Parrots are beautiful creatures, they’re brightly coloured, lively birds. Their ability to talk makes them very popular pets and if they are well cared for, they can live to a ripe old age. Owning a parrot does, however, mean that you need to understand this very special bird species and its habits.
When they are out in the wild, in their natural habitat, they spend 40% of their time looking for food, an activity that takes up much of their time. Seeing as when they live with us they don’t have trees to grab hold of nor do they have to look for food, we need to keep them busy with other activities.
Parrots get bored very easily, as we know from our interview on the blog with Paolina (Paolina and her friend Kiwi). Without something to keep him busy, something to distract him, a parrot can become naughty, start screeching, peck at things in the house that he shouldn’t be pecking at and suffer stress, even lose his feathers.
Here are 5 tips on how to keep your parrot happily busy:
- Give him a new toy every month Adding a new toy once a month to his collection is not wanton luxury, but a very real need. Colourful bits of hanging wood especially designed for parrots are their favourites. They are hung from the roof of the cage and provide them with hours of activity. Not only, but Ferplast’s line of wooden parrot toys are painted with 100% non-toxic paint that is safe for them to play with. But parrots don’t just like wooden toys, parrots love mirrors, so it’s always a good idea to have a mirror or two hanging in their cage so they can admire themselves whenever they want. Seeing is believing!
- When you aren’t at home, leave the radio or the TV on. The sound will keep them company and will “entertain” them until you get home.
- Spend time with your parrot. You can always read a book or the newspaper out loud, that way you don’t have to take time out from your own normal routine.
- Provide your parrot with a variety of perches: The rod the cage usually comes with is not enough to keep him entertained and active. It’s better to provide him with a cord perch and other flexible and modular perches, like Ferplast’s FLEX, that can be moulded and twisted into various shapes and offer him a constantly renewed environment. And a swing is an absolute must for any parrot’s happiness. It’s a good idea to furnish the cage with various perch points from which he can admire the world around him.
- Aside from a cage, the parrot needs a proper perch. Parrots should spend many hours outside of their cages. The best place for them to spend this time is on a proper perch in some other part of the house, like the living room, where he can go rest when he’s tired or from which he can keep track of the goings on of the household, or even watch TV with you.
