Websites, books and videos are all good sources for doing research. Parrots suffer the same problem as cats in that they don’t have a large amount of resources for research like dogs do. Pet stores and websites
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| R2 trying to type on the keyboard. It's best to know what parrot ownership involves before you get involved in it. |
like Amazon are the best places to look for parrot books and a few books can be found at your local library. Books on Budgies and Cockatiels are easier to find and there are more of them than other species like Macaws and Amazons. The number of different books on a species of parrots is determined by how commonly the group or species are kept as pets. When deciding on getting a parrot it is best to have a couple books for research and a website or two bookmarked. A book or preferably two on general parrot
care, a book on parrot behaviour, one or two books on training parrots and a few on the species or group you desire to get is the best choice for your research library and magazines like Bird Talk and Birds USA (Canada has no bird magazine) are good magazines to read as well. These magazines offer tons of helpful information for both beginner and expert bird owners and offer stories from other bird owners. My research library for parrots contains about a dozen different sources including my own day to day experiences. I have about two books on Conures since my companion parrot is a conure and I have a book on training and one on parrot behaviour. I also have a general guide to parrot keeping and both the 2012 issue of Birds USA and several issues of Bird Talk magazine. I also have a parrot care pamphlet I got from Petsmart. I also have three websites bookmarked on my computers favorites page: (click on the names to visit the sites)
Exotic wings and pet things web site – this is the store my parrot came from.
Bird Channel- this is part of a large organization who also have sites for all other kinds of pets and are the publishers of both Bird USA and Bird Talk magazine. The website is filled with helpful information, cool facts, photo’s and stories from bird owners and even lists of breeders, clubs and veterinarians in North America. By far this is the best website to check out.
Parrots Canada- this is a general information website for parrots in Canada.
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| This was one of the birds I saw at the bird show. A Hyacinth macaw doing a strecth. |
Another good way to do research is to visit bird shows (these are just like cat and dog shows but are for birds and bird fanciers) and talk to breeders, bird owners and parrot clubs. Owners, breeders and clubs are always eager to help you in your research. Bird shows are excellent places to meet all these people and even acquire all sorts of parrot supplies and trinkets. Sometimes breeders also sell a few birds at their stations and you can get specialty made toys, parrot play stands and toys that are hard to acquire since pet stores have very little variety and almost little in parrot supplies. In October of 2012 I went to my first bird show. I got to see all sorts of different species, including ones that aren’t found for ownership in Canada,
and meet tons of other bird owners who gave me advice on parrot ownership. For example ever since we got R2 my whole family is always trying to get R2 to try different fruits and vegetables but he is a little picky and has a sweet beak, he loves sugary and sweet foods like apples, peaches, cereals and corn. We asked another parrot owner who also had a Green Cheeked Conure and she told us that hers loved Cherry Tomatoes so we tried it and found she was right, Green Cheeks love cherry tomatoes.
The books I have and their reviews:
This was the first parrot book I got. By far it is the best book for anyone considering on owning a parrot or are wanting to learn more on care for their birds. It is filled with excellent information and one chapter is devoted to describing all the different species kept as pets. 
These two books cover parrot behaviour, taming and training. They are informative with up to date techniques and information on solving behaviour problems, basic and advanced trick and obediance training and overall parrot behaviour.
These two books focus on the conure group of birds. They are very informative. There is books in both series that cover other species such as cockatiels, budgies and African Greys but not every species has a book yet.
Currently I don't have these books yet (but have been interested in getting them) but are well worth considering for the shopping list of anyone considering bird ownership are:
Animal planet within the last 20 years has come to the book world. They have published books on pet ownership for all major groups of pets from dogs and cats to even parrots. These are excellent books with great information to some one who is thinking of bird (or any other kind of pet) ownership or someone who is already there and desires for more knowledge on how to care for their pets.
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| The new editions have a new look. |
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| Older version. |
A Guide to a happy healthy pet is a well known title in the books on the care of pets. They cover many different kinds of pets and are very informative. These books tend to be quite hard to find since most were published in the 1990's and went out of print but places such as pet stores and Amazon are the best places to look when considering these guides. Fortunatly though the company has decided to republish these books with new up to date information and a new cover look so the chanses are if you go to the proper places you will find these books. Amazon is the best bet for these books since book stores and even pet stores rarely have them.
If you had trouble getting the video at the top to work try this web site, the video is definatly something cool to see:
http://animal.discovery.com/tv-shows/animal-planet-presents/videos/pets-101-parrots.htm
Great Post, It is definitely important to research an animal before you get one, that way you know if the fit will be right for your lifestyle. I think it is great that you have personally read so much about parrots and can review the book from your own experience.Are you planning on working with parrots perhaps in a job form when you are older, or do you just perfer to have them as companions?
ReplyDeleteI can always tell by your blog that you have done extensive research. You have useful information, statistics, and interesting facts. I think it would be so cool to go to a bird fair to see and learn so much. You talked a bit about websites. Do you find the Internet to be helpful? Like if I were to Google a parrot question, would I be able to trust what I find?
ReplyDeleteThe internet can be helpful but one should always be weary about what they read on the internet. It might be true or it might not.
ReplyDelete