i put a deposit down on a hand fed 4-5 week old male green parrotlet today!! i am beyond excited!! now comes the hard part...waiting 2-3 weeks until he is fully weened!! this will be my first parrotlet. i have had parakeets, cockatiels and a lovebird. i'm looking forward to a clever feathered friend. :-)

Hi! My name is Danelle and I'm a first time owner of a cockatiel (Sunny) and a parrotlet (Cricket). They're my first birds in the history of ever, and before Sunny I was scared of birds. I seem to have lost all fear thanks to Miss Crankypants. I come bearing gifts of photos :). If you see anything I can improve in the cages, please tell me. I just for the big rolly cage last week (I found it from someone on Craigslist for $60 :)) so it might be a little sparse. I went to a bird show today ad got a few more things for it but I just started working again after not being able to for a month, so I'm gathering things a few at a time. Anyways, happy to be here :)

x-posted various places


Sunny's cage/Sunny:



(I love that tent. She doesn't agree >.<)








She loves that bottlebrush wood.

Now for Cricket & cage:




Not as many of him because he's still shy. More to come though :D

Do you ever have that "problem" where you just can't put your parrotlet down? My little girl Kiwi sometimes gets on my fingers and will not let herself be put anywhere else. She will switch from finger to finger and just hold on no matter what. She also makes the most adorable peeps while doing it and usually results in getting pressed gently/pet (she loves to be pressed and her rough pets).

Just thought I'd share a little parrotlet story :) As for some spring parrotlet toys...I find that those plastic eggs are wonderful for Kiwi, open or closed, although she seems to prefer to play with the halves, sometimes getting them on her head. I'd love to video it but...she attacks electronics.

Well, she's trying to "play with" my necklace now, so take care parrotlet peeps! :p

My parrotlet is really bonded to me. Overall, this is very sweet, but it does present some problems.

One, if I leave a room, she'll immediately start a high-pitched chirp for me and continue it until I enter the room again. How can I pee or do the dishes without her screaming her little head off?

Two, she has not responded well to me working more hours. She started nipping the edges of her feathers off and now her chest is covered in the thinnest layer of grey fluff. I had a few days off and she let a couple of feathers grow in, and the second I went back to work, they were nipped off. Her cage is filled with toys and things to climb on, treats and things to tear apart or attack. Hell, she even has a tiny clawfoot tub birdbath. But she won't even play unless I'm in the room. I take her out when I'm home, and when we watch movies or work in the livingroom, she joins us in her travel cage (since we have cats). The spoiled little thing even has her own playlist on my computer that I play when I am at work. What am I doing wrong or missing? How can I make a living and not end up with a naked bird?

Itsy has been getting a little scruffy of late. Her chest and belly feathers are getting downy and grey now. She is about five years old, and she is on a pelleted diet that the vet recommended when I brought her in last. I also give her greens and "Just Spicy Veggies" which she loves. She has a large cage with lots of toys, and a gravity water dispenser. I wonder if it's the dry winter air. She has a bird bath, which she will only sit in when empty (it's new, so it's scary to her when filled with water, but awesome when empty). Any ideas as to what's going on and how I can help?

You can see it a bit here, but it's gotten a little worse since this picture was taken.

The last time I posted was with some queries about weather or not my blue pacific is a boy or a girl. We've continued on assuming he was a boy, a subspecies with less vibrant colorations in males. He acts very male so that's what we went with.

Just now when I took him out of his cage he was feeling very wiggle-necky and I usually have a better shot at preening off the feather casings on his head than I do at other times. As I preened him, he hunkered down in a "presenting" position and wiggle-necked quite a lot. His cloaca (is that the word?) was constricting in time with his wiggle necking, so it would seem he is feeling exceptionally amorous right now.

However, this presenting his rear-end thing seems very much a female thing. He's never done it before, nor has he ever expressed any other overtly sexual movement other than wiggle-necking.

My boyfriend and I have just started to make our own playstands/gyms for birds. The first model we have out is a hanging orb that has been approved by our picky cockatiel. Each order is custom made to fit you and your bird's needs. It comes in 3 different sizes--small (15inches), medium (18inches), and large(21inches). There is also the option of sisal, hemp, or cotton rope and feeding/drinking cups.

The Hanging Orb that is pictured is a medium with sisal rope.










If you would like something different, or have more specific needs, please comment or e-mail me at flyingfluff AT gmail DOT com and we can work out something together that both fits what you want and is reasonably priced.

NOTE: This business is just starting out, so the product you will receive will be greatly discounted. I have done some math and figured out that I'm just barely covering the material costs at this point. They start out at $35 plus $20* for s&h, but I will only be offering 3 more at this price. It will increase slightly afterwards, so I suggest you hurry if you want to get one while the cost is this low! I only accept PayPal at the moment and my paypal address is flyingfluff@gmail.com

* USPS was the cheapest at $17 + $3 for the box. UPS and FedEx was $21-$22.


x-posted to my personal journal and several other bird communities. Sorry if this shows up more than once on your friends page.

Hi! I recently posted asking for advice on the gender of Kuchi, my blue pacific parrotlet. The general consensus was that he was a female, however a friend directed me to some information about a subspecies of pacific parrotlet wherein the male is not only a dull blue as opposed to other males who have brighter hues around the eyes and rump, but that the subspecies also has a gray "wash" to the wing and tail feathers, which is true of Kuchi. So I have continued with the assumption that he is, in fact, a boy. Even if he's not, that's the pace he's setting for me, so I'm going to roll with it.

Anyhow, he seems to be having his first real molt since I acquired him last July. He's dropping tail and wing feathers every so often, has been vocalizing more loudly and more often and has taken to digging holes in his various soft toys. He's also happier than usual to be kissed and snuggled. It would appear that he is experiencing a breeding season, but I can't seem to find information about the hormonal habits of parrotlets not relating to breeding pairs. Any sources you recommend would be appreciated!

Meantime, is there anything special about rutting, presumably male parrotlets I should know about? I've been through this with my budgie, and have read up on the topic generally relating to parrots but not specifically to parrotlets.

Thanks!

Okay. So I have a stupid question for you folks.

I adopted Kuchi last July. His original owner believed him to be a male, but didn't know a lot about sexing and also had never had him DNA tested. Since July I have known Kuchi to be entirely male: He shuns men, especially my husband, is head over heels for me and likes my mom, especially her voice (I'm told we cannot be told apart over the phone which might have something to do with it). He'd defend me to the death, tries to feed me etc. I know that females can bond to their female humans just as much as males can but because his personality is so aggressive, I just took his sex for granted.

For some reason a question of his gender began to form in the back of my mind earlier this week. Before I adopted him, I looked at all of the websites with photos and information of sexing a pacific parrotlet. It never occurred to me that the reason Kuchi didn't look like the males in the pictures was because he wasn't really a male! Since July I've worked on getting him on a healthier diet, which has been pretty successful. Up until now I believed his dull feather color was due to nutrition...but it's not.

I'm 95% sure at this point that he is actually a she. Here's a photo of him, I'm sorry I couldn't get one with wing's spread. He has no streaks behind his eyes, and while his rump and primary wing feathers are slightly darker and more vibrant in color, they aren't as vibrant as they ought to be for a male.

What is your impression?



When does egg production/laying happen? Initially I'd avoided the idea of a female bird because it cuts down on medical trouble to some small extent (no risk of impacted eggs if it's a male, right?). I'm happy that Kuchi loves me so much and that we are like two peas in a pod. His or her gender doesn't matter too much though it'll be tough transitioning my pronouns. ;)

Where do you get it?

My parrotlet's all but stopped playing with/destroying the "usual" toys I get him, so any suggestions would be great.

(He's still very active, eating properly and pooping fine, so he isn't sick.... I think he's just bored of all the stuff I've been rotating in and out of his cage for the past year or so.)

My fiance brought home a baby female p'let as a companion for my 3 year old male awhile back. They got along great for a few months, then Petri (my boy) got eyes for her. He became very possessive over her to the point of aggression. (The second I would take him into another room, he was back to being sweet old Petri.) As much as I loved little girl, we had to give her away. Now, he seems to have transferred his feelings toward his favorite toy in his cage- the one he's had with him since birth and the one he's always slept next to. He starts making the girl bird's trademark chirps, regurgitates, and tries to, uh... get "amorous" with it. If I try to get him out of his cage at any time, he bites me- but only if he's next to that toy. If he's on a different perch, he comes right out. I don't know what to do. The biting thing isn't a big problem and I keep the toy washed and clean, but I don't know if it's somehow unhealthy for him to have developed such an attachment with a toy. Any ideas/advice?

Anyone else notice how their parrotlets are water resistant?

:p it's so neat :D

Hey everybody. New to all this so go easy on me.  =)  I'm getting my 1st parrotlet, Rascal,  in the next few weeks (depends on when they can get him on the plane in this heat)   I'm trying to get things ready for him here at home. The biggest thing I'm stumped on is the cage. I've read on different websites that these birds are about 5 inches long yet other websites say that cockatiel size cages are recommended???? That seems contradictory to me. Do they really only get about 5 inches? 

I only plan on having the one parrotlet so I won't need room for another buddy. He's a handfed baby so I plan on having him out of the cage quite a bit. He'll probably just be in there when I have errands to run, at night, or whenever he just feels like being in there. I would think obviously the more space a bird has, the better. Is something like Avian Adventures Nina, or Kings ELT-1818 gonna be about the right size? 

Does anyone have any experience with the Lava Line cages at Birdcages4less.com?
http://birdcages4less.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?page=B/PROD/LVSC/PA5712

I'm looking for a gym for my new parrotlet. Most of the gyms I've found seem kind of boring and as I would like him to spend a lot of his time on this gym, I'd like it to be large enough to keep him busy. I also am looking for something about chest level, even if I put a tabletop style gym on a table he's still awfully low. I can rig up or buy a stand seperately, the important part is just finding something that will keep him occupied, preferably for around $50. Any suggestions? What do your parrotlets use? I have a gym for my parakeet that he is terrified to sit on but it's a bit small for the parrotlet.

Petri, my parrotlet, likes to chatter up a storm. He tells me all the time that "he's a pretty bird" and "Petri's a good bird." Being a good bird is a good thing- and being a pretty bird is a good thing, right? Weeeeeell, he decided to really get the point across and put the two together. Now he keeps saying "Petri's a pretty good bird!"

Does anybody else's bird love to go for rides? Petri gets so excited when we get in the car. He immediately goes to his water bowl and takes a bath, then preens out and tells me what a good baby he is for 30 minutes straight.

I haven't posted here for a really long time, but my Parrotlet, Peepers, died a few months ago. I just now got around to making a memorial video for her and I thought I'd post it here because I probably won't be posting for awhile. I'll still read the community but I'm a little "sore" still so this is my way of coping with it.



The song is by Giacomo Puccini (performed by Leslie Garrett)...about a young woman who says she will die without the love of her life. I thought it was mildly appropriate (I was going to use "My Immortal" by Evanescence, but I'm sure it's been done a trillion times and I wanted to be a little different...lol). Anyway here is my official "goodbye" to my little green daughter...I miss you baby.

x-posted.

hi, i'm new here. our family has a lot of parrots, but this will be *my* first parrot. today i went to a very nice aviary and picked out a baby pacific parrotlet. he doesn't get to come home for a few more weeks until he is weaned, but i'm very excited. (already did quite a bit of shopping!)







and this last picture is of him today after i left!! sooo cute. <3




my family also has a goffin, meyer's, red-bellied, blue fronted amazon and a white fronted amazon.

x-posted.

I've noticed that the tips of our parrotlet's nails are grey/black, are they just dirty? I'm not sure how they would get dirty, I've never had a bird who got dirty nails!

Also, a cute little mini-story. The other day while she was in mid-headscratch, I started rubbing her head and she froze with her foot in the air and enjoyed her headrub :) it was so adorable.

Hello parrotlet people! :p I have a little question/story here!

So we've had our parrotlet for...ooh about 8 months and she's 9 or 10 months old. She's also kind of insane. When we went to the breeder to find out new parrotlet we were introduced to her(Kiwi) and her sister. This sister(boyfriend is arguing that it was in fact not her sister) of hers was constantly chewing or trying to chew on Kiwi's eyelids. Now our "little dear" Kiwi is also fascinated with going at our eyebrows and eyelids :p

Anyway, question, does anyone else's parrotlet do this? Or do we just have a special eye eater :)

She doesnt seem to do it in an agressive way, but its really scary when she's going for your eyes :p

As I went to post this she saw the mouse pointer :p She is now trying to catch it...better than her trying to remove my keys :D

HAve you got any tips on how to get my little one to use a cuttlebone, mineral block or anything else to sharpen her beak.

She has been grinding her beak and it literally hurts my own jaw and makes my skin crawl, even though I know that it's normal for her to do. It's just been happening more frequently. I have given her a cuttlebone, surrounded by a mineral block which according to her previous owners, she used to love. I have also given her a little treat cup that is made of a mineral block, and she has tons of wooden toys and ladders.

Hello, how are you all and your parrotlets doing? :) my boyfriend and I have had our parrotlet for about 7 months and we've been wondering if this behavior of her's is normal...she prefers to only eat her food over her waterdish, or she'll dunk it in, which results in her getting seeds all over her beak, which she then goes to wash off in the waterdish.

Needless to say, we need to do a lot of water changing. I'm not worried about the behavior or trying to stop it, I'm just curious if any of your parrotlets do the same thing? I've never heard of any kind of behavior like this in parrotlets in the sources I've read on them, but I also haven't found the best sources.

Recently, I've discovered how to help my parrotlet enjoy showers; quite a change from the angry squawking that accompanied me in the shower before. Now she mantles and holds her wings forward, pins her eyes, wiggles her tail and bobs her head... looking just like a miniature Amazon.

But I'm not sure how long to give her in the shower. She only likes the spray deflected over my head in a certain way, so I have to stand there deflecting it while she bathes. Today, I know she wanted to play in the rain longer; she hopped down from her perch with her wings held out. Sorry, little girl!

How long do you give your birds in the shower, if you bring them in there?

Hello, all! I wanted to introduce my little guy, Petri (name from the Land Before Time), a Pacific. He had two owners before me but never got much attention. He was pretty scared of humans when I first met the little guy, but now he's a definite people-bird. I made him a member of the family at two years old, about six months ago. He's got me wrapped around his little toe, I'll tell you that much! He loves spinach, sweet potatoes, and Cheerios. He's "potty-trained" to only go in his cage and he says "turn around," "he's a good bird," and "that's a pretty bird."

I've been wondering about something- Petri seems to dislike the voice of one of my friends (Sarah), to the point where he can go from being happily perched on her shoulder to attacking her with the first few words she says! (He's friendly with everyone else, and meets new people often.) One day, he was happy as a lark on my roommate's shoulder and Sarah said something to her. Petri jumped off my roommate's shoulder, ran the length of the couch, and jumped on Sarah's shoulder, biting her neck! Has anyone else experienced a problem with this or have an explanation as to why he may do this?

Onward to the pictures!
1. "This is my good side"


2. "Homework- yum!"

Hi everyone!!

After much thought & research I have decided to get a parrotlet :) After about a month of searching for one near me I have found a female baby who is now weaned--I am getting her in five days. I was wondering if anyone could point me to some good sites,give me advice, etc. about caring for parrotlets. I've been reading avidly but any help would be greatly appreciated. Also, what do I need to get for her? I have bought some millet spray, a cuttle bone, some toys. I will be getting a cage tomorrow--I already know it has to be 24" all around at least :) I also will have to get food of course, but I first have to ask the breeder what she is currently feeding her...

Thank you :)

x-posted