One interesting note is that both surveys agree that, for some unknown reason total bird ownership dropped in 2001/2002 as shown in the graph below. According to the AVMA, total bird ownership dropped from 12.6 million in 1996 to 10.1 million and the APPMA reports a drop from 18.7 million in 2000 to 17.3 million in 2002. This is not consistent with other pet ownership (dogs, cats and horses).

Figure 2: Total Number of Pets in the USA

According to the AVMA, one reason for the downward trend in total birds owned is the fact that the percentage of birds owned per household has gone down almost 30% from an average of 2.7 birds per bird-owning household in 1996 to 2.1 birds in 2001.

Figure 3: Number of Pets per Pet-Owning Households

The APPMA had slightly different numbers but showed a similar downward trend from 1998 (3.3) to 2002 (2.6) as shown below in the graph.

Figure 4: Number of Birds per Bird-Owning Households