Parrots as gifts, bad idea



He may look beautiful but this Macaw needs a lot of care
and attention. Never buy a bird, especially one like this,
on impulse.

Whether for the winter holidays or a birthday you should never give a living animal, no matter what type, as a gift. During the celebrations a parrot could be forgotten and not receive the proper care it needs. Another thing to worry about is the person receiving the animal gift might not be ready, in a state or even truly want or understand the needs of the animal, especially something as exotic as a parrot.

The decision to get a parrot needs lots of research and the person has to be in the right place in their life (such as financially, mentally and lifestyle stable) in order to consider parrot ownership. Not to mention the decision to get a parrot has to be a family decision, everyone has to be involved and cooperate in the birds care and attention. Parrots need lots of care and attention, sometimes very specialised care and attention, and you have to be willing and able to give it this care and attention for its entire life and for some species this is a major issue. The larger the bird the longer they live and the more care and attention they need! A Macaw for instance needs at least four to six hours of daily attention not to mention daily care, lots of space (as much as a Great Dane) and can live for 100 years or more! Even small species such as Lovebirds, Cockatiels, Budgies and Small Conures need at least two to three hours of daily attention plus time for daily care, a cage as big as or bigger than an end table and can live between 15 to 30 years.

Each year hundreds of birds are put into shelters or released into the wild where they will only die because the people who got them never knew or understood what they were getting into or found they were unprepared or no longer able to care for the animal. Don’t be one of these people, make sure that you can 100% be able to care for the animal you wish to acquire and when acquiring it wait till after the celebrations to get one.

Parrots don't make good gifts.
If you know someone who likes parrots
and want to get them a parrot related
gift go for something other than the living
animal.

Just like other animals parrots need a lot of supplies. The biggest and most expensive will most likely be the cage. This is your parrots own personal apartment in your home where they will have safety and privacy. Then there are the toys, food and water bowls, the food and water, liners for the bottom of the cage, perches, a carrying case, a bed, a qualified veterinarian... the list goes on. Parrots need lots of supplies just like other animals.

If you want to get someone something parrot related as a gift, think of something other than the actual animal. Maybe get them a book, poster or some sort of art, a calendar or even a teddy or toy parrot or some other parrot paraphernalia instead. They’ll probably appreciate those more than a real parrot, especially at that time. You could even give to a charity to help parrots in the person’s name or a shelter; yes parrots do end up in shelters. I did something similar once. For my birthday once I bought some cat food for the local shelter which was having trouble providing for the large amount of cats that had been brought to the shelter that year and were in bad need of supplies. I donated some food to for some cats that needed it and parrots in both the wild and domestic world need some help.

When thinking of giving a gift don’t think of a living being go for something else related to the gift you wanted to give. It’s a better idea and won’t cause a lot of headaches and pains.

Parrots and the Holidays

R2's first Christmas, he's unwrapping his present a new toy for him to rip up. He still has the toy and loves playing with it.

The Holidays no matter if you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah or any other holiday at this time can be a wonderful, joyful but stressful time of the year for both the people and their animal companions. It's a time for celebrations and being together with family and parrots want to join in too. When celebrating your holiday make sure to include the parrot in some of your celebrations.  All parrots will enjoy singing along to holiday carols no matter if their “Hanukkah, Oh Hanukkah” or “Hark! The Herald Angel sings”. Encourage them to sing along and dance with you. They also will love sitting with you while watching holiday specials. R2, my parrot loves both Christmas and Hanukkah songs and enjoys singing along and dancing to them, though some of the more relaxing songs make him sleepy. R2 also loves some of the Christmas specials like the Red Green Christmas along with the holiday specials from the Animaniacs, Rocko’s Modern Life and The Magic School Bus. I have yet to show him the Charlie brown Christmas special but I’m pretty sure he’ll love it. At the time of writing it’s only his second Christmas.

The holidays almost always include large family gatherings and if they occur at the house of someone who owns a parrot then precautions should be taken. In everyone’s best interest, especially the parrots, while everyone’s around it would be best that the parrot remains in the safety of his/her cage. People should be encouraged to talk to the parrot, even if it’s just to say one or two words now and then so the parrot doesn’t feel left out of the celebrations but people should seriously avoid physical contact and for good reason. These gatherings can cause lots of strong mixed emotions often with large amounts of excitement. A parrot will pick up on these emotions, especially the excitement, and all these emotions will easily over stimulate the parrots own emotions and cause them to start nipping and screaming uncontrollably, it’s not their fault it’s how parrots react when they get over excited. For this reason adults should make it clear to children both before and during the party that they can chat with Polly but never should they put their fingers by the cage unless the owner is with them and says it’s okay and if the bird is in a quite relaxed environment.

With family gatherings, and one of my most favorite features of holidays, comes plenty of food! Normal regulations when it comes to food such as no chocolate, alcohol, pork and avocados still apply but Polly can still enjoy your holiday meals with you, just make sure the ingredients in the food you let your parrot have are safe for him. R2 enjoys his little bowl of Turkey, carrots, corn and potatoes (his favorite followed by the turkey and corn) on Christmas eve and my sister loves to bake so she makes cookies following my guide lines (these are largely making sure the ingredients used are safe for parrots to eat) that R2 can have and enjoy for the Holidays, he loves his special cookies.

Gifts are another major feature of the holidays and your parrot can help you with these too. In my family all our pets get a few presents, at the least one or two, for the holidays and me and my dad both made stockings from scratch using fabric, a sewing machine and glitter glue for each of them. This could be a great time to finally replace your parrots old warn out and damaged toys with brand new ones.  You could wrap the toys and let them open their presents like everyone else but extreme caution should be taken with this. Make sure the parrot doesn’t eat the paper and make sure they don’t play with tape. It’s probably best just to tie a bow onto their toys, again don’t let them play with the ribbon. Your parrot could also join you in wrapping gifts for people, remember they just want to be apart of the family too and help in any way they can so don’t get made if Polly rips the wrapping paper or chases your hands as you try to wrap the gifts. For his first Christmas R2 helped wrap presents for my mother with me and my dad. He would chase our hands, play with what we were trying to wrap and tear at the paper when he could.

Another thing to take into thought for the holidays is the iconic symbols of the holidays; namely the Christmas tree and the Menorah and Dreidel. First thing first you might think it would make a wonderful holiday photo to have your parrot sitting in a tree but this is a bad idea, especially real trees. The decorations and lights for all festivals are dangerous and certain species of trees are toxic to parrots plus the sap from a real tree is not healthy for parrots to ingest. Plus you might find, like my Parrot R2, that your bird whose a member of a family of birds that basically live their entire lives in trees is actually scared of the tree. This isn’t something to worry about if you think of it we only bring our holiday decorations out for a few weeks once a year so your parrot most likely will find these decorations alien to it’s environment which often causes a fear or at least weariness towards them. With Menorah’s the only real danger comes from the flames on the candles. The smoke from the fire, even though there isn’t much, could cause some problems for your birds highly sensitive respiratory system so the Menorah should be placed away from the parrots cage and you might want to consider an air purifier, even if it’s just a small one to place by the parrots cage (this would actually be beneficial to everybody even outside the holidays especially in the north during the winter when it can get really stale and stuffy indoors). Menorah’s also tend to be have a polished and shiny silver or gold colour to them and parrots like many other animals are attracted to shiny objects so keep an eye out and make sure Polly doesn’t get into trouble plus you want to make sure your parrot doesn’t come into contact with the flames, even a minor burn can kill a bird especially small ones. Though the song famously states that Dreidel’s are made of clay this isn’t entirely true, they are often made of wood but no matter what material it’s made of you shouldn’t let Polly have fun with it. They can easily damage a Dreidel no matter what it's made of.

I know I’ve made quite a big list and their might be things I’ve left out but I have one more tip about the Holidays and your parrot. It deals with scented objects like candles, potpourri and air fresheners. These along with other strongly scented objects should never be anywhere near a parrot, best to keep these locked away in a room your parrot isn’t in and won’t be in for at least a day or two and far enough away that the scents won’t blow into the parrots vicinity. It’s not their fault that such strong smelling objects can and do kill them it’s the way nature designed their lungs. It’s very efficient but it has a major drawback of being very sensitive to smells and chemicals.  

With that said I have to say enjoy the holidays and don’t forget that not only people enjoy the holidays but our animal companions do too so make sure that when your celebrating to include them and take care to give them the proper safety they need so they can happily and safely enjoy the holidays with you for years to come. Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah or any other holiday make sure to relax and have fun with both your human and feathered and furry family members.