Frequently Asked Questions

Choosing the right bird for you

You should take your time when selecting new bird as a pet as they can live for a considerable time. Choosing which species you may be interested in then speaking to the breeder or dealer to try and gain as much information as possible about the particular bird being offered, such as diet, where it has been kept, has it mixed with other animals or children, etc.

As you will see below, quite simply if you wish to purchase any spieces of parrot, you had better be prepared to:
' treat it like a member of your family and lavish plenty of attention on it.'

African Grey Parrots - perhaps the best known member of the parrot family, this species has the fully justified reputation of being the best talker, although individuals vary in this respect. Hand-reared birds make delightful, but demanding pets. African Greys are prone to feather plucking if bored or frustrated, so needs lots of attention. They also produce a lot of feather dust, a white "powder-down" , which leaves a layer of dust which most house proud people would not appreciate. Also bad for asthma sufferers or anyone suffering from allergies.

Senegal Parrots - one of the most readily available African parrots. Their smaller size is less intimidating for children and they are also less demanding than the larger parrots and a lot cheaper. Their size also makes them more suitable for the smaller home. Although these birds may pick up a few words and learn to whistle a few tunes their vocabulary will never match that of the larger parrots.

Amazons - are good talkers and have great characters. There are several species, the most commonly kept for pets include the Blue-fronted, Yellow-crowned, and Orange-winged. They can be demanding, and if not receiving attention, they can become very noisy. Orange-wings are still imported from the wild, and young birds are sometimes offered as English bred by unscrupulous dealers.

Macaws - are regularly bred in captivity and hand-reared birds are readily available. Some of the dwarf macaws such as the Hahn's macaw are smaller than the larger conures. The large macaws can make good pets when young, but can become vicious as they mature, this is particularly true of the Scarlet macaw. These large birds also require large cages and are not really suitable for the average living room. They also need a lot of attention otherwise they will suffer from stress which will result in feather plucking. The large macaws are also extremely noisy.

Conures - are a family of parrakeets which are closely related to the larger macaws. Some of the smaller conures, (Green-cheeked, White-earred and Blue-crowned to name but a few), make exceptional pets when acquired young, these are good with children due to their smaller size.

Cockatoos - can make good pets and learn a few words. As with all parrots, these birds require a lot of attention and need to be kept occupied or they can easily become bored resulting in feather plucking or, worst still, body mutilation. These powerful birds can quickly cause damage to household items if left unattended for more than a few moments, they can also inflict a painful bite if they become spiteful. Cockatoos can also be dominating over their owner, so you have to be firm with them from the outset. Like the African Grey they also produce large amounts of white feather dust.

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Diet

Do's - your parrot should be fed at least once a day, with tit-bits offered as available. Most pet shops sell "parrot mix" or possibly parrot pellets, but neither of these will form a complete diet. A good selection of fresh fruit and vegetables should also be offered every day. Anything that we eat can be offered in moderation including, cooked meat and bones, also cooked fish, tinned fruit, cheese, plain biscuit, etc.

Here at Wirral Bird World we only provide the very best to our birds, including Johnson & Jeff seed, fresh fruit, vegetables and pulses three times a week, also liquid calcium in their drinking water.

Dont's - peanuts if offered should be those sold for human consumption, as the ones sometimes sold in pet stores may be infected with a fungus which will lead to aflatoxin poisoning. Chocolate should not be given, also avocado which is poisonous to birds.

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Closed Ring

Closed Ring - being able to positively identify your bird is very important, should it be lost or stolen and then recovered. There are various ways of permanently marking your bird; closed rings, these are steel bands which are fitted around the birds' leg when they are a small chick. As the birds grow they cannot be removed or fitted to adult birds, these rings often carry the initials of the breeder and the year it hatched.

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P.B.F.D

Psittacine Beak and Feather Disease - also known as P.B.F.D is the smallest virus known to be capable of causing disease, at only 16 nm (nanometers) in diameter. Infections have been identified in other avian species (and also occur in mammals such as pigs), but it appears that only psittacine species are severely affected. The virus prefers dividing cells, and as such will attack tissues of young birds, and those tissues that are growing rapidly or are replaced frequently. This means skin, feathers, beak, oesophagus and crop, as well as organs of the immune system such as thymus, cloacal bursa, and bone marrow. Damage to these latter tissues results in depression of the immune system and thereby vulnerability to secondary infections with other viruses, bacteria, or fungi. Infection of the feathers and beak will produce typical deformities in their growth.

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Breeders

Pet Shop or Breeder - most potential buyers first contact with a baby parrot is generally via a Pet Shop. It is much more likely that your average baby parrot purchaser is going to come into contact with the local Pet Shop than the actual parrot breeder. In fact, the ideal place to purchase a baby parrot is via the breeder.

Often parrots in Pet Shops have been neglected over a period of time as staff are not able to find sufficient time to entertain what is an intelligent creature that has the potential intellect of a 4 year old child. This means that the parrot could have already developed behavioural problems prior to finding a home.

The question worth asking at this early stage is the method by which the parrot has been hand reared, was it via a syringe and tube or the spoon fed method? This may seem relatively trivial, but it is an important area where the young parrot has had greater contact with the hand rearer if food has been administered via a spoon. In addition to that the bird has had the opportunity to taste the food as it is consumed. Via the tube method food is injected directly into the crop and it is a method which we have never indulged in or found acceptable and having always adopted the method of hand rearing via a spoon. This is a much lengthier way of hand rearing a baby parrot, but ensures that human contact is regularly achieved. The Pet Shop will be unable to answer this question, but the breeder certainly will.

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