Parrots anyone?

[dizzle]

I have two parrots. One African Grey and one Severe Macaw (aka chestnut fronted macaw)

[Gabby]

I used to sell parrots every now and then when I managed a pet store years ago. The only parrot that ever liked me was a sulfer crested cockatoo. He was adorable!!

The others scared me. :eek:

[technomage]

We've had three--two green-cheeked conures, and a Jenday conure. Again, had to give them up when we gave up the 'tiel, but we found them good homes, so it's OK.

[Johnny MacManky]

My brother has a Timtae (sp?) it's similar to the African Grey, just a bit smaller. His name is Pongo (the parrot that is, not my brother) and he's a great talker (the parrot that is, not my brother)!

At meal times, just as we sit down Pongo will pronounce "Thank you Lord". If we open a big plastic bottle of soda he will say "Coca~cola"... Eh, my brother's a Pentecostalist... you can guess the rest!

[Gabby]

:rofl:

[Spinyn00bman]

I like parrots..........with mustard sauce.

[Timothy Leary]

I've thought about them but I think they might be problematic with the sort of fish & amphibian tank I'd like to set up eventually. (I don't want 'em to be eaten)

[technomage]

Do you mean the fish/amphis, or the parrot?

[Rayado]

The Norwegian Blue is an especially good one. Beautiful plumage, too.

[Timothy Leary]

Do you mean the fish/amphis, or the parrot?

the former.

[technomage]

I wondered what kind of fish you had that would be eating the parrot. :shocked:

[panama]

I have a Yellow Lored Amazon , 18 months old.

[Amazing Rando]

I have a two year old Congo African Grey. He mimics every sound that happens more than once around our house, and fills our house with music we've taught him.

My mom just bought an adorable little thing called a parrotlet- supposedly they're tiny cousins to Amazon parrots.

[Nang]

I have two parrots. One African Grey and one Severe Macaw (aka chestnut fronted macaw)

What gorgeous creatures!

Do they share a living space and/or do you ever let them free from their cages?

I never had the blessing of owning such exotic birds, but have enjoyed the pleasures of owning common parakeets, whom I trained to share daily life with me, free from the restrictions of cage.

A favorite of mine lived on my shoulder for about 8 years, and helped me with all my domestic chores; sitting on faucets while doing dishes, and running around toilet lids while I cleaned the bath . . .amazingly aware and happy to be any small part of my daily life. He would even stay with me, if I briefly stepped outside, never flying off my person.

I don't remember what cause the shift, but we eventually included cats in our household, which ended our keeping birds.

But I still remember my last dear aviary pet, a green "Noah", who my brave hubby held in his hands while dying with obvious heart failure, and while I hid from the scene on a back porch.

I was so cowardly, because I loved Noah-bird so much, and could not watch his demise .

The exotic birds have longer life-spans, so may yours be with you for many years!

Nang

[dizzle]

They have cages but are out most of the time when we are home. The large birds are very much flock creatures and suffer terribly if left in their cages.

[Nang]

They have cages but are out most of the time when we are home. The large birds are very much flock creatures and suffer terribly if left in their cages.

Yes, yes . . .so glad to know you give them some space!

Unfortunately, we have seen some kept caged for life, which tends to develop destructive and/or obsessive habits (feather plucking, etc), plus becoming cranky, if not downright mean.


Nang

[Amazing Rando]

My Grey's on my shoulder now as I type.

[Timothy Leary]

I wondered what kind of fish you had that would be eating the parrot. :shocked:

Well, I did know a guy who (illegally) kept a fishtank with a few piranas in it...

[Amazing Rando]

Sometimes when I'm kissing my wife goodbye in the morning, we hear smooching noises coming from the bird's cage. It's really amusing.

[Johnny MacManky]

Sometimes when I'm kissing my wife goodbye in the morning, we hear smooching noises coming from the bird's cage. It's really amusing.
The very first time my brother was seated alone on the sofa with his new girlfriend, he did the old yawn, stretch, put your arm around her trick... Then when that was okay, he wondered, 'Hrm, what now?' At which point the parrot squawked "Tickle tickle!" He told the story in his Groom's speech.

[Sparko]

what do you do about the poopies if they are out of their cage all the time? birdie diapers?

[Amazing Rando]

what do you do about the poopies if they are out of their cage all the time? birdie diapers?

Some people do that. I don't bother. Their poops are water solulable and come out pretty easily with soap and water. Sometimes after my lil guy's been on my shoulder for a few hours, my back is pretty gross.

[Sparko]

Some people do that. I don't bother. Their poops are water solulable and come out pretty easily with soap and water. Sometimes after my lil guy's been on my shoulder for a few hours, my back is pretty gross.

yuck! seems if parrots are as smart as people say you could teach em to go to their cage to poop. I trained my dog to go outside in less than a week.

[Amazing Rando]

yuck! seems if parrots are as smart as people say you could teach em to go to their cage to poop. I trained my dog to go outside in less than a week.

95% of the time, my parrot is in or on his cage, so that's where the vast bulk of his poops end up. I read in Bird Talk magazine however that many people actually do train their birds to poop on command- they hold the bird over the trash can and give the command to poop and the bird complies!

[dizzle]

my bird poops on command

[Amazing Rando]

I've been too lazy to really train my grey to do anything other than not bite.

[Johnny MacManky]

my bird poops on command

DX, you have such authority that with one word from you, most creatures will poop! :teeth:

[JardinPrayer]

I have a parakeet that I inherited from my elderly mother-in-law. He came to me a little too old to train for speaking, but we have managed to get him to make a half-hearted attempt at a few whistles. He's sort of finger-trained (likes to hop on when a hand is inside his cage), but cannot be let out. (I don't see evidence of him "suffering terribly," btw. He adores his little plastic parakeet on a spring toy...cozies up to her frequently...then pecks her in the head a lot.

The guy in the pet store said that he was too old to introduce another bird to the environment. He also said that if you have more than one bird in a cage, they will focus on each other and not you, so forget speech training. So, he just sits there and squawks at will and we will probably have him for another decade.

My cat spends a lot of time at the bottom of the cupboard his cage is perched on top of...she lays on her back and dreams of the day the door will swing open and her chance will arrive.

I wanted a larger bird...like a grey...but when I visited a pet store that had conures and heard their squawk, I realized I could not live with that every day of my life. The parakeet is loud enough when he really gets riled up. And, you can't tell them to "go lie down and be quiet," like you can a dog.


I think we'll get a puppy.

[Sparko]

DX, you have such authority that with one word from you, most creatures will poop! :teeth:

Are you saying that DX scares the crap out of most creatures?

[Amazing Rando]

I wanted a larger bird...like a grey...but when I visited a pet store that had conures and heard their squawk, I realized I could not live with that every day of my life. The parakeet is loud enough when he really gets riled up. And, you can't tell them to "go lie down and be quiet," like you can a dog.




Greys don't squawk like conures and cockatoos- at least mine doesn't. My little guy whistles and sings mostly, fills the house with music. And when you're done hearing from him, you just throw a cover over his cage and he goes to sleep!

[JardinPrayer]

My husband won't like you when he reads this. He had finally talked me out of wanting a grey! Now, the only argument he has left is that it might outlive us!

[dizzle]

I can talk you out of it. They require enormous amounts of personal one on one attention and time out of the cage. It is cruel to the bird to do otherwise. I don't recommend parrots as pets. I wish someone talked me out of it.

[JardinPrayer]

Oh yeah...I remember you telling me this before. It worked...for a while. Keep telling me...cuz when I see video of greys doing amazing things, my maternal instincts get all fired up.

:frank: want....to...nurture.

[dizzle]

(I don't see evidence of him "suffering terribly,"

Large birds are nothing like small birds like parakeets in their needs.

From Dr. Irene Pepperberg:

My research is also really important for the pet industry. What I've tried to explain to parrot owners is that what they have in a cage in their living room is a creature with the sentience of a four- to six-year-old child. I try to convince them that you can't just lock it in a cage for eight hours a day without any kind of interaction. I don't mean just interpersonal interaction, or having other birds around; parrots have to be intellectually challenged. In the wild they are constantly challenged. They are challenged to find food, they are challenged to avoid predators, and they are challenged by the intra-flock interactions.

http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/pepperberg03/pepperberg_index.html

[JardinPrayer]

I wonder if it would be considered a challenge to avoid my 2 cats during their time out of the cage. That qualifies as "avoiding predators," right? And, here I thought that would be cruel. :wink:

[dizzle]

The bacteria from a simple nip from a cat can kill a bird very quickly. Also got any teflon in the house? Teflon can release fumes that can kill a bird instantly. Not often but it can. If you ever let a pot burn enough, the bird is a goner. Perfume? Nope can't have it. Scented candles? Can kill a bird. Carpetfresh? Some people can do these things without incident for years and years and all of a sudden there is tragedy.

Parrots are still very wild animals. My husband has been bit totally unpredicably on the face twice. Me once. One of them almost permanently damaged a nerve in my wrist from a bite.

[JardinPrayer]

My urge to nurture is waning.

[dizzle]

Here is another sobering article:

It will only be through the exposure of what is happening that we as a society will begin to take the steps to address the overpopulation issue as well as begin the debate over whether or not birds even deserve to be kept as pets any more than primates or dolphins. Indeed, the keeping of intelligence on the level of primates and dolphins, confined for our own gratification, is widely recognized as cruel by most civilized, modern cultures, and we at Foster Parrots can only hope that the same will soon be recognized in the case of parrots. Certainly we can all recognize the injustice of turning a creature born to fly into a terrestrial feathered hamster for our own entertainment. Our goal is not to make anyone feel guilty about keeping their bird, but rather to let people know that if they are sensitive and caring, that the day might come when just having a bird in their home might be more than they can bear. We receive many, many phone calls and emails from people who feel guilty about not being able to give their birds enough; enough time, companionship, freedom or space. To those who do feel this guilt, we ask that they use it to provide more for their beloved bird; more space, more flight, more companionship. If you cannot give your bird the companionship he or she deserves, adopt a friend for them, build them an outdoor aviary, dedicate a room of the home for them to call their own. No cage or home is big enough to duplicate what these magnificent creatures were born to inherit, but we must do all that we can to accommodate the true natures of these animals and to live up to the responsibility of what we have taken on. Parrots are not toasters; you cannot throw them away when you don't want them anymore.

http://www.fosterparrots.com/mission.html

I am not an animal right nut. But my years of having pet parrots has convinced me that parrots are not meant in most cases to be pets. For those that already are here and with us, we have to do the best that we can, but I discourage new parrot purchasers.

[dizzle]

For anyone interested in the Teflon issue

http://www.ewg.org/reports/toxicteflon/es.php

[Amazing Rando]

I can talk you out of it. They require enormous amounts of personal one on one attention and time out of the cage. It is cruel to the bird to do otherwise. I don't recommend parrots as pets. I wish someone talked me out of it.

Parrots rock! Parrots kick puppies butts any day. I'd get a Mollucan cockatoo if I could afford one. :yes:

[Amazing Rando]

My urge to nurture is waning.

I watch movies with my grey on my shoulder. He fluffs up late at night and just lets me pet him and bury my nose in his neck fluff.

[Johnny MacManky]

I think AmazingR though that you obviously have the opportunity and time to spend adequate time with yours and to give him the attention and relationship that's required. Sadly many owners neither know this, or have the time/inclination to do so.

[dizzle]

AR, I am surprised you just dismissed what I had to say. Have you spent any time at all researching parrot refuges and the very real problem in our country of parrot neglect, even by well-meaning owners? If parrots do in fact, as some assert, have the intelligence and need comparable to primates, can you find much justification for having them caged and as pets? I am finding little - there are some people that make wonderful parrot owners, you might be one, but for the vast majority of people, they just cannot, and that says nothing bad about them - something with the intelligence of a small child should not be a pet. So I like to educate people who currently have parrots and discourage new potential parrot owners. Sometimes I lose sight of this and my conviction on this was somewhat shaky until recently.

Also I am concerned you didn't reinforce my warning about the dangers of getting biten. I understand that your grey doesn't bite - until he/she bites you. My face bite was from my grey, who is not a biter unlike the severe who is a biter. Any bird can unpredicatably bite. Wouldn't you feel horrible if Jardin got a grey and took a lot of credence from your silence and got bit because she wasn't kept wary of this danger?

I sure hope all bird owners followed that link I posted on teflon. It could save your birds' life.

Statistically Mollucan Cockatoos are one of the worst candidates for pets among parrots. They don't adapt well to caged life and their vocalizations are not suited to a home.

[Amazing Rando]

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to dismiss the important info you posted. That wasn't at all my intent. The teflon issue is big- when we learned about it, we got rid of all our non-stick cookwear.

And yes, they do bite. My bird will bite anyone who goes near him except me and (sometimes) my wife. He has actually drawn blood from me too on occasion, but only when he's agitated and I ignore his body language. I like to play a little rough with him anyway.

I guess I'm just so in love with my little guy that I would recommend parrots to anyone who has done the required reading about proper care and loving treatment. Bird Talk Magazine is an excellent resource for me on that stuff. If you have the proper knowledge and commit to the enormous demands a pet bird can place upon you, they just make incredibly life-enriching pets.

[dizzle]

Okay Rando, thanks for the clarification. I just do believe that the majority of bird owners are not particularly suited for it. And we have to ask, it might be enriching for us, but is it really enriching for them considering their intelligence and what they are created for (flight, flock interaction)?

[Sparko]

I wonder if parrots taste like chicken?

[dizzle]

Speaking of the devil, I just got bit pretty hard on the finger by the grey.

[Sparko]

I bet he thinks YOU taste like chicken.

[Amazing Rando]

I think AmazingR though that you obviously have the opportunity and time to spend adequate time with yours and to give him the attention and relationship that's required. Sadly many owners neither know this, or have the time/inclination to do so.

You bet. There are bird rescues all around the country that are filled with birds rescued from people who didn't realize the responsibility it takes to care for them.

[JardinPrayer]

Well, before this thread even went down this road, I knew in my heart that I am not in a position to provide appropriately for such a creature. I'm not home enough and my life is way too unpredictable right now. Heck, I sometimes go for weeks without even logging in to TWeb...and we know what a travesty that is!

Incidentally, I had known about the teflon issue. Xena knows the floor plan of my home...it is very open, but we didn't always have a house that open. Craig has owned parakeets most of his life and his maternal grandmother raised canaries for many years. Small birds are very familiar to him. He says he has done all of the things Xena mentioned as no-nos all this time without consequence. I do use non-stick cookware, carpet fresheners (on occasion), and commercial cleaning products in the house. I use only water to clean the bird cage and food cups...no cleanser of any kind. Neither Craig nor I have seen our birds suffer or die. However, my elderly mother-in-law once forgot she had turned on the stove and left a teflon frying pan on a burner with a pat of butter to melt. An hour later, the pan had completely melted and her pair of keets (who lived in a small cage on top of the refrigerator) were dead. I did read that some birds are sensitive and others may not be...but certainly melting a non-stick pan is not recommended practice!

Xena doesn't seem to have much sense of humor on this issue, but for those that may, Craig and I are always joking about how parakeets are "unkillable." Ours have been fairly resilient!

[Amazing Rando]

Okay Rando, thanks for the clarification. I just do believe that the majority of bird owners are not particularly suited for it. And we have to ask, it might be enriching for us, but is it really enriching for them considering their intelligence and what they are created for (flight, flock interaction)?

We're taking my little guy to the bird store right now to get his wings trimmed. This morning he took a divebomb from the top of his cage and knocked over a couple of candle sticks on the dining room table.

I think the thing is that parrots are still in their first several generations of domestication. Before the 1970's it was rare to have a pet parrot; only the very rich could afford them. That means that many pet birds are still wild animals at heart and have not been fully domesticated the way, say, sheep, dogs, or cows have been for tens of thousands of years. I would venture to say that in a few generations, pet parrots will become more domesticated, more docile, as the "wild" is bred out of them and they grow more accustomed to living in houses with people.

[Amazing Rando]

Well, before this thread even went down this road, I knew in my heart that I am not in a position to provide appropriately for such a creature. I'm not home enough and my life is way too unpredictable right now. Heck, I sometimes go for weeks without even logging in to TWeb...and we know what a travesty that is!

Incidentally, I had known about the teflon issue. Xena knows the floor plan of my home...it is very open, but we didn't always have a house that open. Craig has owned parakeets most of his life and his maternal grandmother raised canaries for many years. Small birds are very familiar to him. He says he has done all of the things Xena mentioned as no-nos all this time without consequence. I do use non-stick cookware, carpet fresheners (on occasion), and commercial cleaning products in the house. I use only water to clean the bird cage and food cups...no cleanser of any kind. Neither Craig nor I have seen our birds suffer or die. However, my elderly mother-in-law once forgot she had turned on the stove and left a teflon frying pan on a burner with a pat of butter to melt. An hour later, the pan had completely melted and her pair of keets (who lived in a small cage on top of the refrigerator) were dead. I did read that some birds are sensitive and others may not be...but certainly melting a non-stick pan is not recommended practice!

Xena doesn't seem to have much sense of humor on this issue, but for those that may, Craig and I are always joking about how parakeets are "unkillable." Ours have been fairly resilient!

If you want a very small, very managable parrot, try a parrotlet. My mom just got one, he's incredibly tiny, and the sweetest little thing you could ever imagine. They've got lots more personality than a parakeet or lovebird, and live three times as long too. They're basically miniature amazon parrots.