Last Updated on February 16, 2023 by Catherine Tobsing

With all due respect, the question answers itself. There are a 350 species of parrots and about 372 species of parakeets As opposed to there only being one species of dog.

 

Further, the individual who acquires a single parrot can be considered a pet owner or companion, our term is “pet bird keeper” Once a second parrot is introduced the aforementioned individual becomes a zookeeper.

 

In general, birds are messy and noisy pets. They have a functioning IQ of a 2 to 3-year-old toddler (albeit an autistic child) and exist in a counterintuitive environment.

 

We chop off the majority of these winged creatures’ flight feathers because it suits us for them not to fly – “they’ll fly into a wall” is the biggest reason we hear for wing clipping.

 

We feed them highly nutritious but counter-intuitive things like bird food pellets (there are no pellet trees in the rain forest), deprive them of sexual partners, and replace their choice of trees with 10 square feet of wrought iron 6 feet off the ground (if they’re lucky to get a cage that big) make it dark outside at 5:00 in the afternoon (when they instinctively expect the sun to set at 8 or 9) and then we lock them in the “cage” for 10 hours a day while we’re at work – Is a couple of examples.

 

As uninspiring as Scott S’s story is Parakeets can live a quarter-century or more and are some of the best talkers and the bird kingdom and a good starter bird.

 

 

We have a cockatiel that is great fun and rewarding and will never talk but her soothing sweet whistles bring light into our day.

 

Hope that helps

MitchR

 

They CAN be great pets for a select few people, but most households are not suitable for parrots at all.

 

From your question, it seems you have never been a pet owner before. Parrots are not “starter pets.”

 

Absolutely Not.

 

That depends:

 

By “buy” did you mean from the consignment or rescue shop?

 

A Consignment shop parrot has a fully formed personality and often or surrendered for reasons of housing difficulties or other life changes within the family they formally lived with – these aren’t bad birds. Some of mine are from here.

 

The vast majority of these 390 odd species are completely unsuitable as pets

 

No. If you want to own a pet, get a hamster.

 

Absolutely not.

 

1.) ALL parrots require a minimum of about 2 hours a day out of their cage, maybe more depending on the breed

 

I’m going to say no. Of course, it depends on the parrot, but here are my objections: