Parrots as Pets

Parrots can make wonderful companions! They are intelligent, active, and very social animals who love and need to be part of the family. Parrots are full of personality and will amaze you on a daily basis, but there is a life-long responsibility that goes along with owning one of these beautiful birds.

Parrots live a long time. Large birds such as macaws and cockatoos can live to be 100 years old. Even a smaller bird like a cockatiel can live to be over 20 if properly cared for. Before buying (or adopting!) a parrot, think about whether or not you will be able to provide a loving, stable home for such a highly intelligent animal for the next several decades.

Parrots can be very sensitive to change. A stressed parrot may pull it’s feathers out, become aggressive, or develop an excessive screaming problem. Owning a parrot is like having a 2 year old child for the rest of your life. They will destroy your furniture, scream, fling food all over your house, poop everywhere, and even the nicest parrots can have their bad days and bite. These are all natural behaviors that you cannot train a parrot out of.  Even a captive bred bird is still a wild animal at heart.

Parrots can also be very expensive to maintain. They require large cages, lots of new toys to keep them mentally stimulated, fresh food, different perches, and veterinary care. Qualified avian vets are few are far between. Because avian medicine is more challenging, you can expect a doctor’s exam to be 2 - 3 times what you would pay for the exam of a dog or cat. Since birds don’t generally show physical signs of illness, it would also be wise to run annual blood work, fecal exams, and cultures. All of these things add up.

Before deciding to bring home a parrot, please do as much research as possible on the particular species you plan to purchase (or adopt!) and on parrot care in general. Talk to rescues, bird clubs, and people with experience keeping parrots whom you know will give you honest answers because they are not trying to sell you a bird. Consider volunteering with us or another organization to get some first hand experience with many different types of parrots.

At Fallen Feathers, we strongly encourage you to adopt instead of buying from a breeder or pet store. There are so many wonderful birds who need loving homes in rescues across the country. There are many benefits to adopting an older bird as well. With older birds, what you see is pretty much what you get. Just as with people, the sweet hand-fed babies grow up to be moody teenagers who might decide they’re not so fond of you after all. For more information, please contact us a the information given on our contact page.