Technorati Tags: african gray parrots, large parrots, Parrot Care, Pet Parrots, talking parrots

When we think of dancing the thought of pet parrots isn’t usually the first thing that pops into our minds but believe it or not, pet parrots can dance and follow the rhythm very well.

Studies have been done which show that pet parrots are able to follow a beat of music quite well. The studies hypothesize that because pet parrots can mimik speech this opens them to the ability to also follow a rhythm in music. It is interesting to note that studies were also done on monkeys and apes, our nearest evolutionary cousins and found that although they can produce rhythms, they don’t dance like the pet parrots can.

This and obviously other studies have shown that pet parrots actually do have the ability not only to mimic sound such as singing, but also to move their bodies (known as entrainment) in rhthym to the music being heard.

I don’t think we will be seeing any pet parrots on So You Think You Can Dance, or Dancing with the Stars but it certainly is super interesting to know that because of their vocal ability they are able to do such things as dancing to the music. Who would have thought it possible?

Here is one of a couple of interesting videos from you tube you may enjoy watching of pet parrots dancing and singing:

Sources:

They Got the Beat

Rhythm in animals reveals evolution of human music

http://www.scienceline.org/2010/02/05/they-got-the-beat/

Spontaneous Motor Entrainment to Music in Multiple Vocal Mimicking Species

http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822%2809%2900915-4

Technorati Tags: Pet Parrots can Dance, Pet Parrots Sing, So you think you can dance

Although Christmas is a wonderful time of year with its many customs and decorations it can be a very dangerous time for those of you who own pet parrots. Whether you own small pet parrots or large parrotsChristmas season that can be perilous to your feathered friends. If you allow your pet parrots freedom to roam the house outside of the cage then you will need to spend even extra attention to them at this festive time of year. there are many dangers lurking in the house during the

The first thing you will need to pay attention to is your Christmas tree. Whether you purchase a real tree or use an artificial Christmas tree there are dangers with both. Pine Needles and Berries are poisonous to pet parrots. Although there are other alternatives, always remember that most Christmas trees have been sprayed with pesticides which bring their own problems if your pet parrot should nibble on it. Trying to keep your pet parrots away from the Christmas tree can be a never ending job.

Another thing to take into consideration is your Christmas decorations. Things such as tinsel and angel hair can easily get caught in your pet parrots’ throat and cause severe GI damage. Also watch out for breakable Christmas balls that go on the tree. Although many Christmas decorations are made of plastic in this day and age, there are many of us who have well worn vintage Christmas decorations that have been passed down from generation to generation as family heirlooms. These glass decorations break so easily and a good nip from a birds beak can break it into smithereens in no time flat.

With all of the Christmas lights, wires and extension cords there are many dangers for your pet parrot to get into trouble with. Be sure to hide these well away from the birds reach so as not to electrocute your pet parrot inadvertently.

Last but not least don’t forget about any holiday plants you may bring into the house. The famous Holly and the Ivy are poisonous to your pet parrots as well as Pointsettias. Keep these well away from your pet parrots.

As you can see, there are many dangers lurking for your precious pet parrots at this time of year. Be sure to make your Christmas safe, not only for yourself, but for your fine feathered friends as well.

Above all else, have yourself a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Technorati Tags: Christmas, large parrots, Pet Parrots, small parrots

Many pet owners are anxious about the possibility of their pets contracting the H1N1 Flu Virus. Today we want to deal specifically with Pet Parrots and H1N1.

Apparently there have been some pets which have been diagnosed as having the H1N1 Flu Virus. These have been bought to our attention via the American Vetrinary Medical Association. The pets which were diagnosed were not Pet Parrots but we can see by the evidence provided that it is not impossible for the H1N1 Flu Virus to pass from humans to animals.

It has been reported that at least 3 pet ferrets and 1 cat have been bought to their veterinarians and were diagnosed as positive for the H1N1 virus. It was clear by the report that the animals did not pass the virus to the humans but that the humans had flu like symptoms and then a week or so later the pets became ill with the virus. They all recovered from the illness.

No matter which pets we own, pet parrots or dogs or cats etc. we should be following the same precautions we would with the rest of the population. This means that we must be sure to wash our hands before handling our pet parrots and if we, or someone in the family appears to be sick or getting sick, that their time with our pet parrots should be limited to what is necessary. By that I mean that if you are the only person who can attend to your pet parrots then make sure that you have washed your hands and if you have to sneeze or cough, be sure to sneeze or cough into your arm rather than into your hand. Deflect the germs into your arm rather than having the mucous spray into the air where it can become air borne and affect your pet parrots and those around you.

If there are others in the family who do not appear to be ill then it would be a good precaution to have them, rather than you, take care of the pet parrots care until you are better. Try to isolate yourself as best you can from your pet parrots until you know that you are well. Generally it is a good idea to keep yourself away from your pets until 24 hours after your fever has gone.

Pet parrots are generally very healthy but no one knows for sure yet what the outcome would be if you were to pass H1N1 onto them. Seeing as the H1N1 virus tends to attack the respiratory system we can only imagine that it would not be a very good thing if your pet parrots were to pick the virus up. Pet Parrots need immediate attention if they appear to be sick or suffering from any respiratory infection. Whether this be from H1N1 virus or any other virus that may be contacted.

With this said, be sure to take your pet parrots to a specialized avian vet if you notice any symptoms of ill health in your bird.

For more information on the H1N1 Flu Virus and Your Pets Click the Link

http://www.avma.org/public_health/influenza/new_virus/new_flu_virus_faq_pet_owners.asp

Technorati Tags: Flu Virus, H1N1, Pet Parrot Care, Pet Parrots

Pet Parrots are such a joy to own. Who hasn’t passed by the sign “Pet Parrots for Sale” and not start toying with the idea of actually owning a pet parrot of your own. They are so lovable and entertaining. If you can find a pet parrot that talks it is even more fun.

Choosing which type of pet parrot to buy is always a dilemma for many people. The large parrots are so exotic looking and so many people are drawn immediately to these large parrots. Small parrots are not as exotic looking and so many people will pass them by without giving them much thought at all.

Some small parrots make perfect pets and some of them even talk!

Which are the best small talking parrots?

I would suggest that you purchase a small male budgie if you want a small talking parrot for you and your family. Budgies are often overlooked but they are really great little talkers if you take the time to spend teaching them. Of course, there is never any guarantee that any pet parrot will talk, male budgies do have a good chance. The younger you can get the bird, the better chance you have of getting your small parrot to talk, generally speaking.

Besides their talking ability, choosing budgies as a small pet parrot is easier in the sense that they are easier to take care of than their larger pet parrot counterparts. They are also much quieter than the large parrots. If you live in an apartment then it would be one of the best choices you could make.

I can speak from personal experience. Every male budgie that I have owned which I bought while they were very young, have always turned out to be a good talker. Maybe this is why I always recom

mend the budgie when people ask me for the best small talking parrots.

These days, there is so much choice in color also. No longer do we have to stick with a plain green budgie, although they are really cute too. There are so many lovely budgies on the market in this day and age that I am sure you will find one that you can truly fall in love with.

Therefore, In my humble opinion, the best small talking parrots are definitely male budgies.

Technorati Tags: budgies, large parrots, parrots for sale, Pet Parrots, small parrots, small talking parrots

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.

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

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

Technorati Tags: bird cage, cage, how to choose, parrot cages, Parrot Care, Pet Parrots, round bird cages

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