Maintenance
With the right home parrots have the potential to make excellent, highly interactive, affectionate, and entertaining pets prized by their owners, but should not be considered easy care or low-maintenance pets. Tame companion parrots require daily attention and interaction with their owners, and need to be housed in a cage at least large enough to allow the bird to spread its wings and move about comfortably. Companion parrots also need to be fed a diet that includes fresh vegetables and fruits, and a smaller amount of seeds and grains; dietary requirements vary with species and activity level. Other elements essential to a companion parrot's well-being include appropriate toys to chew up and play with; veterinary care; and social time out of the cage whenever possible — preferably on playgyms or other out-of-cage perches. The larger parrots can be expensive to care for, messy, destructive, and loud, and some individuals may exhibit some aggressive behaviors during adolescence. Like dogs, parrots require some amount of basic training and proper early socialization to mature into good companions. Their intelligence means parrots learn new behaviors — both good and bad — easily. Some birds end up having to be re-homed because their owners did not realize the level of care required when they purchased the bird, or did not understand how to properly socialize and train their bird.
Read more about this topic: Companion Parrot
Famous quotes containing the word maintenance:
“It is an injustice that an old, broken, half-dead father should enjoy alone, in a corner of his hearth, possessions that would suffice for the advancement and maintenance of many children.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)
“However patriarchal the world, at home the child knows that his mother is the source of all power. The hand that rocks the cradle rules his world. . . . The son never forgets that he owes his life to his mother, not just the creation of it but the maintenance of it, and that he owes her a debt he cannot conceivably repay, but which she may call in at any time.”
—Frank Pittman (20th century)
“... in the fierce competition of modern society the only class left in the country possessing leisure is that of women supported in easy circumstances by husband or father, and it is to this class we must look for the maintenance of cultivated and refined tastes, for that value and pursuit of knowledge and of art for their own sakes which can alone save society from degenerating into a huge machine for making money, and gratifying the love of sensual luxury.”
—Mrs. H. O. Ward (1824–1899)