Practical Tips for Parrot Care. 4 Ways to Keep Them Happy & Healthy!

Do you have a Parrot? Do you know how to take care of him properly? Do you know what foods and plants are dangerous to your parrot?

Parrots are becoming very common household pets but very few people understand how to take care of their parrots correctly. Most parrot owners need to have stronger levels of commitment as all parrots need daily and weekly maintenance, as well as plenty of love and attention.

1. The Parrot Cage

The first thing you should consider when taking care of your parrot is the size of his cage. A general rule of thumb is to buy the biggest cage you can afford and to make sure that your parrot is able to turn around completely inside the cage with his wings and tail feathers outstretched without touching any of the cage bars. Also, make sure that your parrot has plenty of toys and perches inside his cage so that he does not become too bored.

2. Simple Parrot Diet

Do you like eating chocolate? Or eating avocados? Well your parrot doesn’t! In fact, these food items are harmful to parrots! Other foods that you should never feed your parrot are: salty foods, alcohol, caffeine, rhubarb leaves, fatty foods or generally “people food”.

Although your parrot should be fed pellets, be careful not to feed too many colored pellets as they contain sugared food coloring! A parrot should have a healthy, well-balanced diet that consists of high quality pellets, fresh vegetables and fruits, and some high quality nuts as treats (macadamia, walnut, brazil nut and much less peanuts, pistachio or cashews).

3. Parrot Health & Exercise

Do you exercise every day? Do you love going outside on a beautiful sunny day for a walk or to play ball? Well your parrot loves to get out too, and they also need adequate exercise as well. You should always let your parrot out of their cage to play for at least two hours a day. Your parrot should have a play gym that he can play on or a harness so that he can go outside with you for walks when the weather is beautiful.

You can also teach your parrot tricks. Not only is this impressive, but it's a great way to bond with your pet bird.

When it comes to grooming your parrots' wings and nails, you should ask your avian vet to show you how to do it properly so that you can do it at home. This will be much less stressful for your parrot than monthly trips to the vet’s office. However, you should never try to trim your parrot’s beak without consulting your vet and have your vet do it for you if needed. You can provide your parrot with a concrete perch or a cuttlebone to help him trim his beak on his own between vet visits.

Always remember to make sure that your parrots water bowl has clean water all the time, and that his food bowl is never empty. You will also need to be diligent about cleaning his cage on a daily basis too. Parrots also love to have a bath. You can either provide your parrot with a large water dish in which they can bathe in, or using a spray bottle to gently mist them with water. You can even purchase special perches for the shower so that your parrot can shower with you! Just be sure to not get any soap or shampoo onto your parrot’s feathers as this can be harmful to your parrot.

4. Wing Trimming

Trimming a bird’s wings is quite a controversial topic amongst bird owners/breeders and Veterinarians alike.

Those who are against trimming a bird’s wings argue that a fully flighted bird will be a lot happier since he is able to fly. These same people also argue that by depriving a bird of flight will cause the bird to have neurotic behavior. Although, it is known that bird’s who have not had their wings trimmed often suffer serious injury, death, or escape leading to death as a result of having the ability to fly.

A few examples of the potential hazards to flighted birds within the home are ceiling fans, hot kitchen stoves and ovens, wood stoves, fireplaces, open toilet bowls, unattended sinks and tubs of water including large vases; and mirrors and window glass that the bird flies into not being able to perceive it as a solid object. However, the greatest problem for flighted birds is open doors and windows.