Questions:
Answers:
1) What should I know about getting a baby parrot from you?
We tell everyone to give their birds at least two days to settle in and two weeks to get used to your schedule. We generally wake up the bird at around 7am and we turn off the light at 11pm. We don't cover our birds and they are in total darkness at night, some people prefer to cover their birds or leave a nightlight on.
Babies (birds under 6 months) like to take naps from time to time, you may see your bird have lots of energy and then have to take a little nap and then be ready to go again, sometimes they get a bit grumpy when they get tired, it is best to just let them take that little nap and then play again, you will be able to tell when they are getting tired after they have been at your house for a couple of days.
You will probably want to offer food to your baby parrot twice a day, babies eat a lot for the first year and then you will see them slow down after their first birthday.
2) Will my bird be talking when I get it?
Talking is a very individual thing. While some generalizations can be made about how well different species of birds talk, even within that species there are wide variances. We have had birds leave our nursery saying a few words (Hi, I love you, etc), but most birds don't really start talking until around the age of one. Your bird may start talking or making noises that sound like words before one year, but that is when they really start learning words. Considering that they live about as long as humans, and you would not expect a 4 month old human baby to talk, it is reasonable that a parrot would not begin to talk until sometime after a year.
3) How do you teach a bird to talk?
We don't teach them, they just pick it up. What we do try to do is to encourage them. When we hear a bird making a noise that sounds like a word, then we repeat the word several times so they can hear the correct way to imitate it.
4) How do you socialize your baby birds?
We socialize them with other birds as well as with humans and other animals. The nursery is a hub of activity most of the time and we constantly have our kids out there as well as visitors. Both Janet and Larry share in the handfeeding duties so the birds get used both males and females. We try to raise them in pairs (i.e. we put 2 birds together in a tub or a cage) because we have found they do better with a buddy and this is obviously the most natural thing for them. This helps socialize them to other birds.
We handle our babies every day even when they are little, when they are in the tub stage (feathered but not ready for a cage) they are petted all the time and fussed over, and then when they go into a cage they get at least 3 hours of out of the cage time. This gives them more interactions with other birds of different species. We have a whole play area with toys, ropes and birdy bungees for them to play with and exercise, we also take turns bringing birds in each night to socialize with the family. We can't play with them all everynight, so we bring in two or three and just keep rotating so that they all get time socializing. We hold them and pet them while we watch TV or type on the computer. This socializes them in a family setting (including a dog and cat running around).
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