parrotlets

Hey anyone here also have Parrotlets? What are your experiences with them?

Feeding?

Cage?

Exercise?

Bratty birds?

I have one now, and have worked with 2 others. Both of the others were sweet, friendly birds. Mine now is a good bird, but more than a bit on the nippy side. All 3 of them are picky eaters, and none will eat fresh fruits or vegetables. They do eat some pellets, but, prefer seeds. All 3 of them are alone in budgie sized cages, but all get a lot of out of cage time. The two I re-homed after rescuing are now living with friends. Mine is my wife's favorite because he is so small. They are very smart, and one talks a little, in this tiny little voice. Mine imitates my wifes laugh, and imitates the other birds. He was bitten on the foot by my lovebird when he landed on the lovies cage. Now, he avoids the cage when he's out, except to sit and preen on the cage next to the lovebird, as if to say "Here I am, and you can't get me." And, when the lovebird is out and on the paerrotlet's cage, he has learned to bang one of his toys against the bars to get my attention and remove him. He doesn't like other birds, and goes after the budgies when they are out together. And even chases my cockatiel, who's afraid of everybody. All in all, I think they are sweet, friendly birds. And big personalities in little feathered bodies.

BillsBirds said:

I have one now, and have worked with 2 others. Both of the others were sweet, friendly birds. Mine now is a good bird, but more than a bit on the nippy side. All 3 of them are picky eaters, and none will eat fresh fruits or vegetables. They do eat some pellets, but, prefer seeds. All 3 of them are alone in budgie sized cages, but all get a lot of out of cage time. The two I re-homed after rescuing are now living with friends. Mine is my wife's favorite because he is so small. They are very smart, and one talks a little, in this tiny little voice. Mine imitates my wifes laugh, and imitates the other birds. He was bitten on the foot by my lovebird when he landed on the lovies cage. Now, he avoids the cage when he's out, except to sit and preen on the cage next to the lovebird, as if to say "Here I am, and you can't get me." And, when the lovebird is out and on the paerrotlet's cage, he has learned to bang one of his toys against the bars to get my attention and remove him. He doesn't like other birds, and goes after the budgies when they are out together. And even chases my cockatiel, who's afraid of everybody. All in all, I think they are sweet, friendly birds. And big personalities in little feathered bodies.

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What a great description of your p'let and other birds. They sound adorable.

Here is an article that helped me with my lil picky eater:

Feeding the Companion Parrot by Pamela Clark

It's long but a really good read and it opened my eyes to the needs of my parrot. Maybe it will help you too.

I am hoping to add a senegal to our family. Have to convince my husband first, then I really need to weigh in the needs of Kiwi. I think that since she is only 3 1/2 months, it will be okay providing I find either a young weaned baby or an older bird that is bird social. Kiwi is very happy, and I don't want her to make her unhappy. So I'm doing a ton of research on this. :22:

Mine is a brat. Jacky's a little over 3 years old....and has the opinion that his decisions are what makes the world go round. He does have an attitude problem and he will bite if he disagrees with you (mainly if you try to remove him from the activity he's decided he owns on my kitchen counter). He's not very social, sadly. He used to be better when I first got him, but per the way he is, he decide there's only 2 people in the world he wants to deal with. Me and my friend (his 'daddy' since he's known him since the night I brought him home).Nobody ever treated him poorly prior to that decision. I do believe a bad wing trimming and some rough handling (by somebody I wont' take him to anymore) caused him to turn into a terrible feather-plucker. Nothing I do can change that. He's got toys, attention, entertainment and even a budgie to keep him distracted from a cage across the room. Got to borrow the budgie from a breeder to see if it'd help Jacky stop the plucking, it didn't work but I decided to adopt her instead of take her back. Both birds offer me something different in personality. He'd probably try to eat her given half the chance, and she'd be like 'play?' So, they get much supervision if both are out. Jacky loves the kitchen counter and Jasper likes her cage and my shoulder. It works well...with my eyes on them.

Now that all looks terrible above...and I wish Jacky were a super sweet social bird... but he's not, he's my little challenge........and I seriously do love him. I've learned to read his moods and take care to avoid that big ol' beak when he gets over-bossy. He's not one for toys in the cage for play, super picky, he's more interested in things he shouldn't be chewing to shreds. Like my shirts... oh they are like Swiss cheese so I need to be careful if I don't have a designated bird shirt on. He's a foley artist. He can squeak like my cupboard, beep like the microwave, screech like my screen door, dribble like water, make clicking noises like me cutting my nails with a clipper. He's a closet talker and most the time he'll start what he knows when I'm not in the room. Otherwise he's not afraid to publicly yell 'pretty, pretty, pretty!' when I'm around. He says 'Tweet' and 'Chirp' to me and boldly says 'scritches' (for being pet). He might be a mean little demanding twit, but he sure loves his loving! Nothing makes him happier than having his beak chewing through my shirt while I rub his head. Total Heaven for him! When he's done for the night he'll crawl under my hair and snooze against my neck. As a human, he'll crawl out for a sip of my water, since I keep a glass with me while watching TV', do his business and go back to bed! He chirps his happy greetings when I come home, and even more so after I go on a vacation. He's so fluffed up and chatty he doesn't know what to do with himself at that time.

Is he a pain, yes. Do I love him and enjoy his company, heck yes. Even if he is a feather-plucking cotton-ball on legs. If you are around him long enough he can calm down. But it takes time. He read the book on 'how should I act' and broke all the rules. I got spoiled with the first bird I ever had, a male budgie who was so sweet and social...he set the bar too high for the rest of the birds I might get in life! LOL. All in all, they're neat critters. Really do have a huge personality of their own in that tiny body.