Incorporating The National Parrot Sanctuary
Registered Charity No #1062413
Registered Charity No #1062413
Although many people speculate as to whether dogs come to man or man went to dog, it is commonly known that it has been a very long and successful relationship between the two. Some 45,000 years ago the friendship commenced and it was based a on a two sided blade, man provided food while wolf (dog) provided protection as they then looked at humans as being theirs, so needed protection. Take into account that since that first introduction we have probably shared over 40,000 generations of dogs. Today's domesticated dog is a very loyal friend; even after vicious attack from one human he will still forgive another if shown enough love and attention. What's more is the fact that a bitch will give birth in front of man and let a stranger (vet) inspect the newly born pups without showing any signs of threat or fear.
Parrots however are slightly different; first of all we certainly know that parrot did not come to man. In fact parrots on the whole find it very difficult to even ‘like’ man at this stage in their history, why? Because man stole parrot for his own selfish reasons and there was never ever going to be any working together. We probably took the parrot because he looks nice and actually exhibited sociable behaviour, others throughout history have used parrots for food or feathers for medicinal or superstitious purposes, but civilised man wanted it for its talking abilities and the status appeal it demanded when sat in ones house.
Although we are now breeding parrots in captivity and hand-rearing them, this does not make them domesticated. In fact, if you look at the breeding records you will find that 99% of today's chicks are still bred from wild caught stock, which in reality means they are still predominant wild creatures. Breeders may be very successful at what they do and produce a number of chicks per year but these are still on the original 'rung-one' bloodline.
Science has found out that wild dogs display tame behaviour at around the 10th generation, as parrots seem to show more expertise in evolutionary acclimatisation we should expect parrots to start showing domestic tendencies at around 8 generations of self-selected, parent reared blood line.
With this in mind we should treat todays parrots as temporary tamed parrots and not pets, naturally expecting ‘Mother Nature’ to take her course on a wild creature and on hormones kicking in we should see a different parrot from that original cuddly bundle of feathers purchased a few years before. This becomes apparent by the temperament change and the way he reacts to certain members of the household, remember we have conned him into thinking he was part of the family for the last few years but now his hormones and instincts are telling him different and he will let us know about it.
It is at his time questions arise as to what is correct for the bird and not ourselves. You have to question what you have given him over the past few years and whether you have done it because he genuinely needed it, or because it made you feel better. Sadly you will be in love with him and cannot bear to part with him even though he is attacking you every chance he gets, so we have to go through the options.
This will mean some changes for everyone around him, but is a very good thing to do. You will get far more out your parrot if you watch him being a parrot and going through all the natural things parrots do. Remember parrots are monogamous so have their companion around 24 hours a day they will preen each other and have contact for some 5 hours, they will play and argue for a further 1 hour, eating for around 3 hours, napping for a further 3 and sound sleep for the remaining 12 or so hours. All in all they expect to spend their entire lives together and can set their body clocks to suit, just remember from birth to death parrots do not spend 1 minute alone, they will at all times have their partner or siblings within visual range.
The main point here is CONTACT; parrots are very socials creatures and therefore depend on lots of physical contact. Now think about what you actually give him, and especially how much 'one to one' contact he gets. The average person has to leave him on his own for work, be it part time or full time, say for around 6 hours per day, he will be sound asleep for 12, napping for 3 and eating for 3. Now that means the day is gone so we have to interfere somewhere, usually into his 3 hours napping. On doing this we let him out of his cage, have a fly around and give him a stroke!!
Be honest. It will probably be around 20 minutes or so. Well, we all have lives to lead and there are usually others in our lives that need tending too, children, family etc. Then take into consideration the fact that you are probably doing this at a time when he would usually be napping and very similar to young children if they do not get their required amount of rest, stress induced bad behaviour arises.
The conclusion of this is, if the average parrot lives 24 years he will spend approximately 23 years on his own!!
This all accumulates to an unstable parrot and can, and usually does induce habits such as screaming, biting or plucking. Doing normal family things, like, going on holiday, going into hospital, can also bring this on. Parrots cannot accept these normal parts of human lifestyles.
Putting this in reality means we are not really suited to having a single parrot in our households for the rest of its life and doing so has to be deemed cruel and very selfish on our parts.
If we intend having parrots for a long period we must take this into consideration and take on 2 at a young stage of their lives and preferably of the same species, this will at least have a two-fold positive effect.
It is just common sense, although our generation will probably never see a parrot rear its own chick and introduce it to humans with no fear attached and we can class it as semi-domesticated, we will at least have the satisfaction that we have played a part in getting rid of that old anecdote;