Providing A Parrot/Avian With A Healthy Happy Home

Providing the right envronment for a parrot is absolutely mandatory for you to enjoy a happy relationship with your parrot, when a parrot doesn't have the required elements for a happy healthy life it can become aggressive, self mutilating, the most common symptoms parrots acquire is feather plucking and screaming. Many of these symptoms can be stopped easily by attention to detail. First of all I will address an error commonly made by parrot owners, Cage Size; often times the parrots cage is far to small for it, this can easily cause all of the above symptoms to occur. I always recommend a cage to be at least 13 times as wide and high as the bird's wingspan, but really the bigger the cage the happier the bird. Place the cage in an area where there is a fair amount of activity going on "A parrot left to himself bringeth shame to his owner" (a modified version of proverbs 29:15) parrots enjoy activity and should not be caged off by themselves, however there should be an area in the cage where the parrot can if he desires be by himself. Always be sure that the parrots food and water source are maintained and the water changed regularly. Positionaing the cage against a solid wall is a good idea as well; it can give the parrot a sense of security. The parrots cage should always be below your eye level, especially for dominate parrots, being higher than you are makes the parrot feel like you are his inferior and will quickly develop an "attitude". If you have a huge cage then an easy solution to this problem would be to lower the perches or put a small deck or footstool around the cage. The perfect perch height is about chest level, being to low will have a bad effect on the parrot as well.

This information if used properly is very useful and I wish you the best of luck with your parrot.

Until next time,
Adam
The Parrot Tamer.