Need Help! Anyone know anything about Parrots??

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greenfreak

New Member
Wednesday night, I walked out to my car to get something and as I'm walking back to the house, I hear, "Hello!" but there was no one there.

Then I spotted it... An African Grey Parrot. Sitting there in my bush. I walked over slowly and held out my wrist underneath his breast, and he climbed right on. I lowered my arm so he would climb up and he did; perched right on my shoulder.

Rusty was surprised to say the least. I walk out for my water bottle and come in with a parrot on my shoulder.

We cleaned out the bathroom, the whole time with the parrot on my shoulder, happily chattering away and whistling. I put a sheet on the floor and a towel on top of the laundry rack so he could perch there. We gave him a bowl of water and a bowl of blueberries (I read online that they love all kinds of seedless fruit) and he partook of both.

I had to travel for work the next day but Rusty was working from home. In the morning I went to use the bathroom and he tried to climb up on my arm but I didn't have time because I had to leave so I took my arm away. So instead, he climbed up on my slippered foot. I actually said "awwwww!". I felt bad about leaving him. He is so sweet, didn't try to nip me at all.

The Long Beach Animal Society came and picked him up and said they would try to find his owner. He's obviously trained, and very sweet.

My dilemma? He got me thinking. What if no one claims him? Could I care for a bird like this? I already know a little about them, that they can live 30+ years and it's a real investment of time and money to own one. I guess I want general information on what it's like living with a parrot. If they can be trained to only poop in certain areas (that's my biggest concern; I think I could convince Rusty to adopt him if he doesn't poop everywhere). He was on my shoulder and arm for a while, didn't poop at all. He did when we put him on the sheet, which makes me wonder if he knew not to poop on me.

Anyway, I know at least two of our members own parrots, I could really use some real-life answers. We're going to visit him tomorrow at the shelter, find out if they made any headway in finding his owners. I really hope they do, someone had to love him and train him. But if they don't.... ????


Look at the pretty bird!!!! (not my pic, one I found online):

african_grey.jpg
 
Yes, you could look after him. Parrots are amongst the easiest birds to keep, for all that they're amongst the largest. Easily house trained. And loving to the extreme. But. They do require attention. At least as much as a child or dog. A bird kept locked in a cage will soon go mad, and start to rip out it's feathers. I've seen it. It's not pretty.
 
Professur said:
Yes, you could look after him. Parrots are amongst the easiest birds to keep, for all that they're amongst the largest. Easily house trained. And loving to the extreme. But. They do require attention. At least as much as a child or dog. A bird kept locked in a cage will soon go mad, and start to rip out it's feathers. I've seen it. It's not pretty.
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I agree and the African Grey is the smartest of them all ,wouldn't be surprised if he knew his own street address,seriously.African Greys are very susceptible to plucking themselves if caged too much.There is also a ton of info on the Internet heres one close to you ??? http://www.liparrotsociety.org/
 
Thanks guys... AB, what's your opinion on the poop thing, do you wind up cleaning up poop everywhere? Do you have a seperate room just for your birds? C'mon, give me the skinny on parrot ownership, I can read all that stuff online over the weekend, I just wanted a real-life parrot owner's take on it.

Prof, do you really think they're easy? I guess I never had that impression of them. I would never cage a bird all the time, I would think the cage would only be necessary when it's bedtime. But I worry about all the things in my apartment that it could destroy, poop on, or eat. Especially considering my plant collection, and that some of them are poisonous. If I was able to train him properly, I would think it could have the run of the place.

I know what you mean about them pulling out their feathers during stress. I watched a fascinating program about them, their intelligence, their emotions... In one scenario, a woman got a parrot when she was living alone and once her boyfriend moved in, the parrot freaked and pulled out all it's feathers. :(

FWIW, the parrot we found (we're calling him/her Tobey because he kept saying that name) had no bald spots and after one night in the bathroom, we found one feather but it may have just been from him flapping around.

There's a lot for me to consider, I take pet ownership very seriously. Rusty and I have been doing investigation on Labs for years, and we won't be ready to adopt one for a while.
 
Yep,they'll definately wait till they're off you to crap,If you set them on top of there cage to crap they do it there,but if they are left to fly around ,they'll relieve themselves anywhere.We don't actually have Parrots per se,the Indian Ringnecks we breed are Parakeets .
 
The cage is good for not only bedtime but for when no one is at home, too. I wouldn't advise leaving him home alone out of the cage for quite some time after you've had him - months even. I wonder how old it is?

That's pretty neat to find a parrot in the yard. I'm jealous. *hehe* Good luck!
 
we have 10 parrots, including an african grey... they are very smart. esp the greys.. ours is tought to "poop" over the wast paper basket.. they don't like to go in there cages to poop.. they are very talkative birds. but need to be kept busy.. toys, ropes, swinging things etc. they are not "clingy" birds.. they just want to be in the same room with you. (unlike our cockatoo's, who MUST be on you all the time). they like showers with you, eating with you, etc..(i'll post more later..gotta go out for now)
 
they don't like to go in there cages to poop..
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What I meant by putting them on their cage ,is some parrot cages have a perch and food/water tray on top ,where the parrot sits during the day.

petmarket_1798_68075412
 
If the AG has a leg band its easy to trace it back to the breeder and then the owner.I can't imagine a breeder not Close Banding a bird of that type as the band also contains the year of birth.
 
Thanks guys! I just called the shelter and left a message. But on their recording, they said their adoption hours start at 9am today so I think we'll just go down there instead, it's only a few blocks away. If we find the bird is gone, I'll just mope and go home. If not, maybe they'll let us say hi and then we'll go put up the flyers. I don't think animal shelters make any effort to find the rightful owner, they probably just want it adopted as soon as possible.

Mark, I'm assuming that Steve told you I was trying to get in touch with you, thanks for visiting and posting! If you have time, I could still use as much info as you can give me, Rusty is talking about it now too, I think I'm wearing him down.

Something Tobey did with Rusty tugged at his heart that he told me about... Right before the shelter people got here to pick him up, Rusty was sitting with him, spending time talking to him. The bird walked over him, lifted up his leg like he wanted to get on his arm but since Rusty didn't move his arm under him, Tobey said, "Come on!" like he was being impatient. :laugh:

You can tell which way I'm leaning towards.
 
greenie,
ive had a couple of them. They are pretty easy to care for. Just have a cage and toys for it to excirsise with. it will become a longtime friend. the cage AB showed is a very nice and roomy one. he should like it very well. Hope it works out that you get him. even if for a while. Who knows even if you find the owner you may decide to get one.
 
so...whatever happened? what did you decide to do?

inquiring minds wanna know! *poke*
 
My former therapist said she had one that lived for 23 years! :eek: I didn't know that things could live so long...
 
Short version:

I decided I wanted to keep Tobey. I mentioned it to Rusty (my bf). Rusty didn't feel the same way. I pouted. Rusty changed his mind. When I asked why he changed his mind, he said "Because you want him." As a responsible adult, I refused. That's not a good enough reason.

I told my best friend Bobbi the story two weeks later. She said she's been looking for a parrot and wanted to adopt him. I called the Animal Shelter and found out that Tobey's owner (who lives no more than 5 blocks from me) picked him up the day after Rusty and I put up the flyers around town. He was *estatic* about finding him, he didn't even know my town had an Animal Shelter. (it's a teeny tiny place on the outskirts of town)

All's well that ends well. I'm still kinda sad.

Jonas, there are some parrots that live much longer than that. Most people don't consider that their parrot might outlive them when they buy them.

So... we wait for dogs. :shrug:

thanks again for your advice guys, I really needed it right then!! :)
 
Maybe the guy will let you visit the AG , you could be like the grandparents ,all the fun but none of the WORK:swing:.The lifespan is usually in relationship to the size,the larger the bird the longer the life,Indian Ringnecks live about 30-40 yrs and a Macaw about 50-80yrs an African Grey would be somewhere in between.They would be a huge commitment and since both of you weren't ready ,you did the right thing :hug:
 
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