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.

Technorati Tags: african gray parrots, parrot cages, Parrot Toys, Pet Parrots, small parrots

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

Talking birds are so sought after it does seem a shame. Parrots can offer so much more than just their talking ability. Many people forget just how entertaining pet parrots can be without their talking ability. They are born entertainers and love to hang out with their favorite person and in their spare time play with their favorite parrot toys.

The truth of the matter is that many pet parrots do not learn to talk ever. Therefore if you are choosing a parrot for its talking you may be very disappointed.

Generally speaking, the larger the parrot the more chance you have of him talking, but this rule is definitely not hard and fast. Consider the little budgie, for example. This little guy can talk up a storm if trained properly.

The best pet parrots that are known for their talking ability of course is the African Gray Parrot. These are considered the most intelligent parrot in the pet bird world. But again, just because you buy an African Gray Parrot for a pet does not guarantee that it will talk.

I can tell you from personal experience that the Male parrots of any particular species is more likely to talk than its female counterpart. This may be perhaps that males are more communicative because they want to attract their special mate, in many cases which is it’s caretaker.

So what can you take away from this particular article?

1. All Pet Parrots do not necessarily Talk
2. Male Pet Parrots are more likely to Talk than their female counterparts
3. African Gray Parrots are the most intelligent and generally thought to be the best talkers
4. Don’t forget that Male Budgies are also great little talkers
5. There is NEVER any guarantee that your pet parrots will talk, so learn to love them for who they are and not what they can say.

Technorati Tags: African Gray Parrot, Pet Parrots, talking birds, talking parrots

Apparently the man was intoxicated and had become annoyed at the pet parrot for making too much noise, so he pulled out a bb-gun and shot the poor defenseless parrot. The African Gray parrot had been a family pet for over 20 years. The man was charged with animal cruelty at least but it really is a sad, sad story.

Maybe you think that I speak about researching pet parrots before buying them too much in my blog. I know a lot of people don’t want to hear it but I really feel that someone has to step up to the plate and make people aware that purchasing pet parrots, especially the large parrots come with a cost. One of those costs is putting up with times of squawking and screaming from the pet parrots. This is part and parcel of parrot ownership.

In cases such as the story told about this man shooting the family’s pet parrot during his nascar race, lessons can be learned. Pet parrots are Noisy, you have to learn to live with this reality. If you have favorite shows that you wish to watch when your pet parrots are in the room, you may find this truly frustrating. Be realistic about what you expect from your large pet parrots. If you cannot stand noise then don’t bother purchasing one. If you have one and find it too noisy for your TV watching enjoyment then you have options. Don’t shoot the pet parrot. You could either, move the pet parrot and the parrots cage to another room, or have another TV set up in another room or the basement where you can enjoy your show without the noise of the screaming from your large or even small parrot.

It’s truly a shame that this poor African Gray Parrot was shot and killed. It is reprehensible what the man did to this poor creature. It truly makes me very sad. For more information on the story you can read the article in the Daily Record here:

Randolph man charged with killing pet parrot because it annoyed him

Technorati Tags: African Gray Parrot, Large Parrot, Nascar Race, Pet Parrots

Many people see pet parrots which are owned by others or on videos, such as YouTube.com and immediately start to get ideas in their head about how much they too would love to have such a sweet companion in their own home.

Pet Parrots are truly adorable and they do make great companions, but….and a big but….what you see in your friend’s home or on videos is not exactly what you will get when you purchase your pet parrots.

The majority of persons who have purchased pet parrots in the past can tell you that they require a lot of time and attention devoted to them. In many instances, you will need to train your pet parrots (see our recommendation on the right of this blog post) if you wish them to become a loving member of your family. Sadly, it is a very common thing to see pet parrots purchased and then left by them-selves in some basement covered up to help deter their screaming. Here are just a few things you should be aware of before purchasing your pet parrots.

• The Larger they are, the more time is required with them.
• It is imperative that you spend a scheduled time each day with your new pet. Pet Parrots love schedule. They need to know what is going to happen when, in most instances.
• Ask Yourself “Are you a scheduled type person?” if you are more of the laid back type, you may end up with a bird that is confused and lonely.
• Screaming can truly become a big problem if you don’t know how to train your bird properly. Pet Parrots are loud to start off with, especially the Large Parrots.
• All Birds love to greet the day and give their adieus to the evening sun. Be prepared for the noise. They cannot help this, it is in their genes and punishing them in any way for this is not being realistic.
• If your pet parrots are not getting enough quality time with you they may start to pluck their feathers. Feather plucking can get very obsessive and so you will need to be sure that your pet parrots have lots of social time and plenty of parrot toys to play with.
• Be prepared to be buying plenty of parrot toys as they chew through them very quickly.
• Most pet parrots are very intelligent. Especially known for their great intelligence are the African Gray Parrots. They are known to have very great vocabularies and a very high I.Q. The more advanced pet parrots like these will require much more from you as they will get bored very easily if not stimulated. This can cause a very great demand on your time.
• A smaller bird may be more suitable if you are looking at pet parrots but don’t have the time necessary to give as much attention to. Male budgies for example can very often be taught to talk and are not as noisy as their larger parrot counterparts. Because of this, they may be the best choice especially if you live in an apartment.
• Bearing in mind the volume that pet parrots can reach, it is always best to keep in mind that the larger parrots are not suitable for apartment dwelling. You will definitely need a house if you plan on buying pet parrots such as the African Gray Parrot, the Cockatoo, or the Macaw, for example.
• Pet Parrots like to bite. The bigger their beak the more damage they can cause. If you get the proper training with pet parrots before you purchase them, then this training will help to dissipate the likelihood of a major problem.
• Most Pet Parrots like to bond with one person. They may change their allegiance from time to time but generally they bond with only one person in the household. This person may not be the one who is actually doing all the work for the bird. Just because you are there everyday, talking to your pet parrots, feeding them and playing with them, this is not a guarantee that they will choose you as their favorite. To help inhibit the over bonding of your pet parrots to any one particular person in the household it is important that all individuals of the family spend time with your new pet parrot daily.