrots.

A small male budgie, for instance, will generally talk and has a pleasant little personality. They are very friendly creatures and a delight to play with and watch. You can teach a budgie or Parakeet the same words and tricks that you could teach a large parrot and they are easier to keep clean.

Let’s face it, parrot care can be overwhelming when you consider that the larger the parrot the more stuff will be flung onto your floor and around the cage. With a budgie or parakeet you can pretty well contain the mess with a covering that goes over the bottom of the cage. This will not stop all of the mess but it will keep it done to a reasonable limit.

For small parrots, these little guys are really delightful and they now come in a variety of colors. I personally love the blue ones, they are almost a teal blue…very beautiful. But, perhaps you would prefer a yellow budgie or white or harlequin, it really depends on your taste.

Since this is a blog post and not a book I will end here and just summarize what I have said.

1. Small parrots make better pets if you live in an apartment
2. Small parrots are easier to keep clean
3. Small parrots are less expensive to maintain

I would just like to make mention though that if you want your little guy to talk then you should be sure to get a male budgie. I also recommend that no matter which pet parrots you choose that you find yourself a hand-fed, young bird.

I know you will love having these small parrots or large parrots for a pet. They are so adorable!

Technorati Tags: parrots for sale, Pet Parrots, small parrots

Pet Parrots can be so comical and sometimes they can definitely surprise you.This is especially true with Talking Parrots. I want to tell you a little story about my funny African Gray Parrot named “Groucho”.

This particular story about my African Gray Parrot took place many years ago, but I remember it like it was yesterday! It had been a very hard week for me. Everything was going wrong and I felt like pulling out my hair. Have you ever had a week like that?

Anyways, it was a Friday night and I was supposed to go to Prayer meeting with my husband and the children were going off to Youth Night at the Church. Well, I was so exhausted I felt like crying. I decided it would be best if I just stayed home that night and enjoyed the quietness of having the house to myself. I just needed to take a nice long bubble bath and relax with a nice cup of tea and enjoy the evening reading. This was my plan

We had recently moved into a duplex on the upper floor, so to get to my apartment you would have to come in through the main door downstairs (which I always locked) and come up the stairs to my apartment. This door leading to my apartment was NOT locked.

Back to the story: Once the husband and kids were gone I had locked the door downstairs(at least I thought for sure I had, but like I said, it was a crazy week). I took my nice bubble bath and made my tea and was sitting quietly in the living room reading my book.

To my surprise there was a knock,knock, knock at the door. Who could it be? I am sure I locked the door downstairs!

I waited and listened and there it was again: Knock, knock, knock.  Now who on earth would be visiting me on a Friday Night at this hour?  I started to get very nervous. All kinds of things were rushing through my mind. I then got up the courage to go and open the door. I finally figured that if it were a burglar they probably would not have knocked. If they did knock they would not have been polite enough for me to make the decision to answer the door. They would have thought I was not there obviously if there were no answer. So I decided to go and open the door.

What a surprise I got! There was no one there!  Now I know that they would not have had the time to go down the stairs and leave by the time I got to the door. This was a very perplexing situation. “Hmmmmmmmmmm” I thought to myself, I wonder what happened there. I know it was someone knocking. I had heard it happen twice now and it was definately the wooden door upstairs as I recognized that hollow sound it makes when you knock on it.

Rather confused I sat down to continue reading my book and well, you probably guessed already, I heard the knock again. Knock, Knock, Knock. I was very confused. I got up again and behold, no one was there. I finally sat down again and this time when I heard the knock, knock, knock I looked over at my African gray parrot and saw that it was him making the noise. Here he was sitting on his perch nonchalantly chewing on one of his nails and sure enough he was doing an exact replication of the knock of the door. What really surprised me was that he did it in such a way that it actually sounded like he was throwing his voice because the knocking seemed to be coming from the front door and not from the bird cage.

I just had a great laugh thinking that this little African Gray parrot could have me looking so stupid going back and forth to the door thinking it was somebody there.

It certainly made my day and my whole attitude had changed. It was so funny. They say that laughter is the best medicine and this little guy had made my day, never mind my day, he had made my week!

Talking Pet Parrots can be such a wonderful diversion when things are going wrong in our lives. I was so lucky to have had him for the time that I did. I loved him so much!

I hope you have enjoyed my little story about my pet parrot.

If you have any funny stories about your pet parrots that you would like to share be sure to leave a comment in our comment box.

Thanks for listening

Sharron

When deciding to purchase pet parrots many people tend to forget about the subject of parrot care. Well, maybe they don’t forget about parrot care, but the reality of how much care a parrot needs is not generally on the top of their list.

Sadly, many people think that owning pet parrots is one of the easier choices to make for a family pet rather than say, a dog or cat. They erringly think that parrot care is not as time consuming as if they owned a pet dog, but surprise! Pet Parrots generally require more parrot care than a pet dog would need.

Let’s just take a moment to think about the comparisons here.

Dog Care vs. Parrot Care which is easier?

Dogs need to be walked a few times per day

Parrots need to be let out of their cages a few times per day

Dogs need to be brushed and bathed

Parrot Care involves bathing your pet parrots a few times a week

Dogs need to run

Pet Parrots need time outside their cage to exercise and fly (if their wings are not clipped)

Dogs eat out of their food dishes

Pet Parrots love to throw their food around. It’s a foraging instinct that they have. Be sure that you will be picking up a lot of food from the floor if you own pet parrots.

Pet Parrot Care involves a lot of diversity in the parrots diet also. It’s not enough to just give you pet parrots bird seed. They need fruits and vegetables and some pet parrots may even need more specialized food such as suet. Parrot Care is a lot more involved when it comes to feeding than it is with a pet dog.

Pet Parrot Care may involve wing clipping. This is something you should discuss with your avian vet. Many people prefer to clip their pet parrots wings in order to ensure the safety of their pet parrots. This is something you can learn to do yourself, but it can be dangerous if you don’t know what you are doing. Only certain feathers will need to be cut from your pet parrots wings and you must take care not to cut any blood feathers.  You will definitely need to know what to look for when doing this so you must take great care not to injure your pet parrots.

If you decide to get this done at the avian vets then it will cost you money. This will need to be done at least twice a year, along with nail trimming. Be sure to add this to your list of things to do for Pet Parrot Care.

Pet Parrots can get caught in drafts and or get sick from toxins in the home very easily. Once the bird appears sick then it is a good chance that it is too late to even save the bird.  You will have to get to the avian vet as quickly as possible. Pet Parrots are much more delicate than pet dogs and therefore Parrot Care is a little more demanding and more expensive.

Avian veterinarians are specialist in Parrot Care and usually charge more than a regular animal veterinarian will cost.

Pet Parrots are also very intelligent creatures and need constant stimulation to keep them occupied. This means lots of time socializing with family and plenty of time playing with parrot toys. You will need to keep the cost of parrot toys in your Parrot care budget because they go through toys very quickly because of their strong beaks. They will rip apart anything made with wood and this is to be encouraged. They are used to doing this in the wild and so it should not be stopped just because they are now a family pet. Pet parrots need lots of parrot toys and these should be changed about regularly to keep up the interest in them by your pet parrot. Introducing new pet parrots toys will be discussed in another post as it needs to be done with care.

These are just a few things to think about when considering parrot care. If you don’t think you have time for all that is involved then perhaps you should consider getting a cat instead.

Technorati Tags: Parrot Care, parrot diet, Parrot Toys, Pet Parrots, wing clipping