by Pajarita » Fri Jul 01, 2016 10:10 am
No, of course I don't disagree with that, Wolf. And I also think that nobody who knows and cares about birds would, either. The problem is that there are, actually, very VERY few people who are in a position to take good care of a parrot and the greatest majority of people who get them have no idea of the care a parrot needs to be healthy and happy. They think a bird must be low maintenance - I mean, a cage, some food and water on a daily basis and that's it, right? And this is, basically, what they are told by the pet stores AND the breeders. That's the first problem. The second is that, even when they do find out, because there are all kinds of different husbandry approaches on the net (from real bad to real good), they simply choose to believe and use the one that fits them best and so they feed pellets or seeds and hardly any produce or give them all kinds of bad human food; they keep them at a human light schedule; they start training them before they even bond with them; they use them as 'shoulder candy', etc.
As to emotional damage, yes, it happens, no doubt about it. But I think that, sometimes, it can be traced back to the breeder because we have all kinds of studies that tell us that stress and neglect suffered when very young has a permanent effect on the psychological make-up of the adult bird. But I also think that, in most cases (not all, mind you) these birds can, under special care, improve a lot. They will never be 100% normal but, in truth, I don't think that any captive-bred parrot is actually COMPLETELY normal. I think they all have, in different degrees, psychological problems.