About Parrots as Pets
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Quite amazing isn’t? You talk to some people and they just love dogs, others love cats, others love fish and so on. Then there are those who want to have parrots as pets because their first love is birds and they want to teach a bird to talk and do tricks.
How do you distinguish a parrot from another bird?
Tongue: Parrots have distinct features that you will recognise when you look at your bird. They have quite a fleshy tongue, in fact it looks quite fat as you will notice if you watch one eating. It is used in much the same way as we humans us ours, for tasting, eating, swallowing and making sounds (talking).
Beak: The beak of a parrot is hooked, large in size, very sharp (they can give you quite a nip if they want), thick, hard and in most cases fairly solid. A parrot uses its beak for cracking hard shells on seeds and the larger parrots can even crack the shells on nuts like macadamias. They also use their beaks for pulling themself up branches or other things it is climbing and for helping to keep its balance in various circumstances.
Eye: The upper and lower lid of the eye of the parrot is one continuous lid forming a rounded opening for its eye, which is placed on the side of the head. He often does not blink but contracts his pupil at will, independent of the presence of light or dark.
Ears: The ears of the parrot are placed just above the eye and are under the feathers so they are not noticeable.
Feet: One fascinating and very imporant feature of the parrot is the feet. They are very scaly and in fact sometimes look as if they are diseased because they are so scaly. The parrot has four toes, with two facing forward and two facing backwards. This formation of the toes gives the parrot the ability to get a good hold on his perch and hang on tight. He needs to be able to do this because parrots often sleep on one foot and so they need to be able to get good balance with the other. Their feet are very strong and they pull themself up by their feet and some even hang upside down and they can do this because they are able to get a good hold onto whatever it is that they are hanging from.
If you watch a parrot you will see that they can do quite amazing things with their feet. Also the fact that they have two toes forward and two backwards means that they walk with a funny gait. They tend to swing their bodies from side to side as they waddle along.
Claws: Parrots also use their feet to hold on to food and their strong claws allow them to do this well. If you have parrots as pets you will see them holding on to nuts, corn, apples and other food you may give them as they peck away at it and chew bits off.
Parrot species.
If you plan on have parrots as pets, do some research and see which species would fit into your lifestyle and your environment.
For example, with a larger bird like the macaw or cockatoo, you might find you really only have the room or the time to own one, whereas if you have a smaller species you may choose to keep several of them in an aviary.
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