Parrots Species

Parrots species is one thing that you need to take into consideration while buying a parrot because different parrots behave in different ways. Senegal Parrots are the most popular ones which make good pets. Native to West Africa (Senegal, Guinea and Gambia), Senegal Parrots are quiet in nature and are known to get attached to a single person.

These parrots are green colored, have a grey head and bright-yellow iris. Their belly and under parts are distinctly colored. Senegal parrots prefer living in savanna and woodland. They are excellent at talking and imitating sounds like garage door creak or telephone ring. Though not as accurate as African grey parrot in tone and pitch, Senegal parrots are great entertainers.

An ideal diet for this parrot type would be a mixture of safflower and sunflower seeds, oats, pine nuts, canary and millet. If healthy, this bird is not inclined to feather plucking. These parrots grow up to 23 cm in size. For Senegal parrots to be obedient and well behaved, you need to spend some time to train them well.

These parrots show faster development as compared to other parrots species. Even at an early age of six weeks they do many significant things.

To purchase a Senegal parrot, you need to spend around $200 to $800. However, the price may vary depending on many different factors such as the area, parrot’s age, whether it is trained or not etc. Make sure you buy a young Senegal parrot as they have just 20-25 years of life span.  

What Do Parrots Eat?

What do parrots eat? The majority of parrots’ diet consists of fruits, seeds, pollen, nectar, buds, and rarely insects and cockroaches. All parrot species except pesquest’s parrot apply same method of obtaining the seed from husk, while the former crush the seed by pressing between mandibles, the latter rotates the seed.

Most veterinarians complain that the problems in parrots are arising due to malnutrition. One should take sensitive care while understanding the question, what do parrots eat? Ornithologists’ emphasize on whole diet, which is strictly not only on seeds, while a few cases are exceptional in this area as some hardy species of parrots seem to do well with strict seed diet in spite of missed nutritional balance.

Statistics reveal that seeds are emphasized with high fat and lack of many essential nutrients and vitamins such as vitamin A. It is advised to keep the seed diet only from 10% to 25% and the rest of nutrients have to be supplied accordingly.
A high quality pelleted food, which is rather a new innovation in bird sustenance, provides optimal nutrition in an easy to serve up and easy to eat format. Each pellet is a healthy blend of vitamins, minerals, grains, seeds, fruits and vegetables. This is can be a complete diet for your pet parrot, which also creates a stimulation to crave for food.
Coveted treats for your pet are fresh fruits, grains and vegetables with rich nutritional values. Be innovative in supplying the food, besides provoking them to consume food.
Be cautious while choosing the parrot diet as few may be toxic to your pet’s health. Check out the contents under, what do parrots eat, given by the veterinarian or the pet seller and choose accordingly.

Parrots As Pets

A complicated relationship exists between parrots and humans. Their sociable and affectionate nature makes them popular as pets, but some feral population pose frigidity. The domesticated Budgerigar is the most popular species of parrots as pets. Their intelligence, bright colors, and capability to imitate human vocalizations distinguish them from other kinds of home pets.

A cage or aviary suits well for parrots as pets, though tamed parrots should be allowed to stand regularly on the perch.   

Most of the parrot species are basically kept as pets which include macaws, cockatoos, African grays, Eclectus, Caiques, Parakeets and lovebirds. Different species possess different temperament, talking ability, noise level, Cuddliness among people and their needs. Role modeling effects the parrots growth and personality eminently. However love and patience are essential items when dealing with the same.

Close and affectionate bonds are developed with parrots while making companionship. To achieve this act, one should take enormous amount of care, attention and intellectual stimulation.  

Some parrots have destructive mentality when they are emotional, so a very large cage and regular supply of innovative toys, branches, and perches are quite essential. The extreme intelligence of parrots enables them to learn tricks quickly which is both good and bad as it may allow them to get whatever they want from you such as treats or toys.

Parrots as pets are not easy with less maintenance as they require feeding, veterinary care, grooming, training, exercise and social interaction for good health. Parrots are the sweetest living beings and are wonderful to have them as pets.

African Gray Parrot

One of the most intelligent of all the bird species and especially of the parrot species is the African gray parrot. Gray parrots are native to primary and secondary rain forest of West and Central Africa and are reputed for mimicking humans and are gentle by nature.

Congo African Gray Parrot and Timneh African Grey Parrot are the universally accepted sub species among gray parrots. Ghana African Gray and Cameroon African Gray are species of the Gray parrots with some skeptics.

The African gray parrot ranges from 10 to 14 inches with medium sized body of the genus Psittacus. Their average weight varies from 300 too 554 grams depending on the sub species. The name itself explains that the bird is predominantly gray and contains accents of white and red or dark maroon tail and the surrounding area of eyes is usually white.

Feet are zygodactyl in nature and have 4 toes on each foot with two on front and two at the back. However, several mutations occur naturally in these parrot species and one among them has resulted in broad red band across the abdomen. Males are bigger than females by 12 to 14 inches and certain differences that can be perceived are more slender neck and narrower head in females.

The feral population mainly feed on palm nuts, seeds, fruits and supplements of leafy matter while few are omnivorous by feeding on small snails. Captive breed are fed with seeds, grains, veggies and pellets. Over feeding the pellets with vitamin C rich foods or citrus fruits leads to iron overload disease so proper measures have to be taken while feeding African gray parrot with the same.

Parrot Perches

Parrots are the sweetest pet animals that one can keep in their homes. They would love to hang on the branches rather than the normal cages which try to imprison them. The parrot perches are made of different materials like plastic, wood and metal. Manzanita is a type of wood that is rated as the sixth hardest wood all over the world.

Besides satisfying the parrot’s need to chew and gnaw, the sandblasted Manzanita parrot stands are a wonderful source of exercise to the parrots. These kinds of parrot perches have natural curves and bumps. The elegant texture of these stands makes it easy for the parrots to climb and play. This stand is very useful for different parrot types like Macaws, Congo African grey and umbrella cockatoo.

There are four different types of perches available for the parrots which are useful for strengthening their feet and create a natural environment for them. They are Rope perches, natural hardwood cholla perches, nail trimming cement perches and edible perches. The rope perch is very soft and bendable through which you can make different shapes for your bird to move around.

The natural hardwood cholla perches are natural and hence provide the environment which gives strength to the leg muscles thus helping the bird build up the feet. Nail trimming cement perches help the birds trim the nails so that they will not have long nails, which often get caught and hurt the bird while they try to get the nail out.

The edible perches are the type of parrot perches made of calcium and bee pollen. This way the birds can eat the perch and get lot of nutrients too.  

Parrot facts

The excavations at Europe have revealed some mind boggling parrot facts that these species are about 50 million years old. The research at Germany and England made it clear about these parrot ancestors, while modern parrots which we see today are about 23 million years old.

Psittacidae and Cacutaidea are the two beautiful families of parrot species while the former possess bright and more vibrant colors, the latter is with movable head crust. There are some endangered parrot species nearing to the extinction.

Spixs Macaw is one among them with only about 7 survivors of the species in captivity. Parrot owners have emerged by raising huge funds for the parrot protection at zoo and wild life centers and are working vicariously in spreading the awareness in the schools. There are few cases where imprisonment has taken place for smuggling parrots!

Few other parrot facts are about their key role in various theatre plays, ancient texts, magazines and in many Hollywood films. Their nickname is winged rainbows as they come in every color of a rainbow. However their eggs are always simple white.

Most parrots live on seeds, fruits and other vegetarian protein diet but few are exceptional and feed on water snails, cockroaches and abandoned sheep carcasses.

One of the important parrot facts that makes you startle is that they don’t have vocal cards but they make sounds, chirps, and mimic the human vocalizations. They can achieve this phenomenon by controlling the pitch of the sound through pushing the air out, and by manipulating the depth and shape of the trachea. Ornithologists explain that whenever a parrot talks, it is performing variations on whistling.

African Grey Parrots

The African grey parrots are some of the most elegant and delightful parrots and one of the species of parrots which can be cared for very easily. As the name suggests, these parrots have their origin in Africa, to be more specific in Central Africa. This category of parrots is regarded as the most intelligent species with some exceptional abilities like they can talk and think too.

Generally, we find two main categories of species in this class of parrots that is the Congo African and the Timneh African Grey Parrots. Both the categories of parrots are considered to be of medium sized, when compared to the other species of parrots and they grow up to the length of about 10 to 14 inches on an average.

Like any other species, males of the African grey parrots grow a bit faster than the females. The female birds have more slender neck and a narrower head than the male parrots. Strange, but very true that they have a very long life span and some may even live up to the age of 60 years. However you do need to take proper care of them.

They like to live in an entertaining and interactive environment as they get bored very soon. As a consequence, they may indulge in some uncontrollable activities which can pose a problem for other birds and the owner. These parrots are characterized as the social birds and hence they make very good pets, but they do not enjoy too much of physical contact during petting.