Parrotlets

[mishimouse]

I saw another post in this forum about parrotlets so I thought I'd post about mine. I read in that topic that they need to be kept in pairs and that they are quiet; both are wrong. They don't need to be in pairs. And they aren't as loud as a large bird may be, but they do chirp constantly and it's a loud and pestering chirp. Parrotlets are the smallest of the hookbills. They're sexually diamorphic. And they are expensive but they do make great pets.

I have a blue Pacific parrotlet and her name is Tiki. She's a year old. Here are a couple of pictures that I've taken.

[Andrea]

What a beautiful colour!
She's a cutie!

Does she say any words?

[hamwolf89]

wow i lovee the colors

in the wild they stayed in small pair of 2 or 3s but as pets they dont have to be in pairs. Like dwarf hamster. Some people keep pairs some house them seperetly.

[mishimouse]

Andrea, she doesn't talk. Most female birds won't. Males are much more vocal. My cockatiel can whistle certain songs and he could learn to talk as well.

hamwolf, keeping birds together makes them less sociable. They depend on one another and won't become friendly with humans. Birds naturally flock in the wild to keep away from predators, they don't NEED to be kept together.

[Die Fledermaus]

kanez.proboards22.com/index.cgi?board=OP&action=display&thread=1157932412

That is the thread I posted on these birds in a local pet store where I played with them. The unusual blue one, a male, went for $400! I assume to a breeder. They are about the size of a parakeet, I think. They were relatively tame and sweet.

Mish's lovely photos above do not show them to scale - how small they are.

They did flock together (six or more of them at the start) in the pet store cage, but there were only two left last time I was there, and they did seem bonded, but I know individually one will bond to the human caregiver.

As for noise, in the store they did not seem loud at all; my parakeets are noisier.

[mishimouse]

Tiki is about four inches tall and she weighs twenty-eight grams. She's friendly and socialable; I believe she's lived alone all of her life.

When a bird is with another bird, they detach themselves from humans. That's why breeders take babies away immediately to handfeed them instead of letting the parents of the bird take care of them. Keeping two or more birds together will make the birds depend upon each other and not their owner.

I thought Tiki was quiet too when I saw her first. They're not loud like a large bird or anything, but like I said, they have a constant chirp and it does get to be "loud" for that of a small bird.

She costed me nearly two hundred dollars but it was a good investment, I think.

[hamwolf89]

I went to a friend house and i tihng they had this same type of bird and it is LOUD. Trust me they have a huge house, and have 2 backyards, and i can STILL hear that bird screaming. It even bit me....

[mishimouse]

Well, they don't scream. So I doubt it was a parrotlet.

They chirp. And it's a sort of quiet chirp but it gets loud. It's not like you hear them outside or anything. And it's not annoying because it's loud, it gets annoying because it's repetitive and persistant.

[Die Fledermaus]

The one I mentioned who was actually a light blue (and so pretty) was considered rare and the cost was more than normal.

My cockatiel once in awhile for some reason starts to repeatedly chirp - very loudly! So loud in fact I can't even hear the TV when set at a normal volume. Luckily that does not occur often.

[mishimouse]

Mine is a light blue color as well. It doesn't make them any more rare, really. They're the same kind of parrotlet. Usually, a store sells Pacific parrotlets and normal parrotlets are green. Tiki is a mutation, as are all other Pacific parrotlet colors like lutino, yellow, fallow, whatever.

Parrotlets usually cost in the $200 to $300 dollar range and if it's above that, it's really kind of crazy. A normal green parrotlet at the place where I got Tiki costed about $125. There was a male yellow as well and he was $200, like Tiki.

We're considering getting another cockatiel as well. S/he's a pearl, and it'll be weaned by next week. I'm thinking about getting another bird as well. I was thinking about a parakeet just because I haven't had one in a long time, but I'm interested in a quaker parrot as well. We'll have to see.

[Die Fledermaus]

Hmm. Maybe my local pet store overcharged, or maybe that is just the way prices are in NYC.

Quakers are (I think) "monk parakeets". There is a big colony of them in the steeples of the large local cemetery I volunteer at. How the heck do these tropical birds survive the Winters?! They have prospered all over the Northeast even to the extent of becoming pests to some. I hear they are very noisy, and unless gotten young rather wild. (?). Lovely birds though.

I have a thread up in which I mention caiques. Very interesting medium-sized parrots. A friend loves her two.

[mishimouse]

Yeah, I do know a lot about birds. I spend a lot of time down at a bird store interacting with the ones they have there and helping out.

Quaker parrots cost just as much as parrotlets do so I'm not sure if I'm going to invest in one of them for awhile. That's why I'm considering parakeets. They're WAY less expensive but I really don't know yet. It all depends on whether or not we get another cockatiel.

[Die Fledermaus]

I recently started a thread on macaws. The biggest are apparently the bluish green ones, and a local eatery has three of them in their basement, two in a huge cage. I posted photos. Those two are not friendly, accept to their one owner, in fact they are quite aggresive. They are magnificent though.

There was a cockatoo in a pet store who got to know me so well she followed me around whenever I walked in, even if I tried to ignore her. Very smart birds, and apparently generally sweeter than macaws, or so I am told. She is now in a good home; I neither had the time for her nor the money for a cockatoo and a cage.

[ano]

What a great colour.

I've never heard of the name "parrotlet"- are they smaller than a usual parrot?

[Die Fledermaus]

I would say they are the size of a softball.

Parrots come in many sizes - see my thread about Caiques, which are medium sized parrots. That thread is in Other Pets forum, and has some lovely photos of the birds, and of my mangled hand!

CAIQUES