Everything you need to know about caring for exotic parrots
Everything about feeding parrots for optimal health.
Learn More →How to set up the perfect cage.
Learn More →Learn positive reinforcement training.
Learn More →Understand your parrot's body language.
Learn More →Recognize and prevent common diseases.
Learn More →Expected lifespans by species.
Learn More →Everything first-time owners need to know.
Learn More →If you are new to parrots, read the beginner's guide and the nutrition guide first, in that order. Diet is the leading modifiable cause of premature death in companion parrots, and most of what goes wrong later - obesity, fatty liver disease, chronic vitamin A deficiency, feather problems - traces back to an all-seed ration that was never corrected.
If you already have a bird and something is going wrong, the behaviour and vocalisation guides are usually more relevant than the health guide. Screaming, biting and feather-destructive behaviour are overwhelmingly husbandry problems - insufficient sleep, no foraging outlet, inappropriate petting driving hormonal behaviour - rather than medical ones, though medical causes should always be excluded by an avian vet first.
African Grey care and availability · Macaws: size, noise and housing · Amazon parrots and talking ability · Cockatoos and their care demands · Cockatiels for first-time owners · Conures: noise and temperament
Parrot cages sized by species · Formulated pellets and food · Natural-wood perches and stands · Foraging toys and enrichment · Avian first aid and health · Bathing and grooming supplies
Most often contact calling, boredom, insufficient sleep, or learned attention-seeking that has been accidentally reinforced. Load foraging enrichment before you leave, ensure twelve hours of darkness, and respond to quiet rather than to noise. Sudden new screaming in a previously quiet bird warrants a veterinary check.
Have an avian vet exclude giardia, zinc toxicosis, skin disease and reproductive disease first. Beyond that the usual drivers are lack of foraging opportunity, insufficient sleep, low humidity, loss of a bonded companion and hormonal stimulation from body petting. It is far easier to prevent than to reverse.
Twelve hours of uninterrupted darkness nightly. Long artificial day length is a major driver of chronic egg laying in hens and of hormonal aggression in mature males, and short sleep is implicated in screaming and biting.
Learn to read the warning signs - pinned eyes, raised nape feathers, fanned tail - and stop before the bite. Avoid petting anywhere other than the head and neck, which drives reproductive behaviour. Use positive reinforcement to build step-up and station behaviours, and never react dramatically to a bite, which reinforces it.
Feeding an all-seed diet. It is high in fat, deficient in vitamin A and calcium, and reliably produces obesity, fatty liver disease and recurrent infections. Converting to a formulated diet, gradually and with weekly weighing, is the highest-return change most owners can make.
Entirely. They are general husbandry information grounded in species biology and standard avian veterinary practice, not product advice.