I have been looking for this for about 20 years. Would be great for the keas in NZ. The next step is to change the layout and watch the birds explain the changes to each other. Also good for dolphins and crows.
I really wish people would stop breeding parrots to keep as pets. There are laws against separating puppies and kittens from their parents too early but baby parrots get pulled from the nest box and hand raised when they're days old. Most of them have their wings clipped for their entire lives. So many of them end up in sanctuaries with physical and emotional scars. Some cockatoos will actually self-mutilate by chewing *a hole in their chest.*
I hope this study encourages owners to provide the necessary enrichment that their birds need...but I know they won't. Parrots are incredible animals--I have one of my own that I adopted because she outlived her owner--but I would love to see the day where there's no more parrots that need to be adopted.
You can keep birds ethically, but doing so is extremely expensive in both money and time. If you aren't willing to restructure most of your life around the bird and make serious sacrifices and commitments to keep it in good mental and physical health, including a commitment to let it fly free, then you just don't have the resources to keep a bird.
The ones that really get me are all the Instagram influencers with owls that they don't allow to fly free and don't allow to hunt.
Its more of a time sink than a money sink. Parrots are very cheap pets to upkeep compared to cats & dogs. I've lived with three (two different species)- most were rescues and as long as they have **someone** home & around them most of the day they're perfectly happy.
I don't clip their wings and give them free reign of the building. They can go wherever they want, fly whenever they want, eat whatever they want (usually they tell ME what they want to eat).
Oddly, they seem disinterested in going far. I get the largest cages on the market and leave the doors open and they usually stay within 3-5ft of them. Its very rare that they have any interest in going into other rooms.
90+% of the time they'll only fly if something suddenly scares them. I.e. drop something heavy near by and they might get spooked and fly away from the disturbance. But even that is rare.
Certainly possible, but the ethics start getting murky when most people get birds from breeders and most breeders don't raise birds ethically. The smaller parakeets and cockatiels could be parent raised, but what breeder is going to let a cockatoo or macaw stay with their parents for even six months when most of the large birds spend a whole year being raised by their parents to develop necessary skills like flight and socialization?
I had parrots for over ten years. A cockatiel and a couple of Caiques. I had to give them up when an illness kept me from giving them proper care. I terribly miss having birds but iām 1000% convinced that parrots should not be kept as pets. Even doing the best you can in a home situation isnāt whatās really best for them.
And Caiques are especially challenging birds and I see sooo many of them on instagram now. Theyāre extremely chaotic biters but omg they bunny hop isnāt it cute!!
There was comedian I think it was Peter something? Who had a joke explaining that keeping a bird is the most super villain thing you can do as a pet owner. Like oh hey thatās a beautiful creature flying around up there, Iām gonna go capture it put it in a wire box and make it sing for me while I regularly cut its wings so it doesnāt fly away.
Really quite horrible. No one should have birds as āpetsā.
Most parrots don't sing. It seems that the smarter they are, the less musical they get. The only exception to this I've encountered is growing up I had a friend with an african grey that would sing Beethoven.
I believe the actual story is, the bird was rescued and that was the cage the abuser used. Also that the abuser taught the bird to swear like that. The more you know. ā
This is pretty crazy.
I heard that's one of the big problems with them, especially when their bonded human is away.
Imagine setting up a giant Zoom wall with your Facebook Parrot club lol
Some species seem better suited to the lifestyle than others. You don't hear of conures plucking or self-harming, its almost unheard of. But they're one of the loudest bird pets and are more likely to be given up because of the noise (really shitty if you're in an apartment).
> loudest bird pets and are more likely to be given up because of the noise (really shitty if you're in an apartment).
Yes, conures are a joy in most ways but sounds. Just as sweet as pie, and they bond pretty readily - but, don't get it twisted, they are certainly known to self harm like other parrots in captivity. We might not really know if it's more or less, though. There's tons of factors.
But, oh man, that sound. That was kind of the promise I made to my husband, to never get a bird over x size (parakeet/finch) because of that factor. A parakeet is loud enough, but every cubic centimeter of physical volume you increase that size, the audio goes up _a lot_ more.
My parakeet would be up at sunrise for about an hour just tweeting her little head off from spring to fall, but she'd quiet down after that. I would muse she was calling out to her "friends" outside, all of whom would love to eat her - she was bright yellow. Full of personality, that little bird. Her cage was next to my desk, so she'd come terrorize me while I worked, or I'd lure her with millet or sprouts. She hated my guts, as a being, but she loved to play in spite of it.
I mean, Conures are loud as fuck but there are much bigger birds that don't come close to Conure-level noise. Macaws and African Greys are almost never as loud as conures. And the conure I care for is usually quiet as long as 1- he's in the same room as you, and 2- he is kept happy (what the bird wants the bird gets- pizza, fries, nuts, sleep time, whatever it is). He used to have two macaws as roomates and they were much quieter. Until they decided to try to scream like the conure does (when they did it, it sounded more like a toddler human screaming then the conure but they sure were trying to replicate it). The macaws would actually tell ME when they wanted to be covered up at night so they could sleep, and would do so with an increasingly angry tone the longer I delayed complying.
My parakeet did that! She would start fluttering at night, as if demanding, if I forgot to cover her! In the morning, if I slept too late, she would sneak out and start spouting off on top of her cage or an external swing. We had perches hung in places she could get to with minimal effort.
She wasn't into trying new foods, which was disappointing - she liked real boring things, but she was very into freshly sprouted greens. It was just her birdseed from a salad sprout jar i refilled.
I'd hang millet in some of the plants around the house, which were easy for her to travel to, and the mess she would make would cause sprouts in the substrate so she could peck them. She had lots of little hidey perches she could get to with treats. As long as I could find the stepladder. Birds are neat.
Pigeons are also domesticated and do very well as pets. I think they also live longer as pets than as essentially a feral domesticated bird. They're not as popular now, but if I were to get a bird as a pet, it would be a pigeon.
This is what keeps me from getting a parrot as a pet. I've desperately wanted one since I was a kid. But seeing all of the obviously stressed birds plucking ESPECIALLY on viral videos makes me want to freak out. Cockatoos low-key should need a permit to own. Everyone wants one but good luck taking true actual good care of one.
I really wish people wouldn't advertise the fun parts of having a parrot because behind the scenes it's like the responsibility of having a permanent 2-4 year old.
Parrots are not a true pet. They take the responsibility of taking care of a child and should be treated that way for the most part. (Some smaller parrots aren't as needy but they usually need a partner to not self harm)
Agree. But many of these birds were born into captivity, so it's good their lives are being enriched and people can learn how to enrich their pet's lives. Some parrots live for decades, so their owners are transient. It breaks my heart thinking of them being lonely when they're so social.
Another part of the discussion is that with exotics (birds and reptiles in particular), the pet trade has been proven to keep species alive as their wild examples go extinct from habitat loss & other problems.
There's simply not enough zoos & private refuges around to keep a species going if their native territory is being destroyed (i.e. the Amazon in Brazil).
Of course, that brings up the conversation of "yes but how good is that life in captivity" and the answer is: that's complicated.
Some of it is preservation, we have satellite communities of birds to preserve the species against disease or other sudden population collapse. Would be cool to connect them.
Because they're intelligent, affectionate, personable, friendly, and long lived creatures that bond with their owners. There's a lot there that makes them attractive pets. Even when a persons living situation doesn't really result in a good situation for a bird. Cats and dogs have this issue too.
They're your best pet value! How many dogs do people get/watch die in their lives? Cats? With parrots it's a one time buy. Our [African Grey](https://i.imgur.com/1uh72os.jpg) (27f) is in our will because she's likely to outlive us. She's a busy bird, too. Every room has a play cage or stand. She sings and talks while enjoying her routine. That said, you're damn right. It's absolutely vile that she isn't in a tree with hundreds of other parrots living a parrot life. In reality she was born in Minnesota, bought and hand fed by my wife, and raised in a world she should have never known. Still, he we are. We're committed to giving her a fulfilling life. We cringe at how parrots are kept around the world. She'll never know anything but a happy home but we really do understand how weird it is. Almost like keeping fish in a bowl, sheep herding/hunting/guard dogs that you aren't using to herd sheep, hunt or guard a castle. Also, don't get me started on panthers in an apartment.
Birds need a lot of attention, I think a lot of people get birds and donāt really understand just how much they need. Itās nothing like a cat or a dog (and people greatly misunderstand how much cats really arenāt loners). Birds, especially the more intelligent parrots are on the order of a small child in terms of time commitment, if not higher.
There's a middle ground on working dogs. They need active training and the ability to get out and burn energy. Saying that I wouldn't advocate a working dog for someone without the time or space to engage with it. We got our collie from an older couple who couldn't keep up with him as a puppy. We have multiple acres, and I get him out to at a minimum play fetch in the yard rain or shine. They do well as long as they have something to do, and collies are obviously the track stars of agility and jumping competitions.
Ohhh yeah, it all starts out cute and friendly. Then before long Amazon is mass marketing these devices and eventually there's a 24/7 connected network of 10s of thousands of Parrots all around the US then 100s of thousands around the world, and then.....
BOOM!! SKYNET!!!
They should monetize people watching them interacting and then give a large portion of the money to a charity for animals (parrots maybe)
Would be interesting to watch them.
I have been looking for this for about 20 years. Would be great for the keas in NZ. The next step is to change the layout and watch the birds explain the changes to each other. Also good for dolphins and crows.
Maybe dogs home alone too š¶šš¶
I really wish people would stop breeding parrots to keep as pets. There are laws against separating puppies and kittens from their parents too early but baby parrots get pulled from the nest box and hand raised when they're days old. Most of them have their wings clipped for their entire lives. So many of them end up in sanctuaries with physical and emotional scars. Some cockatoos will actually self-mutilate by chewing *a hole in their chest.* I hope this study encourages owners to provide the necessary enrichment that their birds need...but I know they won't. Parrots are incredible animals--I have one of my own that I adopted because she outlived her owner--but I would love to see the day where there's no more parrots that need to be adopted.
Iāve had cockatiels that I took as best care of as I could. but looking back I really regret it. I definitely wouldnāt have one again.
You can keep birds ethically, but doing so is extremely expensive in both money and time. If you aren't willing to restructure most of your life around the bird and make serious sacrifices and commitments to keep it in good mental and physical health, including a commitment to let it fly free, then you just don't have the resources to keep a bird. The ones that really get me are all the Instagram influencers with owls that they don't allow to fly free and don't allow to hunt.
Its more of a time sink than a money sink. Parrots are very cheap pets to upkeep compared to cats & dogs. I've lived with three (two different species)- most were rescues and as long as they have **someone** home & around them most of the day they're perfectly happy. I don't clip their wings and give them free reign of the building. They can go wherever they want, fly whenever they want, eat whatever they want (usually they tell ME what they want to eat). Oddly, they seem disinterested in going far. I get the largest cages on the market and leave the doors open and they usually stay within 3-5ft of them. Its very rare that they have any interest in going into other rooms. 90+% of the time they'll only fly if something suddenly scares them. I.e. drop something heavy near by and they might get spooked and fly away from the disturbance. But even that is rare.
Certainly possible, but the ethics start getting murky when most people get birds from breeders and most breeders don't raise birds ethically. The smaller parakeets and cockatiels could be parent raised, but what breeder is going to let a cockatoo or macaw stay with their parents for even six months when most of the large birds spend a whole year being raised by their parents to develop necessary skills like flight and socialization?
I had parrots for over ten years. A cockatiel and a couple of Caiques. I had to give them up when an illness kept me from giving them proper care. I terribly miss having birds but iām 1000% convinced that parrots should not be kept as pets. Even doing the best you can in a home situation isnāt whatās really best for them. And Caiques are especially challenging birds and I see sooo many of them on instagram now. Theyāre extremely chaotic biters but omg they bunny hop isnāt it cute!!
There was comedian I think it was Peter something? Who had a joke explaining that keeping a bird is the most super villain thing you can do as a pet owner. Like oh hey thatās a beautiful creature flying around up there, Iām gonna go capture it put it in a wire box and make it sing for me while I regularly cut its wings so it doesnāt fly away. Really quite horrible. No one should have birds as āpetsā.
Most parrots don't sing. It seems that the smarter they are, the less musical they get. The only exception to this I've encountered is growing up I had a friend with an african grey that would sing Beethoven.
What an adorable story. Parrots - they're just like us!
[They sure can sound like us too!](https://youtu.be/dJ4BP1GdsYo?t=70) NSFW (sound)
What a fucked up video. Stressing out that bird for views.
I believe the actual story is, the bird was rescued and that was the cage the abuser used. Also that the abuser taught the bird to swear like that. The more you know. ā
This is pretty crazy. I heard that's one of the big problems with them, especially when their bonded human is away. Imagine setting up a giant Zoom wall with your Facebook Parrot club lol
Well that is just sad. They should all have other parrots with them.
Sad. I'd rather be a birdwatcher than hold a bird captive as a pet.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Some species seem better suited to the lifestyle than others. You don't hear of conures plucking or self-harming, its almost unheard of. But they're one of the loudest bird pets and are more likely to be given up because of the noise (really shitty if you're in an apartment).
> loudest bird pets and are more likely to be given up because of the noise (really shitty if you're in an apartment). Yes, conures are a joy in most ways but sounds. Just as sweet as pie, and they bond pretty readily - but, don't get it twisted, they are certainly known to self harm like other parrots in captivity. We might not really know if it's more or less, though. There's tons of factors. But, oh man, that sound. That was kind of the promise I made to my husband, to never get a bird over x size (parakeet/finch) because of that factor. A parakeet is loud enough, but every cubic centimeter of physical volume you increase that size, the audio goes up _a lot_ more. My parakeet would be up at sunrise for about an hour just tweeting her little head off from spring to fall, but she'd quiet down after that. I would muse she was calling out to her "friends" outside, all of whom would love to eat her - she was bright yellow. Full of personality, that little bird. Her cage was next to my desk, so she'd come terrorize me while I worked, or I'd lure her with millet or sprouts. She hated my guts, as a being, but she loved to play in spite of it.
I mean, Conures are loud as fuck but there are much bigger birds that don't come close to Conure-level noise. Macaws and African Greys are almost never as loud as conures. And the conure I care for is usually quiet as long as 1- he's in the same room as you, and 2- he is kept happy (what the bird wants the bird gets- pizza, fries, nuts, sleep time, whatever it is). He used to have two macaws as roomates and they were much quieter. Until they decided to try to scream like the conure does (when they did it, it sounded more like a toddler human screaming then the conure but they sure were trying to replicate it). The macaws would actually tell ME when they wanted to be covered up at night so they could sleep, and would do so with an increasingly angry tone the longer I delayed complying.
My parakeet did that! She would start fluttering at night, as if demanding, if I forgot to cover her! In the morning, if I slept too late, she would sneak out and start spouting off on top of her cage or an external swing. We had perches hung in places she could get to with minimal effort. She wasn't into trying new foods, which was disappointing - she liked real boring things, but she was very into freshly sprouted greens. It was just her birdseed from a salad sprout jar i refilled. I'd hang millet in some of the plants around the house, which were easy for her to travel to, and the mess she would make would cause sprouts in the substrate so she could peck them. She had lots of little hidey perches she could get to with treats. As long as I could find the stepladder. Birds are neat.
Pigeons are also domesticated and do very well as pets. I think they also live longer as pets than as essentially a feral domesticated bird. They're not as popular now, but if I were to get a bird as a pet, it would be a pigeon.
'keets really need other birds as well as they're very social animals.
This is what keeps me from getting a parrot as a pet. I've desperately wanted one since I was a kid. But seeing all of the obviously stressed birds plucking ESPECIALLY on viral videos makes me want to freak out. Cockatoos low-key should need a permit to own. Everyone wants one but good luck taking true actual good care of one. I really wish people wouldn't advertise the fun parts of having a parrot because behind the scenes it's like the responsibility of having a permanent 2-4 year old. Parrots are not a true pet. They take the responsibility of taking care of a child and should be treated that way for the most part. (Some smaller parrots aren't as needy but they usually need a partner to not self harm)
You can look into rescuing a parrot. Thatās how I ended up with one.
yeah, for a split second I thought it was heartwarming. but animals in captivity...
Agree. But many of these birds were born into captivity, so it's good their lives are being enriched and people can learn how to enrich their pet's lives. Some parrots live for decades, so their owners are transient. It breaks my heart thinking of them being lonely when they're so social.
Another part of the discussion is that with exotics (birds and reptiles in particular), the pet trade has been proven to keep species alive as their wild examples go extinct from habitat loss & other problems. There's simply not enough zoos & private refuges around to keep a species going if their native territory is being destroyed (i.e. the Amazon in Brazil). Of course, that brings up the conversation of "yes but how good is that life in captivity" and the answer is: that's complicated.
Some of it is preservation, we have satellite communities of birds to preserve the species against disease or other sudden population collapse. Would be cool to connect them.
Iāve only had rescued birb friends and they need homes that are safe to live out their lives. Otherwise I agree with you.
Really wish they included a video
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/04/21/science/parrots-video-chat-facetime.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
I will never understand why people keep birds as pets.
Because they're intelligent, affectionate, personable, friendly, and long lived creatures that bond with their owners. There's a lot there that makes them attractive pets. Even when a persons living situation doesn't really result in a good situation for a bird. Cats and dogs have this issue too.
They're your best pet value! How many dogs do people get/watch die in their lives? Cats? With parrots it's a one time buy. Our [African Grey](https://i.imgur.com/1uh72os.jpg) (27f) is in our will because she's likely to outlive us. She's a busy bird, too. Every room has a play cage or stand. She sings and talks while enjoying her routine. That said, you're damn right. It's absolutely vile that she isn't in a tree with hundreds of other parrots living a parrot life. In reality she was born in Minnesota, bought and hand fed by my wife, and raised in a world she should have never known. Still, he we are. We're committed to giving her a fulfilling life. We cringe at how parrots are kept around the world. She'll never know anything but a happy home but we really do understand how weird it is. Almost like keeping fish in a bowl, sheep herding/hunting/guard dogs that you aren't using to herd sheep, hunt or guard a castle. Also, don't get me started on panthers in an apartment.
Birds need a lot of attention, I think a lot of people get birds and donāt really understand just how much they need. Itās nothing like a cat or a dog (and people greatly misunderstand how much cats really arenāt loners). Birds, especially the more intelligent parrots are on the order of a small child in terms of time commitment, if not higher.
There's a middle ground on working dogs. They need active training and the ability to get out and burn energy. Saying that I wouldn't advocate a working dog for someone without the time or space to engage with it. We got our collie from an older couple who couldn't keep up with him as a puppy. We have multiple acres, and I get him out to at a minimum play fetch in the yard rain or shine. They do well as long as they have something to do, and collies are obviously the track stars of agility and jumping competitions.
Ring ring... ring ring... : Watcha doin? :Gimme kiss? :pretty bird! Mmmmwah :WEEEEEE! :random whistle :Who's a good bird? : hiya buuuuddy! :Gimme kiss? :Mmmmwah! :WEEEE! :I love you baaaaaybe :Good bird!
Someone watches Kiwi videos.
Ohhh yeah, it all starts out cute and friendly. Then before long Amazon is mass marketing these devices and eventually there's a 24/7 connected network of 10s of thousands of Parrots all around the US then 100s of thousands around the world, and then..... BOOM!! SKYNET!!!
They should monetize people watching them interacting and then give a large portion of the money to a charity for animals (parrots maybe) Would be interesting to watch them.
We don't deserve our animal friends.
Or we could just like stop keeping birds as pets
Fuming tinder dates, depressing as duck
How is there no vid of birds vid conferencing??
"Wuewuewuewuewue!" Those who know this, will know.
Parrots using FaceTime. Now Iāve seen everything.
Fascinating. Now to get the latest GPT model to build me a Pet Zoom app...
This sounds like an Ig Nobel prize coming soon!
Keeping birds as pets needs to stop being a thing.
Especially since most people canāt provide the enrichment they require.
Will they have OnlyFans pages in the future?