Pet Parrots Blog

In our last blog post we were discussing the importance of buying the proper parrot cages for our pet parrots. We looked at a few things that we need to take into consideration before purchasing our parrot cages.

To summarize we said:

1. Make Sure that the Parrot Cages are Big Enough
2. Dont Let Your Parrot on top of the Cage to Play
3. Don’t buy Round or Cylindrical Cages for your Pet Parrots

Today we want to talk about perches for your parrot cages as well as whether we should have the grid at the bottom of the cage.

First, let’s talk about perches for the parrot cage. These perches come in a variety of styles and sizes and it is generally best to consider buying at least two different types of perches. One of course would be the regular wooden perch which should fit the width of your parrot cage. When choosing wooden perches make sure that they are thick enough for your pet parrots to stand on easily. You don’t want a thin perch if you have a large parrot. The thinner perches are fine for small parrots such as lovebirds or budgies, but you will need a larger perch for African Gray Parrots or Macaws etc.

Be sure to place the main perch along the width of the cage and make sure that they are not directly above the food dishes. There is nothing more unsanitary than having your pet parrots drop their excrement into their food or water dishes. Also, make sure that the perch is placed far enough away from the edge so that your bird will not be rubbing it’s feathers against the bars of the cage when sitting relaxed on the perch.

Besides the plain wooden perches it would be a good idea to get a branch like perches also. These are comfortable for your pet parrots because the width of the perch varies giving your bird a bit of relief from their feet always being in the same position all the time.

I do not recommend that you buy the concrete perches. These are sandy like perches and can be very irritating on the feet of your pet parrots. Stay away from them. Even though the pet store owners may tell you that it is good for keeping your pet parrots nails trimmed, it is not worth the problem of having sore feet. You can always get the avian vet to clip your pet parrots nails once in awhile if you are worried about doing it yourself.

Just a word of caution about nail trimming. Do NOT try and trim the nails yourself if you are not sure what you are doing. If you trim them wrongly, you may end up having your bird bleed to death. Get  your avian vet to show you how to do it correctly if you plan on doing this yourself.

I also want to talk about the grid that comes with some parrot cages. There is a bit of a debate over whether we should use them or not. I personally find them to be a pain in the butt because when the bird defecates it ends up getting stuck on the grids. I tend to take these out when I purchase a cage and just line the bottom of the cage. Then when the bird defecates I can just remove the liner on the bottom and presto! Clean cage bottom

Lastly, I want to talk about parrot toys. Just be sure not to buy a mirror when purchasing your parrot toys. WHY? Because your pet parrots may fall in love and bond with the bird in the mirror not realizing that it is actually him in there. The bird in the mirror is a perfect companion as far as he/she is concerned. He/she does everthing that your pet parrots do. Ahhhhhhh, wouldn’t life be lovely if our companions did exactly what we wanted them to do…….oh, I’m dreaming now…lol

So, I hope these tips will help you when you finally decide to purchase a pet parrot and your parrot cages.

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Owning pet parrots can be a real joy for you and your family as long as you take the time to do a little research and find out what you can learn about raising pet parrots in your home.

Pet parrot care can become very expensive if we do not learn the proper way to care for our pet parrots correctly.

One of the main areas that will keep costs down in the long run is in choosing the proper parrot cages. Many people do not put too much concern about this particular purchase because they assume that any parrot cage will do if it is not too small for the pet parrots. This is a very wrong assumption. If you choose the wrong parrots cage you will run into many problems down the road.

Many people will rely on the advice of the pet shop from where parrot cages are usually sold. Please bear in mind, that not all people who work at a pet shop are experts in the care of pet parrots. Many work on commission basis and will try and sell you something that gives them a good commission so do your own research before buying your pet parrots.

There are a few things that I think we should discuss here before you run out and buy your parrots cage.

1. Make sure it is big enough! Remember your pet parrots will be spending much of their time in their cages so be sure that the cage is big enough to give them room to roam around a bit. If the parrots cage is too small you will end up with the pet parrots feathers all bent and messy looking. This will upset your bird because pet parrots love to preen themselves and if they find their feathers are all amuck they will try picking them out. Pet parrots are notorious for feather picking anyways so you do not want to give them an excuse to do it or inadvertantly get a bad habit started.

2. Don’t get a cage that opens up on the top so that a little play gym can be added up on top of the cage. Here is an example below:

Althought this is a very nice parrot cage, we don’t want our pet parrots to climb around on top of the cage. Why? I will let you know a little secret that many people will not tell you. You will notice that when you get your pet parrots they will go to the highest spot that they can fly to whenever they get the chance. This is very normal behavior for parrots because in the wild this is the spot with the best vantage point. They can  easily see their predators from this view. I am sure you have heard the expression “wanting to get a birds eye view of a situation”, well this is what that is. Parrots want to get to the highest spot they can and then they feel secure knowing that they have a good eye on the situation.

Why wouldn’t we want our pet parrots to have this advantage? It seems strange that I would say in one breath that this is what they love and makes them feel secure and then in the next breath tell you not to allow them to get up high. The reason we dont’ want our pet parrots high, especially on the parrot cages is because when they feel secure, they feel in control.

In order to train your pet parrots properly we should never give them the upper hand like this. So, because of this reason we don’t buy cages with play gyms on top, or ones that open up at top like this example below:

The best cages for pet parrots are wide or long and high. Pet Parrots need lots of room to move around in their cages or they can get stir crazy. (not really, that is an old saying, but they will get bored more easily).

Also be careful never to buy a round bird cage for any bird, even a budgie or finch. Birds need to spread their wings and fly and they can’t fly vertically, they need the horizontal area to fly on so please don’t buy cylindrical cages like this example below:

I’m going to stop here for now and pick it up in the next post where we will discuss perches and grating on the bottom of the cage.

Till next time Adieu

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