[swirlgirl]

I have an almost 3yr. Old parrotlet... never had any type of bird before. I have read about them etc. but have some questions that only an owner of them could answer. Does anyone have any?

[mrssittingduck]

I don't have any but I used to have them and used to breed them, if you would like to ask me anything then please feel free, I am sure I can help you and if I can't I have a lot of friends that I can put you intouch with regarding parrotlets who can answer any question you have :)
What sort of parrotlet do you have, I have kept and bred spectacled and pacific :)
Katie

[swirlgirl]

Wow, thanks! I have a male, Shasta... we got him as a month or so old. We bought him over the internet... which I do not recommend. He was flown from Florida to Illinois. Does their first few weeks of life with a bad caretaker make a difference? The seller tried to rip me off the deposit on the carrier. I had returned it back and she would not refund my money. I had to report her to the better business bureau to get my money back... I am mentioning this because her personality was not conductive to being an animal caring person.

Anyway... I have cats and I think that is the main reason that he is always scared and has never gotten used to us or to being held etc.

When we get him out of his cage, he tries to get away and when he does he flies back in his cage or flies around my son's room and chirps. We then just let him get back in on his own and leave the room.

He is never around the cats, We keep the door closed but the few times they have wondered in his room, when I am in the room and the door is open... they do not pay attention to him. But I am sure he can smell them and knows when they are close.

Also, all he will eat is sunflower seeds and strawberries. Is this Ok?

He has never talked either. I know they are not known for being talkers, but all he will do is chirp. Have you ever heard one talk? I heard that it sounds like a little robot?

[swirlgirl]

Oh! He is a Pacific one. He is a pretty green with blue under his wings. Thanks for any and all help you can give... wow... you used to breed them too! Why did you quit?

[mrssittingduck]

Hi you may want to reduce his sunflower seed intake, parrotlets are well known to gauge on nothing but saunflower but they are incredibly fat and the seeds can make them very ill if that is what he eats...
Take out the sunflower seed and just give him a budgie or canary mix until he starts eating that do not add the sunflower, then just give him a few sunflowers at a time in a separate tray,
They will eat a lot of different sorts of fruits and veg but do not feed them avacado as this is very dangerous to them , also make sure you do not feed them apple seed,
You definitely have a male pacific as the females do not have the cobalt blue in their wings ;) this is for the males only,
As for talking yes I have heard them talking but it is a very very rare occurrence and you will have to spend a lot of time with him, I will find you a link to a site that has parrotlets talking on it for you to listen to I know it is their somewhere, however they do have limited vocab...
Birds have no or very little sense of smell and nostrils are only for breathing the only bird with a sense of smell are raptors, i.e. birds of prey, kiwi's... their is no danger of them smelling the cats,.

It does sound like he hasn't been bothered with much before you go thim, did you buy him as hand reared? They can get traumatised by transport especially if it took a while to get their.. give him time and keep bothering with him, when he flies off pick him up again and hold him to your chest and talk soothingly to him and stroke hie head gently talking the whole time, eventually you will be able let go and he won't fly off...

Best of luck and I hope I have helped you.. any more questions please ask me and I will sort you that link out asap ;)
Katie

[mrssittingduck]

I am sure your first bird will be great, parrotlets make great pets and keep you amused for hours,
If planning on getting a friend for him however please don't be tempted to buy a different species of bird as parrotlets do not mix well with other sorts,
So if you do plan on getting another in the future have a look around for another pacific parrotlet to go with him and preferably the same sex unless you want chickadees :D
However if you keep more than 1 the chances are the bird will lose the tameness that you can achieve even with a lot of attention given to both birds they will become dependent on each other and not on you..

As promised here is the link of the parrotlets talking, if you haven't got quicktime on your computer it can be downloaded for free and it will then play the audio sounds , just click on the phrases on the right hand side of the page to listen to them talking..
And hope you enjoy it :)

There are not many people that know parrots and finches can't smell they also have little in the way of taste , even though some birds are picky about what they eat (you would assume it was picky because of the taste ) however this is not so , they are picky on shape , size and also color if they don't like the look they won't eat it, Little Tweet Parrotlet Breeders | Teaching Your Parrotlet to Talk

Best of luck with your new addition and if you have any more questions feel free to ask away or visit me on UK Birdkeepers Message Board (Powered by Invision Power Board). I go by the sam eusername :)
Katie