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They make terrible pets. They need large cages/rooms, must be kept in pairs or groups, they are prolific poopers, can be loud as heck, pluck their feathers if y

They make terrible pets. They need large cages/rooms, must be kept in pairs or groups, they are prolific poopers, can be loud as heck, pluck their feathers if you are away (or not), destroy furniture ... Unless of course you keep a single hand raised parrot in a small cage and don't much care about its well being. Then they make fantastic pets.

krageon 8y ago
You are making it sound much, much worse than it actually is. As it stands they make good pets if you have the time to give them the attention and freedom they require. They're very affectionate and if you pick the right type of parrot for you it will not be loud. As with dogs, they're terrific if they have a good owner and absolute horrors if they don't.
- bayesian_horse 8y ago
  If they need extreme amounts of time, expertise and resources, they don't qualify as "fantastic" pets, in my opinion.
  - ndnxhs 8y ago
    My parents have had a few. Incredibly loud an a few of them have died from various mistakes. Also destroyed all of my headphones.
mark_l_watson 8y ago
I am not sure about your comment about not caring for the bird's well being. We have a very small parrot in a very large cage. As long as he gets out of his cage to play, gets lots of head scratching, and my wife or I am in the same room as our parrot, he really seems happy. Also, it is easy to know when a parrot is happy, bored, or unhappy. Lots of signals. There are also little things that mean a lot, at least to our parrot: at meals, if our food is not healthy for a parrot, one of us will put something good for him on our plates, and we always make a show of 'sharing' something on our plates with him. This communal eating seems to be important to him. Another thing that seems to make him happy is to sit on my shoulder while I am working at my computer. He is not really a distraction and he seems to enjoy it. I try to cook with him on my shoulder but he wants to rummage through food ingredients laying about. Yet another thing to do is understanding the bird's natural desire is to forage for food. What to do? Hide food and let him find it. EDIT: I should also say that whenever someone likes our bird and talks about getting one, I try to talk them out of it. It takes a lot of effort to have a parrot and if that effort, over several decades, is not a lot of fun for you then getting a parrot is a bad idea.
- bayesian_horse 8y ago
  Well, big cage is already better than small cage. Keeping them as single birds is not optimal though. My point is though that keeping single parrots in cages which are too small makes them a lot easier and cheaper to keep. Less area to clean, less potential for destruction, and single birds engage more with their Humans. It's just not really a situation were they thrive. I won't go into why the scientific consensus is that parrots need conspecific companions. But it's not so much about being happy or bored, but more about meeting social needs and exhibiting the natural behaviors.

krageon 8y ago

You are making it sound much, much worse than it actually is. As it stands they make good pets if you have the time to give them the attention and freedom they require. They're very affectionate and if you pick the right type of parrot for you it will not be loud. As with dogs, they're terrific if they have a good owner and absolute horrors if they don't.

bayesian_horse 8y ago
If they need extreme amounts of time, expertise and resources, they don't qualify as "fantastic" pets, in my opinion.
- ndnxhs 8y ago
  My parents have had a few. Incredibly loud an a few of them have died from various mistakes. Also destroyed all of my headphones.

mark_l_watson 8y ago

I am not sure about your comment about not caring for the bird's well being. We have a very small parrot in a very large cage. As long as he gets out of his cage to play, gets lots of head scratching, and my wife or I am in the same room as our parrot, he really seems happy. Also, it is easy to know when a parrot is happy, bored, or unhappy. Lots of signals. There are also little things that mean a lot, at least to our parrot: at meals, if our food is not healthy for a parrot, one of us will put something good for him on our plates, and we always make a show of 'sharing' something on our plates with him. This communal eating seems to be important to him. Another thing that seems to make him happy is to sit on my shoulder while I am working at my computer. He is not really a distraction and he seems to enjoy it. I try to cook with him on my shoulder but he wants to rummage through food ingredients laying about. Yet another thing to do is understanding the bird's natural desire is to forage for food. What to do? Hide food and let him find it. EDIT: I should also say that whenever someone likes our bird and talks about getting one, I try to talk them out of it. It takes a lot of effort to have a parrot and if that effort, over several decades, is not a lot of fun for you then getting a parrot is a bad idea.

bayesian_horse 8y ago
Well, big cage is already better than small cage. Keeping them as single birds is not optimal though. My point is though that keeping single parrots in cages which are too small makes them a lot easier and cheaper to keep. Less area to clean, less potential for destruction, and single birds engage more with their Humans. It's just not really a situation were they thrive. I won't go into why the scientific consensus is that parrots need conspecific companions. But it's not so much about being happy or bored, but more about meeting social needs and exhibiting the natural behaviors.