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purplepeople
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| Joined: | Sat Dec 27th, 2008 |
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| Posts: | 1 |
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Posted: Fri Aug 14th, 2009 11:50 am |
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It was a typical day, a typical caller and a typical request. My (typical) response was, "I understand. You want what everybody wants". No, I'm not a call-in therapist and the request wasn't for a good job and a loving relationship. I'm a parrot behavior and care consultant and the request was for a sweet, tidy and quiet parrot. Yeah right.
Some days I wish I had become a therapist like my mother wanted me to.
Does such a parrot exist? The answers are yes, no, and maybe. Yes, given the instinctive sociability of parrots the potential exists for virtually any parrot to be receptive to physical interaction. So, whether a bird is sweet or nasty is almost 100% a product of the way he is raised and handled. No, it is virtually impossible to control a birds messiness through behavior. (Don't panic! It can be controlled enviormentally.) Finally, where the volume level is ultimately set falls somewhere in the middle of nature and nurture. Some parrots are simply louder than others, and some level of control is possible. So, will your parrot be loud? you guessed it: Maybe.
Before we go into these topics in detail, it's important to point out two things. First, when I refer to "parrots" I'm talking about all members of the parrot family. This includes everything from the 25 gram Parrotlet to the four foot long Hyacinth Macaw. Cockatiels, cockatoos, Amazons, Greys, Pionus, Rosellas, Lovebirds, Ringnecks, Conures and even the adorable little Budgie are all parrots. The second important thing to remember is that parrots are not domesticated. While you will hear the phrase "domestic" all the time, and it is important to buy a domestic parrot, this means that it was born (Okay, hatched) in the USA. Domestication refers to breeding generation after generation of an animal so that it more completely suits our needs, like dogs and cats. Domesticated animals look and act differently than their wild counterparts. Parrots have not been domesticated, so knowing how to deal with , in this case temperment, messiness and noise, will depend on their natural behaviors - those behaviors exhibited by both wild and domestic parrots- and what we do with them. Lets begin with "the sweetness factor".
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