Understanding life with parrots

Poststructural Pub
1

People know a lot about dogs and cats and indeed, when someone says the word pet, that is what they mean, but most people know almost nothing about parrots.

Parrots are sort of like cats

  1. You must earn their respect. They don’t give it to you freely.
  2. They’ll do silly cat-like things, such as beg to be scratched and then hold their bodies just too far out of reach for a proper scratching. This reminds me of when cats will beg to go outside then stand on the threshold refusing to go out.
  3. They tend to sit at the top of the pecking order in the house. In fact, birds are where the word “pecking order” came from.

Parrots are sort of like dogs

  1. They want to be with you all the time
  2. They beg for food all the time
  3. They chew up your stuff

Mostly parrots are like people. Parrots are highly intelligent. Studies have shown the prime evolutionary purpose of high intelligence is mostly for cheating others. Parrots spend most of their spare time devising ways to cheat and manipulate you out of whatever you have. To a parrot, coveting is an art. Nothing gives them more happiness than to steal something from you. They would rather have the thing they steal than the exact same thing given to them.

Parrot care tips:

A parrot should eat healthy food like fruit, vegetables, grains and even a little meat. You can also feed them extruded pellets, but they are mostly made of corn so I’m a little skeptical of their value and only give a small amount of this. Their diet should only sparingly contain seeds or nuts. A diet only of seeds will cause your bird to live a fraction of their natural lifespan because seeds do not contain enough nutrition. Seeds are also high in fat which can cause aggression, feather picking and liver disease. Only a few types of birds are seed-eaters in nature.

Parrots never clean their plates. Do not ever expect a bird to eat all their food. Always give them a fresh bowl each day. Give them fresh water every day, too, because they often take a bath in their water dish.

A parrot must chew on things all the time or else its beak will grow too long and it may have difficulty eating. Keep them happy with things to chew on made of wood or other destructible materials.

Parrots need toys to keep their minds occupied as well. I buy bags of small stuffed animals and baskets at the thrift store for the bird to chew up. I also watch crows in my neighborhood and when they seem to be having a party in a tree I go see what it is they are eating and collect it for my own birds. I only collect things I see other birds eating. Branches and cuttings from safe plants in the garden with the leaves and flowers still on can be fun for them. Make sure the plant is edible first and not sprayed.

Parrots show their love by bonding with you. They’ll want to preen your eyelashes or hair. Some kinds of parrots will want to cuddle with you. Some will even want to sleep in bed with you. You might roll on them though so this is not a good idea. Many love to have their heads scratched. During molting season new feathers grow in with a keratin sheath and their head looks like a pin cushion. You can win over a parrot to your love by rubbing their head feathers and removing the sheaths. If a parrot ever bends its head down at you it probably wants a head rub. Cockatiels do this a lot.

A talking parrot shouldn’t be sought after. It gets really boring. Better is a parrot that does funny things or is sweet and lovable and part of the family.

You should beware of any bird that seems frightened or whose eyes are flashing at you, or who is fanning their tail at you, especially if eyes are also flashing. This is a bird that is going to bite. You should never retaliate by hitting or other cruel things. Birds do not understand punishment.

A parrot uses its beak for other things, not just biting. They use their beaks to climb. If you hold out your hand or finger, the bird will reach out with its beak not to bite you, but to test you to see if you are safe to step up on. Don’t snatch your hand away if you’re offering it to a bird to step up. That will break their trust in humans. They also use their beaks to caress. It feels extraordinary to have a parrot nibble on you lightly.

To get a bird to step up to your finger, hold your hand or finger a little higher than their feet and press gently on their chest. They don’t like to step down but will happily step up.

Birds are noisy. Some are meant to call to each other from miles away. Never punish a loud bird with excessive darkness. Too much darkness can kill a bird. If a bird yells too much you should consult a bird behavior specialist who will offer insight as to why a bird may be screaming too much.

Reasons not to get parrots include: destructiveness, messiness, noise, difficulty finding people to care for them when you go on vacation, and finding decent veterinary care. Also, they live a long time, maybe too long.

Parrots, depending on what kind, can live from 20 years up to 80 or even 100. Most die too young of malnutrition or accidents. My oldest parrot is 20. My youngest one is 12. We’ll probably have to put the youngest one in our will.

2

Yes. They fascinate me, and I’d love to have one as a friend, but I won’t for those reasons.

3

What kind of parrots do you have?

It was very interesting to read this…we’ve thought about getting a parrot but the more we read about it, the more it seems like adopting a toddler, and we’re not ready for that! :laughing:

We have itty-bitty birds in our aviary-- finches and budgies. We hand-raised many of them

and get to see all sorts of silly behaviors because of that. They know we are “beings” (look us in the eye, respond with slow blinks if we blink at them slowly). They treat noses like beaks (ex. budgies “kiss” them) and treat hair like feathers (preen it, or in the case of one budgie, try to mate with it :boggle: ) They also seem to think of our bodies, clothing, etc. as potential nesting sites and will climb into a sleeve or snuggle into your neck (finches make special noises called ‘nestcalls’ when they do this). When we go to the budgie section of the aviary, the feistiest hen birds land on us and fight each other for the privilege of checking us out for nest sites. This means chewing on the “tree trunk” (us) to see if there’s a potential hollow area. In the spring when they are very determined, this can be painful :laughing:

They’re very simple little guys with just a few simple wants, easy to predict. That’s about right for us simple-minded people :wink: I love to hear parrot stories though.

4

A friend of mine has parrots. She recently made a disastrous move to Devon. (Her family made promises, and then reneged on them.) She has an old, bald parrot called Alf. He’s very sweet. He had something wrong with his eyes last month and she told me they were weeping blood. But he’s all right now. Apart from still being bald, of course. She has two other birds, but Alf is the one you remember.

5

I once read a story by the owner of a talking African Grey Parrot. I’ve tried to find it again but have been unsuccessful, so I’ll just summarize.

Apparently, the parrot had a beak infection, and the prescribed treatment involved giving the bird daily shots at home. The shots were given into the breast, if I remember correctly, and were quite painful to the parrot.

After getting the first shot, the parrot knew what was coming whenever the needle was brought out, so it would start pleading with them. “I’m sorry! Don’t hurt me! I’m sorry!”

The owners said fighting back the tears in order to give those shots was the hardest thing they’d ever done.


I’ll stick with cats and dogs, thanks.

6

Cockatiel I had. Dandy little parrot. Have had several parrots.

7

I have 4 untame budgies, a 20 year old female plumhead parakeet, a 15 year old female blue crowned conure and a 12 year old umbrella cockatoo. Of all these birds I only purchased one of the budgies and the plumhead. All the others were abandoned to me one way or the other.

The cockatoo I rescued when her owner became homeless. The bird was left with our neighbor who didn’t like the noise. The bird was locked in her cage on the front porch with padlocks for which they had no keys. They fed her well through the feed dish doors but other than that, they covered her up with several blankets only pulling back a small corner during the day, or else not even uncovering her at all. She would cry. I finally left a note saying I would care for the bird if they were having trouble doing so. Now she’s mine. My life is ruined. Oh well. I can’t stand to see suffering.

The cockatoo is sitting on my shoulder right now dismantling an almond in the shell with the skin still on. We found these nuts at the farmer’s market. They still have the fuzz on. Keeps the bird busy. I think she just likes to hold it in her foot and break it tiny bit by tiny bit. She can break a brazil nut if she wants to.

I guess they are a lot like having a toddler. Also, a cockatoo is a very needy bird. And a clever one too. They have a knack for figuring out how things work, or rather how they come apart, and they aren’t fooled by hiding something. Smaller birds are much easier as pets, but the cockatoo has really become part of the family. If I could control what birds I have I would have either a caique, a pionus or my conure. Something acceptable for apartment living. My conure is a quiet one. I guess I got lucky.

8

People know a lot about dogs and cats and indeed, when someone says the word pet, that is what they mean, but most people know almost nothing about parrots.

Parrots are sort of like cats

  1. You must earn their respect. They don’t give it to you freely.
  2. They’ll do silly cat-like things, such as beg to be scratched and then hold their bodies just too far out of reach for a proper scratching. This reminds me of when cats will beg to go outside then stand on the threshold refusing to go out.
  3. They tend to sit at the top of the pecking order in the house. In fact, birds are where the word “pecking order” came from.

Parrots are sort of like dogs

  1. They want to be with you all the time
  2. They beg for food all the time
  3. They chew up your stuff

Mostly parrots are like people. Parrots are highly intelligent. Studies have shown the prime evolutionary purpose of high intelligence is mostly for cheating others. Parrots spend most of their spare time devising ways to cheat and manipulate you out of whatever you have. To a parrot, coveting is an art. Nothing gives them more happiness than to steal something from you. They would rather have the thing they steal than the exact same thing given to them.

Parrot care tips:

A parrot should eat healthy food like fruit, vegetables, grains and even a little meat. You can also feed them extruded pellets, but they are mostly made of corn so I’m a little skeptical of their value and only give a small amount of this. Their diet should only sparingly contain seeds or nuts. A diet only of seeds will cause your bird to live a fraction of their natural lifespan because seeds do not contain enough nutrition. Seeds are also high in fat which can cause aggression, feather picking and liver disease. Only a few types of birds are seed-eaters in nature.

Parrots never clean their plates. Do not ever expect a bird to eat all their food. Always give them a fresh bowl each day. Give them fresh water every day, too, because they often take a bath in their water dish.

A parrot must chew on things all the time or else its beak will grow too long and it may have difficulty eating. Keep them happy with things to chew on made of wood or other destructible materials.

Parrots need toys to keep their minds occupied as well. I buy bags of small stuffed animals and baskets at the thrift store for the bird to chew up. I also watch crows in my neighborhood and when they seem to be having a party in a tree I go see what it is they are eating and collect it for my own birds. I only collect things I see other birds eating. Branches and cuttings from safe plants in the garden with the leaves and flowers still on can be fun for them. Make sure the plant is edible first and not sprayed.

Parrots show their love by bonding with you. They’ll want to preen your eyelashes or hair. Some kinds of parrots will want to cuddle with you. Some will even want to sleep in bed with you. You might roll on them though so this is not a good idea. Many love to have their heads scratched. During molting season new feathers grow in with a keratin sheath and their head looks like a pin cushion. You can win over a parrot to your love by rubbing their head feathers and removing the sheaths. If a parrot ever bends its head down at you it probably wants a head rub. Cockatiels do this a lot.

A talking parrot shouldn’t be sought after. It gets really boring. Better is a parrot that does funny things or is sweet and lovable and part of the family.

You should beware of any bird that seems frightened or whose eyes are flashing at you, or who is fanning their tail at you, especially if eyes are also flashing. This is a bird that is going to bite. You should never retaliate by hitting or other cruel things. Birds do not understand punishment.

A parrot uses its beak for other things, not just biting. They use their beaks to climb. If you hold out your hand or finger, the bird will reach out with its beak not to bite you, but to test you to see if you are safe to step up on. Don’t snatch your hand away if you’re offering it to a bird to step up. That will break their trust in humans. They also use their beaks to caress. It feels extraordinary to have a parrot nibble on you lightly.

To get a bird to step up to your finger, hold your hand or finger a little higher than their feet and press gently on their chest. They don’t like to step down but will happily step up.

Birds are noisy. Some are meant to call to each other from miles away. Never punish a loud bird with excessive darkness. Too much darkness can kill a bird. If a bird yells too much you should consult a bird behavior specialist who will offer insight as to why a bird may be screaming too much.

Reasons not to get parrots include: destructiveness, messiness, noise, difficulty finding people to care for them when you go on vacation, and finding decent veterinary care. Also, they live a long time, maybe too long.

Parrots, depending on what kind, can live from 20 years up to 80 or even 100. Most die too young of malnutrition or accidents. My oldest parrot is 20. My youngest one is 12. We’ll probably have to put the youngest one in our will.

djm

9

We have a Sun Conure, and although we love Buddy (or are “stuck with him”, depending on the mood of the day) I wouldn’t recommend a pet bird for most people.

I usually admire anyone who is willing to share their home with a bird whose beak is dangerous enough to chop off a finger, however… No matter how much you love your bird, and how much you feel your bird loves you, they are forever wild creatures at heart.

Oh, well.
Buddy loves taking car rides, evening walks around the neighborhood, and burrowing under our shirts to peek out the collar and ride around that way.
He is supremely territorial. And beware if you think you’ll just walk into a room if Buddy doesn’t approve of you! If he can’t fly, he’ll just climb down off his perch and chase you out of there…

M :sunglasses:

10

DJM,

You wouldn’t be parroting would you? :laughing:

It took me a while.

11

Oh, good Lord! He is!

Deej, hon, I’m worried about you. We all are. You need to eat some meat . . .

12

That was a great post about parrots.

As a dog person I was not happy when one of my daughters wanted a Norwich Terrier pup for her 16 th birthday because I already had a house literally full of Skye Terriers and I knew that any puppy she got would end up being mine. So, I thought" I’ll get her a bird. She can keep it in her room and it will be truly hers.Wrong. I traveled far to find just the right bird. But he found me. When presented with a cage of many cockatiels this one kept jumping on my hand. I’d put him down, try to look at another and there he’d be again rooting in the way,running up my arm, insisting that he wanted to live in Va with us. It finally clicked that he was doing everything he could to tell me to “pick him” so I did. I was amazed at the personality of this cockatiel . It was no time until “Birdie” had become a very active member of our family. He did learn to talk quickly and every evening the dogs were crated so Birdie could get out and play. Even my husband who is very allergic to practically everything loved Birdie. He lived many years and will always have a place in our hearts.

I’ve always said birds are the perfect pet, for the right person.

Dang this thread makes me want another one…I use to work with an avian vet and the Senegals and African Greys always were my favorites…no, got to remember my husband’s allergies are now even worse…

13

Many years ago when I was teaching a college summer session class in history I had a student who asked if he could bring his five year old son with him. He said the boy would be quiet and take notes and he would show them to me when the session was over. After the last class the student said he wanted to show me something. I said fine, I will be in my office, and he said I will be there in 30 minutes.

He was. With a huge white bird on his shoulder and a large droopy hat on his head. He handed my his son’s notes, which consisted of a number of drawings of sailboats (either I talked too much about the technology of exploration or I was interesting only in a particular aspect of my lectures), and asked my what I though about his pet.

I know nothing about parrots, aside from the cliches of “Polly want a cracker” and a few sexual jokes, some of which were cartoons in the early years of Playboy magazine. I tentatively reached my hand out to the bird, which I recall suddenly became much larger and his owner/master/keeper/slave suddenly said, “Don’t do that.” “That’s why I wear this hat,” he explained.

Ever since then I have stuck with cats. Although my first Siamese nailed me from time to time with his dagger-like teeth between my thumb and forefinger his successors have treated me like the lovable snuggle guy I am.

I admire anyone with birds, especially those I see on boats or on the beach with parrots on their shoulder (arrr, matey) but I’ll stick with my seagoing felines until I’m inducted into a feathered realm of greater understanding.

Sandy

14

i have an african grey paerrot who loves to dance sing and curse .
and play games like hide and seek and loves to play fight . they have the brain of a 5 year old child so they can be very naughty i love him to bits

15

I had a Orange winged amazon, who was quite the talker… and picked up on a well used term around him… “Shut the bloody 'll up” but I did indeed love him and the 25 years I had him… got him from another owner… Died at a pretty ripe old age the best we can conclude…

Ps… A bird does not live with you in your house, you live with him in his house were you cater his every need… LOL the life of bird owners.

16

Do they get along with each other? are any of them actually buddies with each other?

Our tamest budgie is attracted to one of our cockatiels-- follows him around, sits next to him, and tries to preen him. He sidles away. Unrequited love :frowning:


The cockatoo I rescued when her owner became homeless. The bird was left with our neighbor who didn’t like the noise. The bird was locked in her cage on the front porch with padlocks for which they had no keys. They fed her well through the feed dish doors but other than that, they covered her up with several blankets only pulling back a small corner during the day, or else not even uncovering her at all. She would cry.

Poor thing! How long has she been with you now? Was it a hard adjustment for her? Has she recovered well, do you think, or does she have some “issues” left over from her past ? It sounds like she has a wonderful life now :slight_smile:

17

None of our birds like each other with the exception of the budgies which live together in one big aviary cage. I used to have a cockatiel but my conure killed him. We try to keep everybody apart but there have been some “episodes”.

Ariel, our cockatoo suffered no damage from her prison time. Once we cut the locks off she came right out and happily sat in our laps accepting lots of petting and attention. She is a bit of a feather picker but she is not bald.

I feel bad for pet birds. They really are still wild creatures. They ought to be flying free in the forest. But I made a mistake to have pet birds more than 20 years ago so I’m responsible for these ones I have so I try to give them a decent life. I turn down all offers now to take in more.

I also don’t recommend people get birds. We don’t own anything nice in our house. We replaced our dining room furniture with all metal furniture. We should do that with the living room, too. Hardwood or concrete floors would be nice, too. If you really want a bird, get a used one. There are plenty of unwanted birds, not all of which were formerly abused. People die or get divorced or move or have babies and give up their birds.

18

With the exception of two budgies I had as a child (for 13 years) and two I have now which were purchased as companions to others, all my birds have been adopted.

Two cockatiels came as lost birds which flew up onto my 10th floor balcony, then climbed up my arm and tried to hide under my chin. The first one came inside with me and sat on the kitchen counter gorging on whole-wheat bread (the only thing I had she might like) and sucking up water from a glass while I found something she might be safe in until I could get more suitable accommodations for her. The cat’s carrier did the trick. She made a beeline for it, flung herself into a corner, shoved her head under her wing, and went immediately to sleep.

The second fly-up did nearly the same thing, except by then I had a small bird carrier and bird food.

The third I took away from my cousin, whose roommate had abused it. It had a lifelong fear of newspapers from having been terrorized with them.

One budgie came after a neighbor pleaded with me to take it. He wanted to go up north for the summer and feared his wife would kill the bird in his absence. She had apparently done in the bird’s mate a few weeks earlier. Daily this woman would ask me if the bird was dead yet and express regret that it was not. I bought another budgie to keep that one company, and then another to keep that one company after the eventual passing of the first one.

Last year, the owner of a bird shop where I purchase supplies asked me to take a budgie which had been owned by an elderly woman. It had been found near death in her retirement-home apartment, in a cage that had apparently not been cleaned for months. The woman’s caretaker had been feeding it only, and that had stopped after the woman went to a nursing home. The manager of the retirement home already had an apartment full of similarly abandoned birds, which had been behaving aggressively toward the budgie. He recovered nicely, turning out to be a delightful bird. He now has two budgie friends purchased as companions.

I was sorry that I did not take a third fly-up cockatiel away from the woman who ended up with him. When I loaned her a small cage and gave her food for him, I was unfavorably impressed with her husband, who sat in the living room in a cloud of negativity. My initial impulse was to snatch that bird away and take it home, but the woman, who didn’t seem to be the brightest bulb on the string, wanted to keep it. Sadly, the husband managed to rip out the bird’s tail and wing feathers trying to grab it to “make it stop chirping.” It was given to someone else and died a few weeks later.

I believe that most people get birds thinking they’re about like fish, only without the hassle of keeping up a tank. They don’t understand that birds are highly intelligent creatures which have a high need for social interaction and which require protection from their environment and attention to nutrition. They aren’t the kind of pet you can put in a cage and ignore.

19

well said lambchop

its just like looking after a small child

20

Ahh, the joys of avian companionship…

:wink: