Pet Parrots: Small Talking 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.



 

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Small Parrots: Who Should Own One?

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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Pet Parrots: My Funny African Gray Parrot

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


Pet Parrots- Talking Parrots, Birds

When thinking of purchase pet parrots the most often asked question is which pet parrots are talking parrots?

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.

Pet Parrot Training

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African Gray Parrot Shot by Owner During Nascar Race

Large African Gray Parrot What a very sad story I have to tell you. I just read in the Daily Record how a man shot the family’s pet parrot, an African Gray Parrot named Mickey, because he was annoyed by the noise that the large parrot was making while he was trying to watch his Nascar Race.

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

Pet Parrot Training

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Pet Parrots – Knowledge is Power

Pet Parrots are such lovely creatures and it is so easy to fall in love at first sight. Be very careful to find out all that you can about your prospective purchase before you actually buy. Without this knowledge behind you, purchasing your pet parrots may end up causing you heartache and pain.

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.

Pet Parrot Training