Tell me about your Parrotlet?

[snowflake311]

So when I was first thinking of getting a bird I found this little yellow parrotlet. I wanted to take him out to meet him. They said he could not come out because he could fly. So I never really got to know the little guy. He is missing some toes too. I still wanted to get him.

Well after doing research I decided against the parrotlet. I went with my Sprinkles the Black capped conure. He is everything I wanted in the bird.

Well that same little yellow, missing toed, parrotlet is still at the store. He has been there almost a year now. He really dose not seem to mind. There is always something going one. People come over and say hi to him. He has other birds in the cage next to him. It's a nice store not a big chain store.

Since this little guy can fly and has not been handled in a long time I wonder how would he be? The reason I did not get him was because I read Parrotlets can be aggressive, stubborn, and nippy. The aggressive is what turned me off.

How do Parrolets compare to Lovebirds?
Tell me the good and the bad about these little cute Parrolets.

I took a photo of him. There is a part of me that feels so bad I did not get him. Because I was so close to buying him. In fact I left work early one day to get this bird. I ended up going and seeing him but I never did buy him. I just don't know enough about Parrolets.

 

[Teddscau]

I'm against buying animals, so this situation is kind of icky for me. So, I'll just pretend you're adopting from a shelter.

Anyways, from my experience, parrotlets are violent, territorial, moody, nippy little birds that go into rages for no reason. But this is before you've educated the little guys. Noah turned two around the time he came to us. His mate had died in an accident three days before, and Noah (called Thor at the time) hadn't been handled since he was little. His old family didn't want him (they didn't seem to like him or care about him), so my mother was approached about taking him, since her coworker new we kept birds.

When we got him, he needed a lot of love. His feathers were dull, his beak was overgrown and misshapen (not too badly), and he missed his mate. I spent hours sitting by his cage, reading, watching tv, talking to him, and feeding him spray millet. I gave him sprouts, pellets, and started getting him to eat chop. I also bathed him a ton because he was unbelievably dusty.

The woman told Mom he had a huge cage, and I said told her that probably meant it was freaking puny. When she brought him in the cage, it was just as I expected. It was designed more for an Amazon, with inappropriately spaced bars, was taller than it was wide, had barely any perches or toys, etc. We moved him to a larger cage after a few days. After a week, I clicker trained him, which took only two days. After that, I target trained him, which took him two days to master (he wouldn't touch the chop stick, so I said "touch", gently nudged him in the beak with it, clicked, and gave him a sunflower seed. After doing that three times he'd touch it on his own). After that, I trained him to step up using a perch. With parrotlets, avoid letting them on your fingers for the first month (after they've gotten over biting, you can just toss the perch), but if you need them to step up and you don't have a perch nearby, have them step up onto your forearm.

Until he was fully step up trained, I kept him in the cage. He was ready after a few days, so I started taking him out with the perch to train with him. We practiced "touch," "step up," "step down," "turn around," and "fly to me." He learned very quickly.

However, for the first month and a half, my fingers were scarred and bloody. He was obsessed with my fingers, and would chew the skin off. He'd become enraged whenever I tried the "gentle beak" technique with him, and would start taking chunks and hurting me on purpose. This was my fault, as he thought I was being aggressive and disrespectful towards him. So, I changed tactics and would tell him "bad" if he was hurting me (he wasn't doing it on purpose). I'd give him a chance or two, but if he kept it up I'd tell him "bad," and either leave the room or turn my back to him. It took a few weeks, but slowly he quit chewing on me, throwing fits, going into rages, communicating through violence, and was actually making an effort to control his temper.

Again, even though I'd never felt so much pain before, and he caused blood to pour from my fingers (we had a few pretty bad incidents), I never blamed him and I never became angry. Even if a parrotlet is hurting you on purpose, you have to be very kind, gentle, and avoid offending them or punishing them. Punishment does not work. It makes them angry and is offensive to them. For the first couple of weeks, Noah was easily offended. If they think you're being rude, they'll give you hell for it.

It was really tough, but one day I realized he hadn't bitten me hard in three days. Now we're best friends and I don't have to worry about him attacking me.

With parrotlets, they can go into sudden rages. When this happens, they can't control themselves, and the best thing to do is crinkle a plastic bag or put them in their cage to calm down. Don't bother scolding them, since they know what they're doing isn't okay. They just can't control themselves when they go into a rage, and they often go into rages for no reason. As time goes on, they'll have fewer tantrums and rampages. The crinkling of plastic makes them really happy, excited, and playful, so I'd recommend crinkling a bag every few minutes for the first month or so when you're handling them to help keep them in a good mood and discourage any sudden tantrums.

Parrotlets are extremely sweet, but they can be very hard to read and have very strong bites and enjoy biting, not to mention their tempers. But, just keep in mind that they aren't trying to hurt you, and when they do hurt you, it's because you've hurt their feelings or something. Seriously, crinkle those bags! Noah is an amazing guy, and is the sweetest, even in the beginning when he was shredding my fingers. He was just so frustrated and confused. He'd never been taught about interacting with humans or how hard he could bite, so it was a huge learning curve. He knows I'm not trying to be rude or disrespectful, and I always apologize if I do something wrong. And when I do something wrong, he doesn't bite or lunge, because he knows I see him as an equal and I'm respectful towards him.

If you get a parrotlet, prepare for a month of hell, but after that it's smooth sailing. They're not being "bad" on purpose, and they have pretty sensitive egos when you first get them. And they also don't know how to control their tempers at first.

Oh, also be aware that parrotlets are extremely accident prone. They also start fights with others, especially with predatory animal like cats, dogs, macaws (not predatory, but is capable of biting off fingers), grizzly bears, and mountain lions. But seriously, the deadlier the animal, the more likely they are to pick a fight with th—fudge! Noah just flew over to my dog and landed on his neck! Oh my gosh, somehow he wasn't hurt. But see what I mean? Jeez, Noah, he could've bit you! You have to watch your parrotlet like a hawk!

By the way, that colour mutation boy will most likely have a significantly shorter lifespan than the pure, green lines. Captive parrotlets have a shallow(?) gene pool due to the fact that the capture and importation of wild parrotlets was made illegal not long after being brought into captivity. So, they're kind of inbred. And colour mutation parrotlets are like pugs in the UK, but worse. It wouldn't be a bad idea to breed some new blood in with wild parrotlets that live at wildlife sanctuaries due to injury. I definitely don't support breeding or the capture of animals, though.

 

[snowflake311]

yeah everything you just said are all the reasons why I did not buy this little guy when I first saw him almost a year ago. I don't think a Parrotlet is the bird for me. He does not seem to mind the pet store life. He has other bird friend that come and go in the next cage over so he is not alone. There is always something going on and people to come say hi. It's not that bad of a store.

I just hope he finds a good home.

Thanks.