Mary Allen
A parrot that talks looks beautiful, and grows old – a dream for many lovers. In practice, however, it is far removed from this romantic notion. Here are some tips on how to keep these birds successful.
The boy watches with fascination a blue-fronted amazon as it strides theatrically on the sand, plucks at a blade of grass, narrows the pupil so that the orange eye-ring flashes in the sunlight, and then calls out sweetly: “Uhuru!”. The boy is smitten with this bird. He would love to have a parrot too.
The desire to keep animals runs like a red thread through human cultural history. Nothing can replace the direct reference to humans and animals. There are people who prefer to observe animals in nature. Others are fascinated by their attitude. Much of what we know about animals comes from observations of animals in human care. The desire to keep birds is understandable. Many who are successful bird keepers or even breeders today were shaped like children, like the boy in this story. The enthusiasm for parrots or other birds arose, even got stuck in my head. It would have been bad if the boy had acted on this wish and soon after acquired a single, tame bird. In the rarest of cases, such an attitude is good in the long term.
Many Parrots are Bought Based on a Misconception
World-renowned British parrot specialist Rosemary Low has been interested in birds and parrots in particular since she was a child. As soon as she could write, she wrote down the names and prices of birds she saw at shows and in pet stores. As a young woman, she once went to a pet shop. Back in the 1960s, and import of Yellow-fronted Amazons had just arrived. A bird walked right up to the young parrot lover and climbed onto her hand. She bought him. Litho was to live at her side for the next 50 years, taking her to Tenerife where she got a job as curator at Loro Parque, moving to Gran Canaria and back to Nottinghamshire until the bird was around the age of Died of old age aged 50. A great rarity. Who can keep a bird all its life and do it justice? Probably nobody these days. Impulse purchases are always bad. They often have a devastating effect on birds. Buying a bird needs to be considered.
“Would you buy your child an Arabian horse just because they want to learn to ride?” Low asks in one of her books. Just because someone is enthusiastic about parrots does not mean that they can provide them with good housing and care in the long term. Think carefully about getting parrots because parrots don’t have a limited age like a dog, they can live up to 50 years and, to quote Rosemary Low again, often behave like a little kid who never grows up.
Why am I warning you so urgently? I was once fascinated by parrots as a small child, have been an enthusiastic keeper since childhood, and have been involved with these birds for as long as I can remember. As a breeder, I have always chosen future buyers carefully. Nevertheless, I was always disappointed when after two years the birds were no longer kept and simply passed on.
The situation at the sanctuary for parrots and parakeets APS in Matzingen TG also weighs on me. That this institution exists is good and important. But it is also a sad testimony because for some reason all the parrots there could no longer be kept. Surely they now have a very good life in the APS, always having something to do, being able to make friends with other parrots, and benefiting from the best veterinary care.
There are always understandable reasons why parrots have to be given away. Unfortunately, however, many parrots are still bought out of recklessness, out of sheer enthusiasm, and with the wrong ideas. This is to be avoided.
So if you want a tame bird that is funny, cuddles, talks, and whistles with you, you have not dealt with parrots enough, because sooner or later you will be disappointed. It is now a legal requirement that two birds of the same species must always be kept together, including budgerigars. Thus the dream of the tame, single parrot no longer applies.
It makes more sense to start with smaller, less demanding species
Not only the old age of Amazons and Gray Parrots but also the loud voices, especially those of Amazons, are often responsible for the birds being released again. Added to this is the plumage dust that spreads everywhere in the apartment. But these are facts that are known long before the birds are purchased. If you want to buy birds, you should read specialist literature beforehand. It is not enough to merely study reports in specialist journals. It is also important that you read specialist books and talk to owners and breeders. It’s bad to only get information from the Internet, as there are often only superficial facts.
After a thorough study of the specialist literature, it will probably become clear to many that keeping an Amazon couple in a rented apartment will hardly do well in the long term. But the desire to own birds is still there. If you want to keep Amazons, Eclectus Parrots, or African Gray Parrots, you will face problems, because these birds are demanding and often develop psychological problems since their needs in human living areas can often not be satisfied. So the initial happiness could soon turn into trauma for birds and owners. But there are ways to devote yourself to keeping birds without taking too many risks. In any case, it makes more sense to start with smaller, less demanding species and only later aim at keeping large parrots.
So Rosemary Low hits the mark with her statement about the Arabian horse. Even small birds such as budgerigars or lovebirds live to be over 15 years old. But they have many advantages because such species are quicker and easier to find than large parrots, which can only be purchased from specialized breeders. Especially with large parrots, it often becomes a problem when the opposite sex is sought for a bird, because they have become rare. If you feel the desire to keep parrots for the first time, you should limit yourself to lovebirds such as peach, black or black-headed lovebirds.
The budgerigar is also a parrot. If you can offer an indoor aviary of about 2 × 2 meters × 2 height as a living space and set it up interestingly, you have an extremely satisfactory keeping system with three pairs of budgerigars. Budgies are not aggressive towards each other. Of course, they also require regular care, cause dust, and communicate through their constant vocalizations. However, there are hardly any behavioral problems with this form of husbandry. A cage measuring 100 × 80 × 80 centimeters can also be a home for a couple of the birds who are allowed to fly freely in the apartment.
Birds Cannot Simply be Exchanged Like Unwelcome Objects
The book by Dr. Esther Wullschleger Schättin, “Understanding budgerigars and keeping them in a species-appropriate manner”. Grass parakeets such as Bourke’s, ornamental, fine, glossy, or beautiful parakeets have quiet voices and can be kept well in the living area. Anyone who has cared for such species for a number of years and has become a passionate bird keeper can then venture on to larger species. But it is bad if existing birds are simply exchanged. If you decide on a species, you should keep it for the rest of your life if possible, because birds are not commodities that can be exchanged.
So if the boy, instead of the Amazon, acquires a pair of lovebirds or budgerigars and keeps them in a cage or better still in an indoor aviary, then he becomes familiar with the life of parrots and is also able to care for the birds in a species-appropriate manner and for them to care. Lovebirds or budgerigars aren’t supposed to be real parrots? Are you kidding me? Are you serious when you say that? Anyone who keeps lovebirds, for example, is in the best of company, because the world-famous German zoo director Professor Dr. dr Bernhard Grzimek once kept Jorinde and Joringel, two little lovebirds, as a young veterinarian.