Choosing Your Pet

For those of you who are looking for a low maintenace, but well deserving pet then you might want to think about purchasing a bird. One of the most common choice for people to purchase is the parrot. owning a parrot can be fun because you can teach them how to talk, which makes it fun for when you have company over.

As with all birds, parrots live in cages. Now you need to make sure that you buy a big cage because parrots are extremely large birds and they like to spread their wings every once in awhile. The cage needs to be wire not wood. Parrots can eat through the wooden cages. When you buy that enormous cage you need to make sure that you purchase one with a door that is large enough for them to get through and it needs to be a door that they won’t be able to open themselves. Parrots are not dumb and if you get a cheap cage then they will find a way to get out.

An important thing to have in the cage are a mirror, a swinging perch, and maybe even a squeaking toy. They need to keep themselves busy when you are not around. Make sure that you line the bottom of the cage with shredded paper, sawdust, straw, or sand. You also need to make sure that you clean the whole cage, inside and out, at least once every three months. Which means that you need to disinfect it. You don’t want your parrot to get sick.

With that being said you need to clean out the dish bowl and change the bottom liner every two weeks. Make sure that the parrot has a water bowl and that you fill it twice a day cleaning it every time that you do. I know that there is alot of cleaning, but both you and your parrot will appreciate it.

Parrots perfer to eat fruits, nuts, vegetables, and cooked meat and grains. Buying pre-packaged food is the easiest and probably the best way to do things. The next thing you need to do for your parrot is groom it. You only need to do this twice a week. In order to groom the parrot you should carefully spray water on him, using a spray bottle. In the spray bottle mix lukewarm water with a little bit of shampoo for birds. When drying off your bird just use a towel and gently dab him. Never, ever use a blow dryer.

If you want to teach your parrot to talk, start when he is still young since he will then pick up the language much faster. Keep trying the same phrase on the parrot at the same time of each day, such as “hello!” every time you walk in the door. Make sure the bird is looking at you and paying attention. Try repeating the words and phrases you want the parrot to learn, and try to say the words when you do a certain activity so he can learn to associate an activity with a word.

Even playing records can help your parrot learn words, but do not play the same word all day or the parrot will be very bored. If your parrot already knows some phrases, encourage him to use them so he doesn’t forget them. Whistling is also a great thing to teach a parrot, since he will know how to whistle entire tunes.

Let your parrot fly/hop around your apartment at least for 15 minutes on every day. As he becomes more tame and potty trained, you can even leave him out all day, and put him back into the cage only to sleep and feed. Make sure you close all windows and have a warning on the door so no one accidentally lets your parrot out. Enjoy your beautiful, intelligent pet for many years to come.