What do you wish you knew before you got a parrot?

[stevejock1]

SO and I are getting a young, hand raised male Alexandrine from a reputable and ethical breeder for Christmas. We haven't had much experience with birds but we are both animal lovers with experience of the four legged kind. He has wanted a parrot for a long time and I am home alone most days with plenty of time for the bird to be free range (is that what bird people call it? Lol). Looking for advice, wondering what experienced bird owners wish they knew before getting a large bird?

 

[Inger]

My bird, Bumble, is a Pacific Parrotlet. Her body isn’t large but her personality is!

I wish I’d known that having a parrot for a companion isn’t adding another pet to the family, it’s committing to a lifestyle.

You can’t use nonstick cookware ever again. No yummy smelling candles or wax melts or essential oils. No more chemical cleaners-vinegar and baking soda will become your best friends. You have to be careful of anything and everything they might chew on because they could ingest it. Do you wear earrings? Prepare to have them removed and then prepare to worry because you can’t find it and maybe they swallowed it. You’ll find yourself saying “Oh geez it’s 7:00! I have to get home to put the bird to bed!” Because they need routine and 12-14 hours of dark/sleep to keep the hormones at bay. And that may or may not work-we can’t totally thwart nature. Plan to spend jillions of dollars on toys because if you buy the right ones (and you’ll never know which ones those are), they will gleefully destroy them quicker than a pitbull can tear apart a rag doll. Your bird may dislike certain colors and will make their dislike known clearly and often violently. My favorite color is turquoise. Bumble hates it. Guess who wins? Yep, I rarely wear that shade of blue anymore. Parrots have opinions about all sorts of things-not just your clothing. Do you like to travel? It’s about to get very complicated. You’ll have to find someone you trust to take care of your wee beastie, and that’s not easy. You can board them, but do you want to expose them to possible disease and who knows what kind of care they’ll get? I’ve seen many stories of perfectly lovely birds who are boarded or sent to stay with friends while their people take a little vacation and they come back to a plucker; doesn’t make the bird any less lovable but it’s tricky - often impossible - to resolve. You are taking on a being who will be startlingly intelligent and will need a lot from you to stay happy. A permanent toddler. It’s a lot. You mentioned experience with 4-legged pets; they MUST at all times be kept separate. Dogs and cats are predators; birds are prey. Forget the cute pictures you see on Instagram. Trust that those same people don’t post the pictures of the tragedy when one second of instinct overrides training and “they’ve been fine together for years.” Having predators and prey together and making sure all of their needs are met is very difficult.

All that said, there has not been one moment where I’ve regretted changing my life for that one ounce of fluff that shares my home.

Oh and welcome and thanks for reaching out and please stick around and show us lots of pictures. [emoji3526]


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[Rozalka]

Welcome! Well, before I got any parrots I knew literally nothing about them. And here is the biggest mistake. Probably if not this my Passion could be a bit another.... I could write other mistakes but I don't really have time to write long posts

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[texsize]

Oh my.... is this a con O worms.
So many things and I am on myiPad, not the easiest way to type.

This could be the beginning of a great thread.

The noise, we were living in an apartment that was no pets.
Figured that applied to cats/dogs not birds and like how much noise could an Amazon parrot make. LOL

 

[Betrisher]

I wish I'd really appreciated what a huge thing it is to deprive a flighted animal from flying.

My male Alexandrine escaped a few years ago (we got him back a few weeks later, thankfully) and I'll *never* forget how energetically he sped away, twisting and turning in the air for pure joy! He was gone in a trice, arrowing through the treetops and then out over the open fields. I just stood there with tears streaming and thinking 'this is what he was born for, not a half-life in some awful cage'.

This is why I will *never* mutilate my birds by clipping their wings and always try my hardest to give them opportunities to fly. If I were younger and more agile, I would definitely be looking into free-flight training. But I'm not and I can't, so I just do my best.

NB. Very few cages sold as 'suitable for large parrot' are actually suitable for large parrots. All my big birds need a *lot* of space to be able to flap and exercise their wings properly, even though they do get to fly through our house during out-of-cage times. My cages are 2m x 2m x 1m and they're still not really big enough.

 

[noodles123]

My responses on the following link cover it-- http://www.parrotforums.com/questio...t-getting-eclectus-african-grey-parrot-2.html scroll down to the 3rd and 4th posts I made and read them for detail-- it contains a lot of important stuff that isn't widely discussed in the parrot-world (at least not within pet-shops)-it is all stuff I wish I had known in detail when I got a bird. Yeah- I knew the basics, but I didn't know about all of the details (despite experience and research). I am so thankful I have a background in childhood behavior, because I use that training daily with her.

I knew it was going to be a lot of work, but I didn't think that it would be so difficult in terms of household issues (e.g., painting, cleaning, finding Teflon-free stuff). I also didn't realize how important the sleep thing was---and failed to realize that I was going to lose a huge amount of freedom in terms of being able to travel and stay out late (due to needing to be home for mealtimes, cage coverings etc---and the difficulties of traveling with a large bird who is used to a large cage). Oh-- and the MONEY...so much money...It's really hard to get other people on-board in a travel or multi-person home situation when people tend to go about their routines without considering that their waffle iron or hair-dryer could harm the bird lol/eek. I am constantly thinking "safe for Noodles" vs "not safe for Noodles" whenever I go to anyone's house and smell anything or see household items lol.

 

[Laurasea]

The unending mess. They poop many times an hour.

The noise , as soon as the sun comes up. Constantly working to keep my birds from screaming for hours, probably made worse as I have multiple birds.

 

[Rozalka]

I've just noticed OP is banned, so I don't know if there is a sense to continue the thread

 

[Inger]

I've just noticed OP is banned, so I don't know if there is a sense to continue the thread

Wow. That was a short stay!


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[LaManuka]

Seems to be a similar mode adopted by a lot of spammers recently, where they'll copy and paste a post from another social media site onto PF, then come back a few days later and embed a link to a different webpage where if you were to click on it, it would very likely pass on some sort of malware or virus onto your device. This post was copied from one on Reddit that is 5 years old! Clearly the Mod Squad got onto this guy and banned him before he could hatch his evil plans. But he'll be back - or someone else just like him!

 

[bigfellasdad]

I think inger nailed the answer to this one. They absolutely take over your life, something I didn't quite understand before hand. But to be fair the enjoyment they bring is all worth it.

 

[SailBoat]

The sad life of a Spammer!!!
Spend hours in a coffee house signing up on Forums, banging out Threads that look real and when they are about to play their Game! BANG, some Mod nails them to the Wall and Bans them into the Trash Bin of Life!!!! Gotta Love It!!! Brings a smile to my face!!!