Essential tips for bringing your new bird home
Bringing Your Parrot Home
Bringing home you pet parrot can be a very exciting time for you. You may have friends or neighbours who own one of these wonderful animals and you can’t wait to have yours be a part of your family.. It is important to remember however that being brought into a new environment can be very traumatic for your bird and so you must take it slow and give them time to adjust.
As much as you would like to begin playing with your bird, it is best to leave them alone the first day. Make sure that the cage is ready with fresh food and water before you even bring the bird home. Place the bird in the cage as soon as you arrive home, close the door and walk away. Try to see the event from the bird’s point of view. They woke up this morning in familiar surroundings and suddenly without warning the have been through the trauma of being placed in a travel cage and taken outside, which for many birds is a completely new experience that may overwhelm their senses with new sights and sounds. Then they are transported to an unfamiliar cage in a new place that again is filled with sights and sounds they may never have encountered before. Parrots are very intelligent animals but this particular sequence of events is likely to overwhelm and confuse them. So walk away from the cage and give them some time to stop their head from spinning, usually 12 to 24 hours.
The next day, when you approach the cage, walk slowly and speak quietly. Change the feed and water with a minimal of disturbance and do not try to reach for the bird at this point, there will be plenty of time for that later. Talk to your bird continuously in a calm and reassuring way. If he chooses to express his opinion about the current state of affairs allow him to do so and respond in the same calm voice. He will eventually match your tone and complain in a murmur instead of a shriek.
Your actions in the days that follow will in large part be determined by the parrot himself. Some adjust more quickly than others. Judge your bird’s readiness for more contact by his behaviour. If while you are talking to him he comes to the side of the cage, closest to you and responds quietly to your chatter, than he may be ready for you to try placing your hand in the cage. If he sits far away from you and his only vocalizations are loud squawks than he is not yet ready for the next step.
At every step in the process let your bird set the pace. Learn to judge his behaviour. Learn what he does when he is uncomfortable or angry, most birds will scream loudly, move to the back of the cage and may bite if approached. Base your activities on your particular bird’s comfort level and eventually even the most frightened bird will come around. All birds prefer company over being alone and he will learn that responding positively to you will get him the attention he desires. In a relatively short period of time your parrot will be the member of your family that you imagined that first day you brought him home.
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