How to Care for a Parrot

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This article was co-written by Pippa Elliott, MRCVS. Dr. Elliott is a veterinarian with over thirty years of experience. She graduated from the University of Glasgow in 1987 and worked as a veterinary surgeon for 7 years. Then, Dr. Elliott worked as a veterinarian in a clinic for over a decade.

There are 10 references cited in this article that you can view at the bottom of the page.

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Parrots are highly intelligent birds that make great pets, but there are a few things you need to know about parrots and their care requirements before deciding to have one. First, parrots are wild, not domesticated animals (like cats and dogs), so they retain many of the same behaviors and instincts as their wild relatives. Next, not all parrot breeds are created equal, so you need to find out the characteristics of the parrot breed you intend to keep. Finally, parrots live longer than most other pets: small parrots (cockatiel or parrotlet) can live up to 20 -30 years, while large parrots (macaw, amazon, or cockatoo) can live up to 60-80 years. ^{[1] X Trusted Source Best Friends Animal Society Go to Source}

Table of Contents

Prepare a home for parrots

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Choose a suitable cage. Square or rectangular cages are more suitable for parrots because round cages make them feel insecure due to the lack of corners. Make sure the cage is wide enough for your parrot to climb and move freely. The cage must also have enough space to attach tree branches for the birds to perch, a place for toys, bowls for food and water, and a place for the birds to rest. Choose the cage size according to the size of the parrot:

The smallest cage size for small parrots is about: 60cm wide x 60cm long x 60cm high
The smallest cage size for large parrots is about: 1.5m wide x 1.8m long x 1m high
The distance between the bars is 1.2cm for small parrots
Spacing between bars is 10 cm for large parrots

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Place the cage in a room where your parrot can interact. Parrots are social animals. In the wild, they live in groups and often interact with their packmates. If kept in separate places, they can develop separation anxiety. Parrots like to be in places where people pass by.

If you have other pets, keep your parrot’s cage in a room they can’t get into when you leave the house. Be sure to keep an eye on other animals when they are near the birdcage and do not let them into the room if they cause stress to the parrot. ^{[2] X Research Source}

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Keep the temperature stable. Birds can tolerate quite a wide range of temperatures, but the ideal temperature for parrots is around 18.5 – 29.5 degrees Celsius. Avoid leaving your parrot in a room that is too cold or turning off the heater overnight in the winter. . Temperatures below 4.5 degrees Celsius can be dangerous for parrots, especially those that are slender. Rounder parrots can be stressed if the temperature rises above 29.5 degrees Celsius. If you must keep your parrot in higher temperatures, you need to ensure good air circulation. ^{[3] X Research Sources}

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Put your new parrot in the cage. First, close all doors and windows for safety. Then you need to determine if your parrot is friendly or aggressive. Slowly open the parrot’s cage, slowly reaching out your hand towards the parrot. If the parrot doesn’t react much, you can continue to extend your hand towards it. But if the parrot opens its beak and aggressively pecks towards your hand, you will need the second method.

If the parrot is not aggressive, continue reaching for it, pointing your fingers (or arms if it’s a large parrot) at a slightly angled angle above its paws. If your parrot has been trained to step up, you can say “step up” and it will jump on your finger (or arm). Slowly remove the parrot from the crib and bring it to the cage. Point the parrot towards the cage so that the branches in the cage are parallel and slightly above your hand. It will step on a branch, after which you can close the cage door and let it acclimate to its new home for a while.
For a parrot that is aggressive or does not know how to step up, you will have to grab it and put it in the cage. This has nothing to do with your relationship with the parrot; it will pass. You need to be decisive and act quickly without letting the parrot get away. If the parrot flies around the room, its fear increases and the harder it is for you to catch. Bare hands are ideal, but if you’re afraid, you can wear thin leather gloves or use a towel. Try to grab the parrot’s neck, which is just below the head (this will not only ensure you are not bitten, but the parrot’s airway is less blocked than if you grabbed it by the stomach. Either way, you should get it to the cage quickly and don’t let it get out.
Regardless of how you put your parrot in the cage, you should leave it alone for a while. The first few days your parrot will probably eat less than usual, but you need to make sure that the food and water are something he is used to. Give it some time to calm down and adjust to its new home before interacting.

Feed the parrots

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Change the menu for parrots. Parrots need a rich diet with lots of nutrients. It’s best not to limit your parrot’s food to nuts and pellets, although pet store granules and pellets are fine based on their basic diet. Here are a few things to feed your parrot in addition to a mixture of seeds and pellets:

Feed your parrot fresh fruits and vegetables. Wash thoroughly before feeding to parrots as well as to humans. Many parrots love to eat grapes, bananas, apples, carrots, berries, greens and all kinds of squash, cooked beans and more. Make sure not to eat too much fruit because fruit contains sugar.
Some parrots like the macaw like to split the seed pods to get the insides to eat. Try giving your parrot some pistachios, pecans, and macadamia nuts.
Do not feed your parrot foods that contain caffeine, alcohol, chocolate, sugar or salt snacks, greasy foods, raw or dried beans, rhubarb leaves, fennel, cabbage, asparagus, and eggplant. purple and honey.
Never feed your parrots avocados and onions! Both of these items are toxic to parrots. Avocados can cause sudden cardiac arrest and death of parrots. ^{[4] X Research Sources}

Pippa Elliott, MRVCS

Veterinarian at Royal Cplege of Veterinary Surgeons

Dr. Elliott is a veterinarian with over thirty years of experience. She graduated from the University of Glasgow in 1987 and worked as a veterinary surgeon for 7 years. Then, Dr. Elliott worked as a veterinarian in a clinic for over a decade.

Pippa Elliott, MRVCS
Veterinarian at Royal Cplege of Veterinary Surgeons

Pippa Elliott, veterinarian, recommends the following: “When feeding your parrot seeds, you may find that he only chooses the delicious seeds to eat . This can cause nutritional imbalances. If necessary then you It is advisable to train your parrots to eat synthetic pellets to prevent this.”

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Feed the parrot with the right amount. Food and water bowls must be at least 600ml for small and medium parrots, 900ml for large parrots. Weaned babies as well as baby birds need extra food due to their high metabolic rate and high activity. ^{[5] X Research Sources}

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The water bowl for the parrot needs to be large enough for the parrot to enter the bath. The bird will drink its own bath water, and this is normal. Remember not to add vitamins to the water even if instructed to do so. The reason is that the bird doesn’t drink much water and you don’t know how much it is taking in, and it also causes bacteria to quickly multiply in the water. ^{[6] X Research Sources}

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Avoid cooking with pans and nonstick utensils. This is especially true when you leave your parrot in the kitchen or nearby. The chemicals used in nonstick pans can be life-threatening to parrots when heated to a certain temperature.

Secondhand smoke is as harmful to parrots as it is to humans. If you smoke and have parrots, do not smoke indoors. ^{[7] X Research Sources}

Keep parrots healthy

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Clean the bottom of the birdcage every two days. Replace mats, dispose of seeds, seed pods, gravel and broken toys, etc. It’s best to pay attention to cleaning (cleaning up clutter doesn’t take long – removing branches etc.) once a day.

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Wash and change food and water bowls daily. Remove food and water from bowls, wash and replace with fresh food and water each day.

Discard perishable foods such as cooked beans immediately after the bird eats them. Parrots can be susceptible to bacterial infections, so keeping the cage clean is essential.
Make sure to use a bird-safe disinfectant to clean the cage each week. This medication can be purchased at a pet store. Conventional human antiseptics can be too strong and harmful to parrots. ^{[8] X Research Sources}

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Visit the vet periodically. Some parrots are perfectly healthy for the rest of their lives, however whenever your parrot has a health problem you can deal with it by consulting your veterinarian about preventive measures. Make sure your veterinarian has expertise in treating birds, or you’ll end up wasting your money. You should schedule your bird’s annual health checkup.

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Observe your parrot’s health problems. A healthy parrot is usually alert to his surroundings, almost always upright, and very active. If your parrot starts to show signs of illness, you should take it to the vet. Some signs that a parrot has an illness include:

The beak is deformed, indented, or ulcerated
Shortness of breath
Appearance of smudges around the eyes or nose
Changes in the shape and texture of stools
Parrots are thin or don’t want to eat
Swollen eyes or eyelids
Feather problems, including tearing, plucking and thinning of feathers.
Head down, lethargic or too quiet. ^{[9] X Research Source}

Training and communicating with parrots

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Learn to approach the parrot cage appropriately. First, you should approach the parrot’s cage slowly and quietly. You also need to avoid eye contact with the frightened parrot at first so it doesn’t feel like it’s being noticed by a predator. If you see a parrot trying to bite you, or struggling in the cage, or showing extreme discomfort when you appear, you need to let it get used to you:

Get out of the room out of sight. Start going back, and as soon as you notice an unpleasant reaction, stop and stay where you are. Do not proceed any further and wait for the parrot to calm down. Then you start to get closer again. If the parrot reacts like this again, stop and wait until it calms down. You may need to do this several times until you get close to the parrot’s cage. ^{[10] X Research Source}

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Identify your parrot’s favorite food. Training your parrot is essential to its communication needs. To determine what your parrot likes, try giving it a variety of nuts, fresh and dried fruit. A new parrot may be new to some foods, so you’ll need to give it a few days to identify favorites. Once you’ve found it, don’t feed it every day, save it for training.

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Train your parrot to get out of the cage and back into the cage. The first step of training is to feed the parrot on your hand. This can take from a few seconds to several weeks. You just need to go to the edge of the cage and hold the parrot’s favorite treat in your hand. Wait for the parrot to come and eat.

Once the parrot is comfortable with eating in human hands, you can get it used to the commands from the clicker. You click right before feeding the parrot its favorite food on hand. Do this every time you treat your parrot to let it get used to the clicking sound before eating its favorite food.
Use chopsticks to train your parrot to move to a certain area of the cage. First introduce the parrot to the chopsticks, allow it to approach the chopsticks, then click and feed the parrot its favorite food. Teach your parrot to approach the chopstick each time you click and treat it. If the parrot is no longer paying attention to the wand, it is probably full, and you must wait until it is more hungry to continue training. ^{[11] X Research Source}
Use chopsticks to teach your parrot to step on your hand or on a branch in your hand. You will eventually be able to let your parrot out for further training and/or cage cleaning.
Training time should be short (10-15 minutes each), and only try to teach the parrot once or twice a day. ^{[12] X Research Source}

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Taming the parrot so that it allows you to pet it. Many parrots love to be petted and petted. You should start from the parrot beak. When the parrot is comfortable with your hand near its beak and not intending to bite, you know it will be comfortable with your touch. If the parrot seems about to bite, you must stop immediately, hold your hand until it calms down. When you bring your hand close to the parrot’s beak and it doesn’t try to bite, you pull it out and give it its favorite treat.

Take the same steps when touching the parrot’s body. Slowly bring your hand closer to the parrot’s body. If your parrot seems uncomfortable, stop and wait. Continue like this until it allows you to stroke. Then give the parrot something he likes. ^{[13] X Research Source}

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Talk to parrots. Some parrots “talk” better than others, but all parrots have the ability to imitate human voices. No matter how good your parrot is at repeating your words, talking to him is an important part of his mental health, so be sure to talk to him often.

Name certain objects: when feeding certain foods to your parrot, you can say, “apple” or “banana”.
Associate some words with your actions. When entering the room, say “Hello, Hoa” (or whatever your name is) or “Good morning!” When you leave the room, say “Goodbye” or “Good night”.
Your parrot will also love to hear you talk (talk to him or maybe just one way), hear you sing, hear sounds when you watch TV, or listen to music.
Some parrots can learn a lot of sentences, so be careful not to swear or yell next to them, unless you want them to repeat the bad words. ^{[14] X Research Source}

Advice

Many parrots enjoy being lightly misted from time to time. Use a spray bottle and some warm water to keep your parrot clean.
Don’t forget that birds molt from time to time and it’s normal for your parrot to shed a few feathers. If your parrot’s feathers start to look uneven or have bare patches, you should take your parrot to the vet.
Need to know how much effort you have to put in for your parrot. Parrots are pets that require a lot of care, so you need to make sure you have enough time and effort for them.
Parrot forums are a great idea to gather knowledge and chat with other parrot lovers.
Use pea plants of different diameters and roughness to practice parrot legs. Sand pea plants can help birds sharpen their claws and beaks naturally.

Steps

Prepare a home for parrots

Feed the parrots

Keep parrots healthy

Training and communicating with parrots

Advice

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