You Think You Want A Pet Bird?

So you have decided that you would like to own a parrot as a pet? Let me point out immediately that you have already made a huge mistake. You don't own a parrot, he owns you. If you think that when you get a baby bird and hand feed it you will have a loving pet completely devoted to you because you are its mommy, as many bird breeders would like to have you believe, you have made mistake number two. Some types of parrot family birds simply do not make cuddly pets. That baby bird you laboriously picked out and spent many hours hand feeding and nurturing may turn out to be the twin brother of the Marquis de Sade and the first cousin to Dracula. Further at about eight months to one year old that cute cuddly baby suddenly turns into a three year old child with a pair of wire cutters built in. However, all is not lost. As we all know, a three year old with rules of behavior instilled indelibly in the grey matter can turn into a wonderful five year old. We will leave the teens alone until later. The training procedures for a baby bird or older bird is exactly the same as outlined in "Starting Right With Your Pet Bird" in the Florida Pet Pages 98/99 edition and below.

To me the most interesting part of owning a bird is the fun of training these very intelligent animals. Parrot family birds have such a high I.Q. and varied and complex personalities that the mere observation of their behavior patterns will give you countless hours of entertainment for many years. An older bird can quite often make the best pet for many people. I once trained a 25 year old African Grey parrot who had been owned by two different people and had never been picked up or petted by either of them. This bird in four weeks time could be handled easily and eventually became a wonderful pet and very bonded to its owner.

Compliments of Birds By Captain Lloyd, Deceassed.