I Have Outgrown the Way You Are Keeping Me

Can you remember when your pet psittacine was a baby bird? No, I do not mean still being handfed and dependent upon you, but a youngster of four or five months of age, lacking in worldly experience. Those days were straightforward, loving, carefree, were they not? It is ever so satisfying to be experiencing a pet parrot that is healthy, happy, and growing more confidently mature, by leaps and bounds every week.

Such fledglings are often insatiably curious and active from sunrise to dusk. Each dawn brings new things to learn, new stimuli, greater athleticism and coordination. April and I regularly have baby parrots in our household, many of whom have spent their first year as young birds living intimately as part of our family. Juvenile parrots when raised properly, find joy and significance in so many routine things. They make us laugh with their fumbling comical attempts to manipulate odd objects, and their experimentation with performing innovative acrobatic maneuvers. When given the chance, they solicit constant attentions from the humans for whom they feel affection.

Read more in the magazine…