Are you thinking of buying a pet parrot? If you are, do yourself a favour, and read this article first, in order to avoid making the wrong decision. The key question to ask yourself before adopting a parrot is - Are you willing, and able, to spend the required amount of time to properly look after a pet parrot? Parrot care shouldn’t be taken lightly, because it is very important for the health and well-being of your pet parrot, and it takes a lot of time in order to do it properly.

For many centuries, parrots have been very popular as pets, and it isn’t difficult to see why – they are easily trained; they have ‘human-like’ personalities; they come in every colour imagineable; they are very smart. Unfortunately, these major pros often cause people to overlook the negative points associated with keeping a parrot, and they rush out and buy a parrot without properly considering how much effort is required to properly look after one. Very sadly, this results in many parrots developing behavioural problems.

Even though there are many different parrot species (more than 350), and each species needs slightly different care, there are some ‘parrot care’ factors that are important to all of them:

Parrot Cages – Nothing has a bigger impact on a parrot’s mental health than the size of its cage. It must be easily large enough to enable your parrot to extend out and flap its wings. There also needs to be enough room for five large parrot toys, without the parrot being cramped. Inspect the cage every day to see if it has been damaged in any way that could hurt your parrot (e.g. sharp edges created by your parrot biting the cage).

Socialization – Without company, and human-interaction, parrots often develop behavioural problems. Therefore, it is really important that they get lots of social interaction with you and your family – treat him like one of your family, and he will act like one! The best way to achieve this is to put the parrot cage in the part of your home where you and your family spend the most time. Note: Don’t place the cage in the kitchen, because cooking gives off chemicals that are poisonous to parrots.

Nutrition - Even though diets vary a little from species to species, there are lots of common foods that are good for all parrots. Every parrot’s diet should include the following foods: fresh water, parrot seed (vitamin enriched), fresh fruit & veg, and parrot pellets.

Cage Cleanliness – Clean the cage daily, but be sure to only use water and a very mild soap. Before touching your parrot, or his food, make sure your properly wash your hands, because parrots quickly pick up bacterial infections from humans. For example, human saliva contains bacteria which is harmful to parrots.

Parrot Grooming – As unlikely as it may seem, you do need to ensure your parrot is regularly groomed. Their beaks and nails grow very quickly, and require clipping approximately every 4 or 5 weeks. This is important, because long beaks and nails can easily get snagged on various parts of his cage, which can easily cause an injury. You need to provide fresh water baths or sprays each day to keep your parrots’ feathers in ‘tip top’ condition.

If you are willing to invest adequate time and effort into proper parrot care, then owning a parrot will be a very rewarding activity. Parrots usually do really well in a normal household environment, and they are great company. Having said that, parrot ownership is a real long-term commitment, which must not be entered into likely, due to the fact that parrots live anywhere between 13 and 70 years.