The Ultimate Guide To Parrots: Facts, Types, Food & Health!

This article, the ultimate guide to parrots includes various traits of parrots, their origin and evolution, diet, health, nutrition, size, and types. This guide mounts on thorough research and critical analysis. It is a holistic approach to petting for beginners or experienced owners. 

This guide comprises answers to all the questions, such as, did parrots develop from dinosaurs? How parrots can speak like humans? Do they understand human language? The answers to these questions are right here in the heart of this article.

Are parrots good at petting? What are the affordable parrots you can buy without affecting your household expenditure? How do parrots differ from dinosaurs? We will know about all of these in the article ahead. We have discussed diet, nutrition, and diseases. Keep digging until you find out what you are looking for. 

Parrot’s Origin and Evolution: Interesting Facts!

Parrots, like all birds, are dinosaurs. This fact excites people to know more about the origin and evolution of parrots.  

Parrots are the birds that belong to the Psittaciformes order and are classified into 372 species and 86 genera. Parrots are abundantly present in the tropical and subtropic regions of the Earth. Humans have petted parrots since the bygone era for entertainment and trade purposes. Their Imitating behavior and sweet voice fascinate human beings. 

The origin of the pre-assumed parrots dates to 50 million years back, when the dinosaurs were almost extinct. But some recent theories about the origin of birds suggest modern parrots have existed since 20-23 million years ago. Many researchers also claim parrots were present when the dinosaurs were ruling the world, which we at present consider false. 

Fossils of modern parrots were first found in Europe 20 million years ago. The Anthropologists have also registered Europe as an origin region of the pre-assumed parrot. Pre-assumed parrot is a fossil of the parent dinosaur of parrots. Modern Parrots usually come from tropical regions or where the temperature is higher, the climate is more humid and wetter. 

Did parrots evolve from dinosaurs? Many of us do not believe that dinosaurs are extinct, but they are still present, which we call birds. The fossils collected during the research have spread shocking waves amongst scientists. Parrots belong to a dinosaur, Theropod, whose fossils previous researchers suggested were parrots.

Types Of Parrots: How do they differ?

There are hundreds of species of parrots present in the world. We classify them in their physical structure, size, and weight. 

Small-sized parrots:

Lovebirds, small parakeets, and cockatiels are among the small-sized parrots. 

♦️Love birds

Love birds are smaller birds whose size ranges from 5 to 7 inches or 13 to 17 centimeters. Their weight varies between 50 – 70 grams according to their size. Lovebirds are among the smallest birds with a green back, colorful heads, and long sharp beaks. 

♦️Cockatiels

Cockatiels are small-sized, socially active parrots. Their size ranges from 12 to 13 inches from head to tail. They are colorful and talkative birds with an average life span of 25 years. Their Body weight depends on their size, which varies between 90 to 125 grams. 

♦️Parrotlets

Parrotlets are also among the smallest parrots, with an average size between 4 – 5 inches and a weight of 30 to 35 grams. They are colorful birds and even smaller than lovebirds and cockatiels. They are mostly green or blue colored with a small curved beak. 

♦️Small Parakeets

Small parakeets, also known as budgies, are small-sized parrots but no lesser than Lovebirds and parrotlets. They are 90 to 150 centimeters long from head to tail and have a body weight of 45 to 65 grams. Being small, small parakeets are colorful birds with distinct types of shades on their body. 

♦️Conure

Conures are the most diverse and small to medium-sized parrots with all the color spectrum. They are vividly known for their long tails and body size, which, on average, varies from 10 to 20 inches. Their body weight, which is between 40 to 90 grams, depends on their genre. 

Medium-Sized Parrots

We have entitled birds medium-sized if they correspond to the same group.

♦️Lorikeets

Lorikeets are social birds and want to live in noisy flocks. They are rainbow-colored with a tapered tail, and small-sized birds like parakeets, cockatiels, etc. They are 20 to 35 cm or 10 to 12 inches ‌long from head to tail and 100 – 160 grams heavy. 

♦️Caiques

Caiques are brightly colored, square-tailed, and medium-sized parrots with distinct sharp beaks. They are enjoying and playful birds with a lenient weight of about 150 – 170 grams. Caiques are 10 -11 inches long and can live up to 40 – 50 years. 

♦️Pionus parrots

Pionus parrots are blue and green colored medium-sized parrots with a short and squared tail. We find them in North America and Mexico. The life span of Pionus parrots is over 30 years. The size and weight of the Pionus parrots are 10 – 12 inches and 200 – 260 grams. 

♦️Large parakeets

Medium-sized parakeets are colorful birds with long tempered tails. They are intelligent and talkative. Large parakeets are 15 – 17 inches or 33 – 46 cm long parrots with a powerful beak. They are heavier birds than many smaller-sized parrots. Their weight measures up to 120 – 140 grams. 

♦️Mini Macaws

Mini macaw or severe macaw is a green-colored parrot with a bluish shade over its feathers. Their life span is about 40 years. A macaw within a range of 50 cm or 20 inches is a Mini macaw. The weight of a severe macaw is more than all the above-defined parrots, it varies between 300 – 400 gm. 

Large-sized parrots

We categorized large parrots based on their size and weight. Large-sized parrots possess a long tail and have more body weight.

♦️Amazon parrots

Amazon parrots evolved from the amazon genus. They are green-colored, blue, yellow, and red-headed, medium to large-sized parrots with short tails. Male and female are approximate of the same size. They are 15 – 18 inches long and 400 – 500 grams heavy. Amazon parrots are good pets because of their imitating behavior. 

♦️African Gray Parrots

Gray parrots, Congo gray parrots, or African gray, are known by various names. African gray parrots, as the name suggests, are gray colored with black shades on the neck and black beak. 

They fall in the large parrot category because of their size and weight, which varies within a size range of about 13 in or 33 cm and 400 – 700 grams. 

♦️Eclectus

Eclectus parrots are eye-catching, talkative, and medium to large-sized parrots. Male Eclectus parrots are bright green colored which differ from females. Whereas females are dark red-colored parrots with yellow beaks. The weight of the Eclectus parrots ranges from 450 to 550 grams. Their size varies within the range of 30 – 40 cm. 

♦️Macaws

Macaws are one of the most beautiful breeds in the parrot’s family. They are long-tailed and colorful parrots with a variety of colors and shades on their body. Macaws are 90 to 100 cm long and 1 – 1.5 kg heavy. Their voice differs from various parrots’ genres. Macaws are pet birds because they are talkative and easy to mimic. 

♦️Hawk-headed parrots

Hawk-headed or Red-fan parrots are among the most amazing and beautiful birds found on Earth. They are loyal, bossy, talkative, and attractive parrots with a lifespan of 40 – 50 years. 

Hawk-headed parrots are 13-15 inches long from head to tail and 300 – 400 grams heavy. 

Are Parrots Good For Beginners? 

Parrots are one of the most astounding birds humans have ever petted. Their colorful feathers, soft skin, nippy behavior, and sweet voice make your home glorious. However, parrots also need your extra care and attention.

If you are an experienced bird owner, it is quite handy for you to pet birds. If you are a beginner, follow the list we have designed for the beginner bird owner. 

How To Buy Parrots Online?

If you are also one who wants to pet birds, but they are expensive for you, here is a list of inexpensive parrots that you can buy without being worried. 

Parrots’ Behavior: Food, Breeding, Sleep & Communication!

To pet the parrots, we need to understand their behavior, habits, and traits. Understanding their behavior will make it easy for both of you (you and your parrot) to deal with each other. You need to understand the pattern of their life. 

Diet & Nutrition

Knowledge about parrot’s diets and food will help you keep your pets healthy and safe. The best food for your parrot is healthy food. Other than this, it may cause your parrots to suffer from health-related issues. 

1. Fresh vegetables that you can feed your parrots are as follows;

• Mushrooms
• Carrot
• Spinach
• Tomatoes 
• Pumpkins
• Sweet potatoes 
• Broccoli
• Hot peppers  

2. Some fresh fruits that you can feed your parrots are; 

• Apples
• Bananas
• Grapes
• Mangoes
• Peaches
• Citrus Fruits
• Pomegranate 
• Papaya 
• Passion Fruit 

3. These are the seeds you can feed your parrots; 

• Barley
• Corns
• Rice 
• Pumpkin
• Sunflower 
• Oats
• Buckwheat

Best homemade food for parrots: 

Like human beings, parrots also have choices that you need to know while petting parrots. We are providing you with a list of the best homemade foods for parrots. 

• Sweet potato balls
• Sweet corns
• Mash
• Green smoothie 
• Birdie Bread
• Pellet Pasta 

5 safe herbs for parrots:

There are hundreds of herbs that are considered safer for parrots. We are providing you with the best herbs for parrots. 

• Parsley
• Coriander
• Basil
• Star anise
• Oregano

Foods to avoid feeding parrots:

Some such foods can lead to many health problems for your parrots. Prevent yourself and your parrots from feeding and eating these foods, fruits, and beverages. 

• Alcohol may almost kill your parrots. 

• Avocado is a toxic food for your parrot. It may lead your parrots to many heart issues. 

• Caffeine can increase the heart rates in parrots. Avoid offering your parrot caffeinated beverages. 

• Salt can cause dehydration, kidney failure, heart-related issues, and even death. 

• Fat Excessive intake of fatty foods in parrots can increase the level of cholesterol in arteries, which can cause strokes and heart attacks. 

For more: Foods For Parrots: Foods To Avoid Feeding Parrots!

Breeding

Are parrots easy to breed? This question may arise in every naïve mind: are parrots easy to bread? The answer to this question depends on several factors. If you are breeding your parrots for the first time, then the answer is no.

Parrots are difficult to breed. They take lots of commitment, time, and money. For this, you may also need breeding cages, foods, and supplements.  

Mating starts in parrots when they kiss and rub bodies against one another. When they mate, the male parrot mounts on her back and rubs his cloacae with hers. While injecting his cloacae, testicles release sperm, which gets inside her body through cloacae, then fertilization in her body starts.   

Can parrot crossbreed? It happens rarely and occasionally that parrots can crossbreed. Parrots only mate with parrots with higher DNA matching and similarities in traits. Otherwise, parrots only breed with a potential mate. Parrots are the name of a species under the domain of Psittaciformes.

However, parrots live in the same type of group. It is rare for wild parrots to share a habitat with other parrots.

Parrots & Sleeping

Sleep is the essential element of parrot health. Lack of sleep in parrots can develop biting habits and make them stressed. The duration of a parrot’s sleep is 10 – 12 hours, which is essential. They can sleep with one eye open to protect themselves from threats. They sleep in one semi hemisphere and awake with the other to monitor the surroundings. 

It is difficult for parrots to live in a hustling environment, which interrupts their sleep. Parrots sleep with both their eyes closed. For this, you can keep them in an isolated place where they can not be interrupted while sleeping. You can cover their cage with a dark blanket that will shun sunlight and noise from entering inside the cage.

The sleep cycle for parrots is 10 to 12 hours. Parrots can be stressed out if they can not complete this cycle anyhow. Parrots come from tropic regions where sunlight directly falls in the daytime for 12 hours, and the sunsets for 12 hours. That is why parrots are habitual to this cycle. 

Communication

A Parrot’s brain can hold up a conversation with humans but can not continue because of the lack of vocabulary.

It is a wonder seeing parrots talking and imitating us and our voices. But this question arises in every brain: how do parrots communicate? Parrots have more special features than other birds that help them speak and repeat the sentences to which they listen. Parrots also communicate with their body language. To understand words, we also need to understand their body language. 

Can a parrot hold a conversation? Yes, to some extent. Parrots can hold conversations with humans and their companions as well. 

But the conversation between humans and parrots depends on the vocabulary that has been fed into the parrot’s brain to hold a conversation. These imitating features defer parrots from the rest of the birds. 

Common diseases of parrots

The most common disease in parrots evolves because of malfunctioning in their body while bad environmental factors occur.  

❗️Lack of Energy

Parrots may experience a lack of energy if their diet and sleep are not at the right time. Deficiencies of vitamins can also make them feel low. 

❗️Loss of Feathers

During the molting phases, parrots lose their feathers. That is normal, but if there is excessive feather loss, it is because of stress and deficiencies in their bodies.  

❗️Weight loss

Weight loss in parrots can be because of malnourishment or because of the acid imbalance in their body, which causes diarrhea to happen. Infection in the gastrointestinal tract is also a factor for parrots to lose weight. 

❗️Green or yellow droppings

Green drops with odorless urine depict good health. If the poop is rusty brown, red, and yellow, it means an abnormal dropping and is a sign of liver or kidney infection. 

❗️Itching

If your bird is scratching its body regularly, it depicts that it is having an infection, and you need to take care of it. 

❗️Difficulty in breathing

The respiratory problems in parrots can arise because of many environmental factors or malfunctioning inside the body. It can develop because of the enlargement of an organ that can cause difficulty in breathing. 

How do you treat a sick parrot at home?

First, you must visit an avian doctor who can prescribe medication for parrots.

Keep your birds warm and isolated from human touch and the environment where their sleep is disrupted. Take care of a healthy and proper diet suitable for the particular disease. 

5 Common Parrot Diseases & Symptoms:

🦜Psittacosis or parrot fever

This is an infection caused by bacterium chlamydia psittaci.

• The fever in parrots is because by a lung infection in parrots.
• The disease can be widespread in humans from parrots. 
• Infected people can experience fever, cough, and respiratory illness. 

🦜Giardia 

Giardia is a proton parasite that lives in your bird’s intestine. 

• Giardia can cause diarrhea, itching, and weight loss in your birds. 
• The germ gets into your bird’s body by drinking dirty water. 
•  Physicians can prescribe oral medication to get your bird off from infection. 

🦜Polyomavirus 

Avian polyomavirus transmits from the physical touch of birds or parrots. The exact transmission source is not known, but many researchers believe it gets in birds from dirty water. 

• It infects adult birds. 
• It may take approximately. 2 weeks to get displayed in birds. 
• APV is a deadly infection that majorly infects caged birds. 

🦜Aspergillus 

Aspergillus is a fungal infection that enters the body from direct exposure to the environment.

• Aspergillus is a respiratory fungal infection in birds. 
• It infects the nose, eyes, trachea, and lower body parts such as the lungs and kidneys. 
• Infected birds experience low energy, loss of appetite, and diarrhea. 

🦜Ulcerative dermatitis 

• Ulcerative dermatitis is redness and falling of feathers and swelling of the infected area. 
• The bacterial infection sets on the parrot skin and creates ulcers that cause itching. 
• It may transmit to humans if they get directly in touch with the infected bird. 

7 Best toys for parrots:

To get your bird rid of the biting habit, you can give them toys which they can bite and leave this habit.  

🏀4 Way Play Bird Toy

The 4-way play bird toy is specially designed for medium to large-sized parrots to attract and entertain them. They comprise hardwood, which can satisfy their chewing habit. It attracts the parrots to play with it for hours in your absence. 

🏀Penn-Plax Birds Wood Playpen

This wooden playground is made to exercise, socialize and play with your birds. Parrots love spending time with a Penn-Plax wood playpen outside their cage. It keeps your parrot active and playful. It is made especially for small and medium-sized parrots. 

🏀JW Pet Hol-ee Roller Bird Toy

The toy is designed for the birds to exercise them mentally playfully. This spherically shaped toy is made to keep your bird engaged, active, and keep exercising. You can fill it with paper and wood to make your bird leave the biting habit. 

🏀Prevue Pet Products Naturals Rope Ladder Bird Toy

This arrangement of irregular shapes encourages parrots for feet exercises. The handmade ladder comprises 13 wood rungs that help parrots climb. It is designed with natural wood and rope that you can connect with the parrot’s cage. 

🏀Bonka Bird Toys Foraging Star Bird Toy

The toy is designed for small to medium-sized feathered friends with colorful threads. You can tie this toy inside the cage so that parrots can mesmerize and play.

🏀Katumo Bird Parrot Toy

This toy is designed with wooden blocks, half coconut at the top, and a rope that can help your parrot climb. 

🏀Uniben Parrot Chewing Toy 

it is a natural, non-toxic, and safe toy for your parrots to chew and rub their beak. It helps in the psychological and physical health of your parrots.

Relationship with humans 

Parrots and human relationship is not a new subject, it goes back to the bygone era when human beings were not social.

How to bond with your parrot?

• You can strengthen your bond with parrots by winning their trust. 
• You can win trust by being soft and inviting with your parrot. It may take time for your parrot to be familiar with you. 
• Not doing activities that threaten parrots may lead your parrot to bite you. If your parrots bite you, that represents insecurity and distrust. 
• Be friendly with your parrots and avoid scolding them. With a random high-pitched sound, parrots may get frightened. 

Can parrots recognize owners? Yes, parrots can create memories and recognize their owners by revisiting their memories. They strengthen bonds with owners and become aggressive with any other person. 

In the initial stage, parrots may trouble you because you are new to them, but as the days pass and you live friendly to them, they create a bond with you. Initially, they can make noise in an unknown place. But parrots need your attention and love. If you are unavailable to them, they may get detached from you. 

Do you know why parrots preen humans? Preening is a sign of love and affection that parrots show their owners. They are friendly to you and care for you as much as they care for themselves. By preening, they clean their body and brighten their feathers. And this way, they preen humans to cleanse their bodies, nails, and hairs. 

Final Thoughts: Are parrots good to keep as pets?

 In this article, the ultimate guide to parrots, we have covered ‌every portion that needs the reader’s attention and is the subject of matter. This complete guide is for you. If you are looking to pet birds for the first time or are an experienced owner.

Parrots and humans have been companions since the bygone era and share a pure and tight bond. Parrots bring joy to your home and become a part of it for decades. 

There are some parrots that you can pet at a very affordable price. These parrots create bonds with you like expensive birds. They are little feathered friends of yours. Taking care of them is your responsibility.

Never forget that and make your birds suffer from any physical wound or psychological trauma. We hope this article could provide you with all the knowledge that you were looking for.