Parrots are very sociable creatures.  They are a big responsibility and should not be taken on lightly.  Many parrots live to be 75 years old.  They are beautiful, intelligent creatures.  They require a lot of time and energy but the rewards are tremendous and owning a parrot will change your life.   The first thing to keep in mind if you own a parrot is you will more than likely get bitten.  You must not take it personally.  There is an awesome book out by Sally Blanchard called “The Beak Book”.  Basically as a parrot owner you don’t teach your parrot not to bite, you find out what causes them to bite and avoid repeating that behavior.

This photo shows a perch we built for the inside of our home.  It is made from bird safe wood.  It wasn’t expensive to make and the parrots love to hang out on it.  The branches are mounted to a base with castor wheels on making it very mobile.  If you search the internet for parrot safe trees you will find many websites that will list them for you.  We try to use only stainless steel hardware on everything we build for them.  My husband builds them, I hold branches for him it’s a team effort and it puts all our woodworking and arts and crafts skills to good use.    After building the trees I hang baby toys on them.  I love to go garage sale hunting and I search for baby teething rings, baby toys that make sounds or music, rattles, building blocks etc.  If it’s safe to go in a baby’s mouth its safe for a parrot’s mouth.  Quick links are awesome and can be found in boxes in the infant section of discount stores.  Linked together they make a great chain to swing off, hang from, chew on, etc.    Make sure and throw away any toys that are getting too well loved and clean bird waste regularly.  I’ve found just using a dish detergent with a capful of bleach in a gallon of hot water really works great for cleaning up.  I clean up daily, it makes it much easier not to let it get out of control.  I put sheets under areas that seem to be high waste areas and just throw them in the wash at the end of the night.

The nice thing about using natural trees for perches, is the variety of sizes.  It’s better for parrots to have different size perches.  It allows them to stretch their toes and find comfortable positions.  A parrot’s toes should come about halfway around what they’re standing on.  That’s a good rule of thumb for comfort.   Keeping the natural perches clean is simple, I use a putty knife to scrape the worst of it off.  I’ve also learned that if one area is always getting really dirty, try moving the branch to another area in the cage.  Making your life simpler makes owning the parrot that much less stressful.

The other thing my husband makes for our parrots is hanging gyms.  These are hung from regular ceiling hooks.  We use heavy duty plastic chain that is fed through a 16” piece of PVC pipe.  This keeps the birds from climbing the chain and chewing on our ceilings.  The parrots love the feeling of the swaying of the gym underneath them.  By far this is their favorite place to “hang out”.  We mount food cups to these gyms and use them for snacks while they’re out playing.  We hang toys from the chain and from stainless steel eyelets that are mounted on the edge of the branches.  You can purchase these hanging gyms for your parrots check out our Pet Expectations Store Page.  We also now offer parrot toys made with only stainless steel hardware.   While constructing these gyms we make the branches into a circular stair step that is compatible with the size of each parrot.  Smaller parrots would have smaller branches and a smaller step between the next branch.  Underneath the hanging gyms I put an old sheet.  At the end of the evening the sheets go in the wash.   Because I have dogs much of the dropped food gets “recycled”.  Have fun, get creative enjoy your parrot.  We never had children so we’re enjoying the child like quality of all of our parrots.

Embroidery hoops make great swings.  We use the stainless steel pear links that come on most of the parrot toys to hook into either end of a fishing tackle spinner.  We then link the opposite end of the pear link into the top of the embroidery hoop.  My husband drills holes through different sections of the hoop and thread vegetable tanned leather through it.  On this we thread beads.  We leave the leather long and the parrots play with it and also hang off of the leather while they’re playing on the hoop.  Because of the spinner on it, the hoop actually spins like a coin and several of our birds actually say “weeeeeee” while we spin them.   Keep in mind that birds are very much like small children in that they pick up words that you’re saying very quickly.  We’ve made it our goal not to teach them swear words.  It may seem hilarious to teach a parrot to cuss but it will cause problems should your parrot ever have to find a new home.  We’ve found humor in other ways by teaching them to laugh and to say things that are silly instead.

This last photo is of Pooh Bear on the brake lever of my Heritage Soft tail.  He was helping us wash the Harley one day and we thought that was the perfect place to let him hang out while we finished drying the bikes.   On a weekly basis we weigh our parrots, wash and trim their wings.  So many people lose their parrots when they step outside with them and a gust of wind lifts them off their shoulder.   If you’re considering purchasing or adopting a parrot do research on the internet or in a library.  Each parrot has a specific personality and may also have special dietary needs.  It’s a big commitment and the more educated you are when making it, the better off you both will be.   If you're interested in becoming a parrot owner, follow this link to Tropical Encounters' website where they hand raise baby parrots with lots of love and affection. http://www.tropical-encounters.com/   West Point Aviary is another alternative if you are interested in purchasing a parrot.  They hand raise love birds, cockatiels, white bellied caique's and other parrots.  Follow this link to view their website. http://utahaviary.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1   Adopting a parrot is another alternative.  Since moving to Utah we have adopted Alfie, our 17 year old african grey congo from the Wasatch Avian Education Society.  Check out their website for current parrots waiting to be adopted.    http://www.wasatchavian.com/   Another awesome parrot breeder is Morris Aviaries in Idaho.  They hand raise White Bellied Caiques, Congo African Greys, Eclectus, Green Cheek Conures, Sun Conures and Quaker Parrots.  Visit their website for more information.  www.morris-aviaries.net/.  They're also starting to wean their babies onto Higgins Mayan Harvest because its such an awesome food.