The purpose of this site is to inform pet parrot owners on how to deal with a number of typical parrot behaviour problems appropriately, without the use of force and conventional punishment, in order to improve the quality of life of captive birds.
Please note that most of the information on this site is not specific to grey parrots. You will find that the advise given on behaviour and diet, for example, applies many parrot species.
Before you browse the site, here are one or two points that you should consider before you buy any kind of parrot.
A word about greys... The grey parrot has undoubtedly become the most popular pet parrot in the UK . The demand for hand reared African grey babies seems insatiable. One of the reasons must be their legendary talking abilities, with many grey parrots' vocabularies containing many words and phrases. However, it is important to understand that not every Grey can or will talk. Hand reared babies are of course friendly towards humans from the outset and craving their attention often drives the youngsters to talk. In many cases, however, hand reared greys don't start to talk until they are about one year old. However, these birds have so much more to offer, from the way they interact with their human flock, their intelligence to their characters. The ability to talk should really be considered a potential bonus, not a requirement. Macaws and cockatoos can also learn to talk and often start at a very early age. However, more often than not, these kinds of parrots only learn a few words and phrases.
Professor Irene Pepperberg has shown in her studies in the US that these parrots are able to understand the meaning of words and to use these in context. Professor Pepperberg has been working with several greys for a number of years now. Alex was the first Grey she has worked with in this research, which was started some twenty years ago. Alex sadly passed away, however, he leaves a tremendous legacy. He was able to count to six, name objects by their shape, colour and size, he understood the concept of same and different, he could spell and request the items he wanted to play with or eat by name. Professor Pepperberg's work continues and new and amazing facts about grey parrots’ cognitive and communicative abilities keep emerging.
Thanks to Irene Pepperberg, there is a solid amount of research available that tells us more about the cognitive abilities of Grey parrots. Although, there does not seem to be quite as much scientific data available in the popular press on cockatoo cognition, they are nonetheless equally as famous for their anecdotes regarding their intelligence. In fact, many will argue that white cockatoos are one of the most intelligent birds around.
Parrot behaviour!
With more and more people sharing their homes with such intelligent creatures there is an ever growing need to learn more about a parrot's psychological and physiological needs. To keep a parrot, macaw or cockatoo locked away in its cage day in day out can only result in an unhappy, unfriendly and depressed bird. All too often people simply don't know how to properly deal with their feathered companions because they have not been given any advice by the breeder or pet shop staff or even worse, have been given bad advice. Please make sure that you have read and learned all you can before buying or adopting a parrot. Parrots do not make good pets for people who are out of the house most of the day. These animals require stimulating activity for a large part of the day. If you wish to own a parrot you really must be prepared to spend several hours per day with your pet.
One-person birds?
Many people are under the impression that grey parrots, or even parrots in general, are one-person birds. This is not true! Most parrot species live in flocks and need to get on with a large number of individuals. It would therefore make absolutely no sense for a bird to attach itself to one individual to the exclusion of all others. That said, greys, and many other parrot species, are very shy birds and like all other parrots love routine. Any strange object or human will therefore be treated with great caution. Emotionally sensitive creatures, such as Grey Parrots (or cockatoos) require for us to gain their trust. This also applies to hand reared parrot youngsters. Trust is gained by learning that the behaviour of one individual towards the bird always results in a positive outcome for the bird. This means that a person that has never dealt with a particular individual will be treated with caution until that person has gained the bird's trust. Provided that all family members interact with the bird equally from the moment the parrot enters the household there should be no reason why the bird won't accept all. It is advisable that any parrot you keep learns to interact with a variety of people.
Enjoy browsing the site!