Every prospective parrot owner should read this

[Eurycerus]

This is absolutely true. I'm so glad the humane society has something like this.

http://www.humanesociety.org/animals/pe ... A.facebook

Also I find it so hard to comprehend that people want a parrot for the sole reason of having a talking animal. I was speaking with a man who works at a local parrot store who said tons of people come in requesting to see or have a talking parrot. I don't see the allure or extreme fascination. Sure it's neat, but just not something that drives my interest in parrots, not even close. I listen to people all day long... I guess it's the novelty. Maybe something to show off, a toy. Upsetting... But thus is a great summary of everything we talk about on here.

[marie83]

I dont get it either. The majority of mine dont/didn't talk. Only George spoke reguarly and with clarity but even then it was a few small sentances, dont get me wrong I liked to hear him when he did but I wouldn't have cared if he didn't. Magic used to say "Hello Magic" but that was rare, Madison used to say the occasional hello but I only actually heard her once! Ollie says hello occasionally and appears to mutter other stuff but can never tell what he is saying.

[Andromeda]

Wow, what a great find. Every single drawback of owning a parrot is on there! It even says you shouldn't clip a bird's wings; that's pretty impressive since that idea is still pretty ingrained in some parts of the parrot community.

One of the things on that list was funny to me: "It will be embarrassing for you to go to work with a bite on your face." Right after we adopted our GCC he bit my husband on the nose really hard and there was a little chunk missing and he said all his co-workers asked him what was wrong with his nose!

I wish messages like this were more prevalent. So many people get a bird because they have no clue what it means to own one. The rescue where I got my Poi had a mandatory 30-minute presentation on parrots that they required their potential adopters to attend. It was basically all the reasons you wouldn't want a bird and then lots of information about bird safety which I thought was really cool.

Personally I think the talking is pretty awesome and that's definitely one of my favorite things about birds but at the same time it's not a big deal to me that some birds don't talk. My GCC only says a handful of things compared to my Poi but it doesn't mean I love him less or find him less interesting.

The thing I really can't understand is why people's interest in owning one is often driven by aesthetics. Yes, many types of birds are incredibly colorful and beautiful but I don't understand why that alone would make you want to buy one. I just feel really sorry for some birds like macaws and conures who are particularly lovely but also extremely loud as people will buy them just for their looks and then give them up in a heartbeat as soon as they start using their natural calls.