Pet Parrots Blog

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.

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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

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.

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