Parrot Parenting. Carol Frischmann
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many specialty bird stores offer wonderful educational opportunities that you can take advantage of before you choose your species and your individual bird. These stores often arrange for well-known and respected bird behaviorists to visit and hold seminars. Attending one or more of these seminars is another way to learn more about the various species and the demands of caring for fascinating and sometimes difficult psittacines.
Parrots and Kids
Although many kids get along fine with larger parrots, a safer approach, particularly for a first parrot, is to consider a budgie or cockatiel. These child-size birds are gentler. Their beaks, although still able to provide powerful bites, are nowhere near as powerful as those of a larger parrot.
In addition, the cages and accessories are small enough for the child to take an active role in the care, feeding, and training of the pet parrot.
The quick movements and squawks of birds can sometimes frighten children. In addition, the high-pitched voices and quick movements of children sometimes frighten birds, especially those not accustomed to children.
The best approach is to go one small step at a time. Birds are curious and will respond to a child’s patient reading, singing, or feeding through the cage bars as a first step. Likewise, children often enjoy the “magical” properties of birds—their soft feathers and their ability to fly.
Children can learn much about responsibility by caring for pets; however, it is an unrealistic expectation that a child can be entirely responsible for a creature as complicated to care for as a bird.
Humane Organizations and Parrot Rescue Networks
Shelters or rescue organizations are another place to meet your species. Most humane societies have birds for adoption, as do bird rescue organizations and exotic bird clubs. Keep in mind, however, that a foster and rescue network serves the increasing number birds given up by the people who purchased them. Knowing the reason your potential companion was surrendered is important. Owners who made poor choices about pet selection may be surrendering birds with behavior or diet-related health problems. In addition, the emotional and physical health of these birds is often compromised. Even though a bird may be healthy at the time he’s adopted, the stress of being relinquished, kept at a shelter, and then relocated again does not create the best conditions for maintaining a healthy immune system.
Accordingly, as you look at the birds and talk with the organization’s staff and volunteers, keep your requirements and questions in mind. The best situation is one where you can visit several sources of the species of most interest to you and take a few days to consider what you’ve seen. Your relationship with your bird may last twenty or more years, so be selective.
To find a reputable rescue organization, look for a group that has been operating successfully for a number of years, has a board of directors who oversees the operation of the rescue, and is known to local veterinarians and bird clubs as a reputable and careful rescue. A rescue is not a place to acquire “free” birds. In fact, most reputable rescues have a lengthy adoption process and require you to complete a basic bird care course, and many will visit your home to ensure that you have adequate space and can safely care for a bird. Rescues operate in this way because, when people relinquish their birds, the rescue organization takes on the responsibility to care for the bird in a proper manner. This means finding families who will care for the bird long term.
In effect, rescue organizations will typically take you through the list of questions at the end of Chapter 1, making sure that you are ready for a bird. In addition, they’ll ask you to complete some education to ensure that you know how to care for the bird of your choice. Finally, they’ll visit you several times after your adoption to ensure that you are doing well with the bird you’ve chosen. For the rescue organization, it’s about finding the best home for the individual bird. That’s their focus.
Unfortunately, many parrots are given up to animal rescues and are waiting for their forever homes.
Seven Safety Tips for Interspecies Relationships
1.Clear bird areas of food debris that attracts other pets.
2.Clip cats’ toenails.
3.Confine cats and dogs when your birds are out of the cage.
4.Keep aquariums covered.
5.Leave a buffer zone between animal species.
6.Separate snakes, large lizards, ferrets, and other predatory pets from your bird zone.
7.Stop stalking behavior immediately.
Other Sources
Other sources of parrots include individuals or companies located through advertisements on local bulletin boards, newspapers, or online sources. Unless the source is well known to you through a web group you’ve been a member of for some time or through a bird professional, steer clear. The more barriers between you and the individual providing the bird, the greater the chance that something can and will go wrong.
This is not to say that all such sellers are hiding something or are dishonest. This is merely to say that you have many choices in where to acquire your lifelong companion. Why wouldn’t you choose a source that is well-known to you and to others in your area (including veterinarians), so that you will have the assistance you need in the years to come?
Exceptions exist. For example, a well-known breeder and expert on eclectus parrots may be downsizing her group of birds because she is aging. She’s begun to talk about this on a list-serve that American Federation of Aviculture members participate in. If someone wants a companion eclectus, a bird acquired from this person would be the best imaginable companion. This professional aviculturist has been an acquaintance and friend for more than 20 years, she’s been an active member of local bird clubs, a speaker at national meetings on the Eclectus parrot, and is a well-published author on the species. In other words, there’s nothing anonymous about this person.
Contrast such a well-known person with one you meet through an online advertisement. The bird has no band, no microchip, no health certificate, and the owner offers you no health guarantee. The bird has never seen a veterinarian because “he’s never been sick.” Sketchy? Yes, definitely.
A different advertisement tells you about a bird who has come to a local bird club because the owner has recently passed away. The bird has a record at the local avian veterinarian, has a band, was microchipped, and is well-known to the vet and the technicians in her office. This is a different situation. You know something of the bird’s history and socialization, and the bird club is handling the placement of the bird. Their interest is in the bird and not the sale.
When it comes to other sources, use your best judgment. You should be able to find how the bird has been connected in the local community through veterinarians, boarding facilities, caretakers, a bird club, or a national organization. With two or three people telling the same story, you have some idea about your bird’s history. Without that, the advice of most professionals is to pass on the bird. Let me repeat: never purchase a bird because you feel sorry for its condition. Especially as a beginning bird keeper, you’re in for heartbreak—this is a guarantee.
Young Bird or Old Bird?
Birds of all ages are available, from the newly weaned to the senior bird. Since bird life expectancy is 20+ years, age should be a consideration. Mature birds—birds over one year of age—provide the advantage that their personalities are fully formed, their coloration is developed, and their habits are well established. You have a realistic glimpse of your lives together from the beginning. Newly weaned young birds offer a completely different experience. In this case, you have the short-lived pleasure of watching your bird mature and the responsibility for socializing this curious and perhaps clingy creature over the course of your first six months together. Whether you think that a young bird or a senior is right for you, do get to know an adult bird (or maybe several adults) before choosing a youngster.
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