Parrotlet?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here.

Yes, I fully realize I will need to supervise feeding and do some basic clicker training myself, as she's too inexperienced to do it. There's a local bird place where we can board a pet parrot. When DD leaves for college, I am prepared to care for a bird.

I haven't decided yet because of two things:
1. I've heard that kitchen fumes can be deadly to birds, and we have an open floor plan.
2. PP is correct, birds are not domesticated like dogs. Is it right to house a parrot? On the other hand, it would be a bird bred for the pet market, not taken directly out of the wild. It would have a pleasant life in my house: uncaged several hours each day, large flight cage at night, enrichment, toys, specialized avian vet, etc...

Yes, that aquarium sounds nice, doesn't it? But DD wants something she can pet.

You know what? If this pandemic goes on much longer, we're going to end up with an aquarium of blue danios AND a parrotlet! Thank goodness we live in the suburbs and aren't allowed to have chickens or goats or horses, otherwise she'd want those too!

If you already have a dog, why can't she pet the dog and be responsible for a dog? I'd get a puppy over a parrotlet if dog allergies are not the issue. Birds just aren't that pettable or interesting. (Hamsters and guinea pigs are pettable but maybe have the same issue as chinchillas?)

OP here.

My daughter's particular focus is animals. She wants to be a zoologist. She feeds and grooms and plays with the dog, but apparently it's not anywhere near enough. Some birds, including the parrotlet, thrive on human attention and interaction. The parrot family is highly intelligent and trainable. They love to be gently caressed on the head and back, and snuggle on your shoulder, and of course, some can be taught to talk.

I need to research how dangerous my open floor plan is, though, regarding kitchen fumes. Don't want to kill the bird as soon as I burn something on the stove...

Get a puppy. She'll have plenty to do with training it, walking it, socializing it, etc.

I get it. I was that kid too. LOVED animals. I would choose playdates based on which friends had pets and how many. I begged my parents to let me volunteer in a pet store. I wanted to be a vet. I got ticks off a neighborhood dog because I hugged it so much. I walked another neighbor's dog so much that people thought it was mine and would yell at me for its transgressions (it used to get loose all the time from the neighbor's yard). We had a succession of small furry animals (rabbit, guinea pig, hamster, gerbils) and also some fish, and a friend had a cockatiel, and another an iguana, and none were sufficient to sate my love of animals until we got cats when I was 15. Cats are out for you because of allergies but why not get another dog.

Incidentally, today I am still a cat owner but I am not a vet or even in the sciences ... I just like animals!

[Anonymous]

Just because your daughter loves animals does not mean you should indulge her with exotic animals that were never meant to be pets. It doesn't matter if you get a captive-bred parrot (or parrotlet) -- you cannot provide the conditions the animal needs to thrive, because it's not meant to be a domestic animal in the first place.

Since your daughter wants to be a zoologist, she should start learning about what animals need to thrive in their natural environments. She should also learn about the terrible effects of the pet trade, both on wild-caught populations and the habitats that exotic animals get released into, either on purpose or accidentally, and the ecosystemic harm that results from those releases. See, e.g., Burmese pythons in the Florida Everglades or the 30+ species of wild parrots in Florida, all of which were established as a result of the pet trade. Birds don't scare people like pythons do, but that doesn't mean they're environmentally harmless.

I work in wildlife conservation and it makes me angry every day at how much environmental destruction is wrought by people who just want to satisfy their urges to own an animal that doesn't belong in the house as a pet. As an individual, your choices to support the exotic animal trade may not seem like a big deal. But the exotic animal trade, whether wild-capture driven or captive-breeding driven (which also feeds the wild-capture industry, don't kid yourself) has led to the decimation of innumerable populations of everything from fish to birds to reptiles and amphibians in their native habitats as well as the decimation of native habitats in places where those animals are released or escape and can establish breeding populations.

If your daughter is mature enough to care for an animal, she's mature enough to learn and understand the bigger issues behind the exotic pet trade and decide that her wants are not the same as needs.