#parrotlet ask

[flock-talk]

I know you've deeply loved every bird you've ever had, so I'm not trying to make you choose in that way, but is there a species you feel you vibe with best out of those you've ever owned or worked with? For example, I have two cockatiels that I love like children, but when I volunteered at a parrot rescue for a couple years, me and the GCCs always gravitated towards each other, whereas me and the macaws were on totally different wavelengths.

Parrotlets will always hold a very special place in my heart and I always go out of my way to interact with one whenever I get the chance. They are exceptionally charismatic, energetic and curious little birds who will absolutely outsmart you at every turn. I have adored every single one I’ve ever worked with, I used to live in a house that had five of them. They like to be involved in what you’re doing and will insert themselves wherever they fit (which being three inches tall is pretty much anywhere), extremely motivated to train and learn but also an exceptional snuggly buddy who just wants to find the nearest hair cave to crawl in to and nap. They can be stern with their boundaries and will set those marks clearly but if you take the time to learn them communicating with them comes smoothly. They lack patience and are driven by their desire to commit crime, the only thing outweighing that is their need for beauty sleep. the ones I have owned have definitely taken a piece of my soul with them when they left. Something so incredibly small, so feisty, so boisterous yet deeply affectionate (on their terms) and so so fragile.

I wasn’t sure what to expect with Quakers, my experience with them was very limited when it came to adopting Toto, but I have been very pleasantly surprised at how many similarities Toto has shared with parrotlets. May just be a Toto thing rather than a Quaker thing as my experience is pretty limited to a small sample size for that species. But Toto has made Quakers a very close second if not tying for first. Super snuggly and affectionate while also being independent, wanting to be with you and enjoy your company without needing to be excessively invasive, down to train and explore but also totally chill about sitting down for hours watching a movie instead. Very clear about his boundaries without being overly harsh setting them, very forgiving, pretty easy going and adaptable. He’s very goofy, waddling around in bathtubs, tripping over his own toes, and going in circles trying to figure out where to place sticks for his nest that never seems to be more than one stick in size. He is almost pigeon-like in a lot of ways. He’s just happy to be involved, happy to give and receive affection, he would spend the whole day preening you if you let him, as far as parrots go he is a very laid back bird.

Newt is presumably a hybrid between a GCC and a MBC so, like any mixed breed animal, behaviour is heavily influenced by genetics, who really knows what proportions of what species he ended up with. Newt is a very energetic bird, so much so that he has difficulty regulating those emotions, it has taken years to teach him how to self regulate he gets so excited by things. He is the life of any party, is eager to show everyone everything he knows, he’ll chat to anyone and everyone, he wants to engage with everything. He is potentially the most confident bird I’ve ever met, always the first to explore new things and be willing to try. He’s also a very affectionate bird although he is selective about who gets the privilege of giving him affection. He is a very social bird who has taken the time to teach himself how to communicate with different bird species, was more than willing to share his home with Toto coming in, and he also gets hit the hardest when a bird has gone away. He still knows how to mimic Mia’s peeps, and he still does it sometimes. Newt is my most demanding bird, he’s the one that will turn to feather destructive behaviours if a training session gets skipped, he is the most sensitive to routine changes. He needs to be the center of attention in any room, he will stick himself in to whatever you’re doing, if it is Newts time then it is Newts time and nothing else time. For he is Newt and he demands nothing but the best for Newtself. He will settle from time to time to cuddle, he will preen you occasionally, but his preference for human social time is play. He wants to be wriggling around, nibbling on your earlobes, or wrestling your fingers. He is an action packed man, and he will be 30 years of action packed criminal activities with a list of warrants so long your CVS receipt will bow to it.

To answer your question nowadays it’s probably Quakers, as my life goes on keeping up with the criminal masterminds that are conures is less and less viable. One master criminal is more than enough to keep me busy, and although parrotlets will always hold a special place in my heart the knowledge that they are often too small to help leaves a wound too deep to ever try again.

[flock-talk]

Firstly, I absolutely love your channel and the birds! Keep up the awesome work! Secondly, I wanted to ask you about the pros and cons of owning parrotlets. Also, it seems like they tend to be quite bitey and a tad bit aggressive. Is this always the case? I wont be getting parrotlets now, but definitely in the future. (I have sugar gliders and it would stress them out), so for now I'm just enjoying watching a bunch of cute videos of them and researching and reading about them :)

Parrotlets are feisty by nature, they don’t live in large flocks (typically pairings or groups of 4-6ish), they need their space and they will do whatever it takes to defend what’s theirs.  They’re small, they can easily be gobbled up by a predator and as a result they have to be more keen to aggress to make sure that predators and other birds think twice before taking them on.

This does mean that in a captive environment they are less lenient towards your mistakes, they are more prone to developing behaviour problems and that they can be harder to take care of if you don’t understand avian body language.

HOWEVER there are some very irritating misconceptions about what this means for the species.

Being more prone to aggressive issues doesn’t mean that the bird is aggressive, it means the bird is prone to aggressive behaviour which is a totally different thing.  Aggressive behaviour isn’t what a bird is it’s what a bird does and aggressive behaviour often happens because of external influences, more often than not it’s a fault of the owner, environmental stimulants, or breeding hormones. 

Parrotlets have got a bad reputation for being nasty “hellspawns”, the reason for this is mainly due to ignorance.  Parrotlets are small and they’re pretty easy to get a hold of, because of this people think that they’re easy to care for and will take them home without doing much research.  A bird prone to aggressive behaviour in a household with someone who knows nothing about avian behaviour is going to end with a lot of aggression.  That’s not a fault of the bird that’s a fault of the owner not having enough experience to handle them.

Birds have boundaries and it’s our job to respect that, that’s often where things fall apart.  Parrotlets will say ‘no’, they will try to walk away, they will show you that they do not like what you’re doing and if you ignore that they will have no other option but to bite you to make you stop that’s just how it works, if you get bit it’s your fault for not stopping when they told you to.  The more you ignore those signals the less they’re going to use them and the more they’ll jump straight in to biting, they know you don’t listen to the body language and they know biting works so it makes sense that they’re going to jump straight to biting if you continually push past those signs.  This is how every bird works the only difference is that parrotlets are a little less lenient when it comes to this, some birds will give you a couple months to learn in comparison a parrotlet will get tired of you ignoring them rather quickly which makes them terrible pets for first time bird owners with limited experience.

If you treat a parrotlet with respect they can be absolutely wonderful little birds.  They’re packed with so much personality, they’re mischievous, animated, curious, silly, loving, active, and given the right environment they can be the sweetest little peeps.

They are relatively independent birds, as I said earlier they live in small flocks so they don’t tend to seek out interaction and demand a preening session as larger flocking species might.  For some people that’s a con but I prefer it as it makes over attachment and attention screaming a little less likely to happen.  You still get snuggles, you can still get scritches, it’s just not as excessive as it can be with other species such as cockatiels.

These birds are biologically more prone to liver diseases, their natural diet consists largely of fresh foods so if they get stuck on an all seed diet it doesn’t take much time for that to take a toll on their bodies in comparison to species that eat more seeds naturally. Some species of parrotlets are prone to overgrown beaks, green rumped parrotlets typically, so making sure to keep an eye on that, offer plenty of toys and really work on encouraging play will be important.  Some parrotlets can be quite anxious and easily stressed out, plucking is a concern with the species.  Introducing them to one new thing a day helps reduce stress to changing environments, prevents those anxiety issues, and better reduces the odds of plucking. Due to their size and curious behaviours they can very easily get in to trouble and get hurt, bird proofing is a definite necessity and do be cautious, constant supervision.  They do not get along well with other birds in general, do not ever keep more than one parrotlet in a cage they can and have been known to seriously injure and even kill one another.  If you ever get a second bird be sure to introduce them slowly, only ever have them out in a large area where they can evade one another under strict supervision, do not keep a parrotlet with a second bird anywhere where you can’t be watching them.

All in all parrotlets are pretty quiet birds, they don’t chatter like budgies and don’t scream while they play but they do have active moments where they like to fly in circles and scream to burn off energy and have some fun.  This usually happens about once a day but of course it is different for every bird and not every one will do this.  Their loudest screams are not particularly loud in comparison to other birds but they can echo down a few blocks and hurt your ears if you’re next to them.

They’re very smart, they tend to enjoy activities that make them think and problem solve.  Foraging is a preferred activity that they absolutely adore once they’re shown how it works.  Trick training can be a ton of fun, provides an extra layer of enrichment, again exercises their brains and is one of their favourite parts of the day.  I would say that it doesn’t take all too much to keep them occupied once you learn your bird’s preferences, as long as you rotate toys often and get them those problem solving activities I don’t find it particularly difficult to keep them playing and active.

I truly can’t think of many cons to these birds, as long as you have the skillset necessary to work with them, not encourage aggressive behaviour and treat them with respect they really are wonderful companions.  They’ll sit with you, want to be a part of whatever you’re doing (Zeeby helped me study), they’re pretty quiet, fun to be around, not extremely demanding, intelligent, and they’re so soft, poofy and adorable.

I wouldn’t recommend them to people who have never worked with birds before because their aggressive tendencies can easily spiral out of control when you don’t have a good grasp of avian behaviour and body language but for those who do have some level of experience they can be really wonderful pets.

As long as you treat them with respect and take care of them they are spectacular little friends who are worth a whole lot more than their “hellspawn” stereotype. 

[flock-talk]

Do parrolets whistle?

Naturally no, I imagine if someone put in the effort to train them to mimic a whistle they probably could but their speech is not the best, really garbly and most of the time you’d need captions to know what they’re trying to say. 

[flock-talk]

I was sitting with blue today, and i had some candy for myself but it was wrapped in plastic. The second I started opening it, blue went completely nuts. When I stopped he relaxed but when the plastic was making noise again he got so angry. Is this normal?

Parrotlets seem to have this quirk where they aggress towards sounds of crinkling things and I haven’t a clue why, it does happen with other species sometimes but it doesn’t seem to be as prevalent as with parrotlets.  My theory is that it may sound like an aggressive bird to them but there’s been no studies or anything to suggest that, maybe they just find the noise really irritating.  It could also perhaps replicate a predator but then that doesn’t make sense for why they tend to lunge for it instead of running away.  Crinkling foil has lead to seizures in cats so it’s possible there may be some weird correlation there but again I haven’t found any studies on the subject regarding birds and since it seems to be pretty specific to parrotlets I’m not really sure if it is related or not.

In general I’ve found that this behaviour can be trained out, slowly, so I don’t think it is related to the seizure thing but I really don’t know and wish there was more information on the subject.  Zeeby was really bad with the crinkly things (mia never cared), so with her I found that getting something she responds like this to and crinkling it quietly or from a distance so it’s barely audible as to not produce the aggressive response and rewarding for the calm behaviour encouraged her to stay calm around these sounds.  Over time I did it more frequently and louder, stopping if the aggression started, being sure to reinforce any calm responses to it and not triggering the aggressive response. Eventually she learned that being calm near those sounds meant she would earn a treat and the aggression stopped.

[flock-talk]

I've read online that parrotlets don't tolerate pellet diets well, and should be kept on seeds and produce only. As a big pellet advocate, I found that unsettling. Do you find this to be true? Is it because parrotlets are small and high activity? Other species with those characteristics do well on pellets and just benefit from fatty add ins, like extra seeds. What are your thoughts on the subject?

Parrotlets naturally eat a diet rich in greens, fruits, sprouts along with seeds present in the diet, seeds take up a smaller portion of their natural diet than birds which can do well on seed, those which are generally ground foraging species (budgies and cockatiels).  Due to their natural eating habits those sorts of species can do alright when given seeds as long as they are provided with plenty of fresh foods and a lot of exercise.  Unlink parrotlets those species are biologically capable of better dealing with the high fat content, parrotlets have fast metabolisms but they require a lot more veggies, sprouts and fruits in comparison to the seeds in their diet still, being able to quickly run through and digest doesn’t make them healthier by eating high fat foods.  They do much better in captivity when provided with pelleted diets because they need much closer attention paid to their veggies and fruits, they’re far more prone to develop liver disease problems when fed seed diets because they biologically can not live without proper ratios of nutrients in their diet. It’s sort of like saying I have a fast metabolism and as such are less prone to developing obesity so I can just gorge on grease all day, if I did that I may still look fine but my body would not be doing so well.

Fast metabolisms mean that the birds are able to convert whatever food you give them in to energy faster than others.  They’re absorbing any nutrients you put in to their bodies and you want them to be good ones, they will need a larger calorie intake to maintain good health but that does not mean you give them the fattiest food you can (ex. I could eat a Big mac with a ton of calories or I could eat a variety of vegetables with the same amount of calories, which is going to be better for the body?).

This is one of the reasons why too many of these birds have liver disease (the other is that many people just think they’re small and don’t do research, feeding seed only diets).  People think that just because they can convert to energy faster means that it won’t be damaging to their bodies and neglect other portions of the diet to compensate for the way they’re being fed.  You definitely can feed birds seed but you need to be providing a heck of a lot of exercise and need to be spot on with their fresh foods to be able to do it right.  If you just throw seeds in there and just guess what fresh foods they need the bird will not be healthy, they will develop liver problems, it will not go over well. Pellets being lower in fat means you won’t run the risks of fat buildup in the liver, pellets provide a good balance of nutrients that are typically lacking in a captive diet and makes it a lot easier for you to feed them right, reducing the odds of them getting sick, overweight, or otherwise generally unhealthy. The best general thing is a variety, the main portion of the diet should be veggies and pellets and then seeds can be used to give that small extra boost of energy, the dominant energy source for them should be the nutrient rich foods, not the seeds full of fat.

I like to provide healthy pellets twice a day, veggies twice a day and then between meals there’s foraging toys with some seeds or treats so they can get good enrichment and grab a snack between meals if they need it, out of cage as long as possible, flying as much as possible.  This way they aren’t getting a ton of fat in their diets, they’re getting all the essential nutrients they need, they’re exercising well and their energy is coming from good food sources!

[flock-talk]

My bird was preening her back and she was preening out some really dusty (it was so dusty I picked them up and there was dust on my fingers) white fluff feathers. some were also in kinda strands it was weird. Is this a molt thing? She has gotten some pinnies on her head so she might be going through a small molt. Shes a parrotlet so shes not a powder bird either

Parrotlets will still produce dust, all birds do, but having it come off of your hands to a noticeable degree is irregular for parrotlets.  If they’re that dusty where it leaves a layer on your fingers they either have a skin condition or aren’t bathing frequently enough.  The white strands are just degrading feather particles, typically down feathers breaking apart or just bits breaking off old feathers which is totally normal so long as it isn’t seeming to be excessive and producing visible breakage on the feathers.  Try offering baths more frequently, daily if possible, and encourage them to bathe or take her in to the shower to get some steam, if there is a lot of dust being produced it may be worth getting her seen by a vet just to ensure there isn’t a medical condition causing the increase in dust.

[flock-talk]

do the beebs ever fight over who gets attention/scritches from you?

Parrotlets are very independent birds, they have very small flocks which makes their social behaviours different than what you’d expect from most other species.  In general it’s quite rare for a parrotlet to demand attention from you unless there’s over attachment problems going on, they simply aren’t built or familiarized with that sort of lifestyle, doesn’t make sense to them unless there’s mating going on. So no, neither of the birds particularly fight for attention.

[flock-talk]

What are all the colour morphs of parrotlets?

“Albino Parrotlet

American Dark FactorAmerican White ParrotletAmerican White Pied ParrotletAmerican Yellow Parrotlet American Yellow FallowBlue ParrotletBlue Dilute ParrotletBlue Faded Pied ParrotletBlue Fallow ParrotletBlue Fallow Misty PiedBlue Fallow Turquoise PiedBlue Grey-Back ParrotletBlue Grey-Back Fallow Parrotlet -Blue Lutino ParrotletBlue Misty Parrotlet -Blue Pastel Parrotlet (Marbled)Blue Pied ParrotletBlue Pied Fallow ParrotletBlue White-Head Parrotlet Cinnamon ParrotletClean Green ParrotletCobalt Blue Parrotlet -Cobalt Blue Pastel Parrotlet -Creamino Parrotlet Dark Factor Blue Parrotlet -Dark Factor Blue Pastel Parrotlet -Dark Factor Blue Pied Parrotlet -Dark Factor Blue Fallow -DD Blue Parrotlet (Mauve) -European YellowEssential GreenEuwing PiedsFreckled  ParrotletGrey Parrotlet Grey Green Parrotlet -Green Parrotlet             * Essential Green or Clean GreenGreen Fallow ParrotletGreen Grey-Back Parrotlet Green Misty Parrotlet -Green Olive Parrotlet Green Pastel Parrotlet (Marbled)Green Pastel Fallow (Marbled)Green Pied ParrotletHalfsider ParrotletIsabelle ParrotletLeucistic Parrotlet -Lutino ParrotletMauve Parrotlet Mauve Cinnamon ParrotletMauve FallowMisty Parrotlet Mutations (All) -Olive ParrotletSlate ParrotletSnow ParrotletTurquoise ParrotletTurquoise Fallow ParrotletTurquoise Dilute ParrotletTurquoise Dilute Fallow ParrotletTurquoise Pastel Parrotlet (Marbled)Turquoise Pied ParrotletTurquoise Pied Fallow Parrotlet

Turquoise Tinted Parrotlet

True-Blue Parrotlet

True-Turquoise Parrotlet

White ParrotletWhite-Faced Lutino Parrotlet

White Cinnamon PiedWhite Cinnamon Fallow PiedWhite LutinoWhite Pastel Pied (Marbled)White Pied ParrotletWhite Turquoise Pied  (Marbled)Yellow ParrotletYellow Dilute ParrotletYellow Fallow ParrotletYellow Pied ParrotletYellow-Front Pastel Parrotlet Yellow-Front Pied ParrotletYellow-Head Pacific ParrotletYellow Pastel Parrotlet (Marbled)”

list by http://www.parrotletmutations.com/

more sites to look at:

http://www.parrotletsuk.com/colour-mutations.html

http://www.birdsnways.com/wisdom/ww44eii.htm

Those are all just pacific parrotlet colour mutations, there’s a whole variety of parrotlet species that may be included as well

“Blue-winged Parrotlet (Forpus xanthopterygius)Green-rumped Parrotlet (Forpus passerinus)Sclater’s or Dusky-billed Parrotlet (Forpus modestus aka Forpus sclateri sclateri)Mexican Parrotlet (Forpus cyanopygius)Pacific Parrotlet (Forpus coelestis)Spectacled Parrotlet (Forpus conspicillatus)Yellow-faced Parrotlet (Forpus xanthops)Blue-fronted / Red-winged Parrotlet (Touit dilectissima aka Touit dilectissima dilectissima)Brown-backed Parrotlet (Touit melanonota)Golden-tailed Parrotlet (Touit surdus or Touit surda surda)Lilac-tailed Parrotlet or Seven-colored Parrotlets (Touit batavicus aka Touit batavica)Red-fronted Parrotlet (Touit costaricensis; sometimes included as a sub-species of the Red-winged Parrotlet as Touit dilectissima costaricencis. Most agree that these are two separate species)Sapphire-rumped Parrotlet (Touit purpuratus aka Touit purpurata purpurata)Scarlet-shouldered Parrotlet (Touit huetii)Spot-winged Parrotlet (Touit stictopterus aka Touit stictoptera)

Amazonian Parrotlet (Nannopsittaca dachilleae)Tepui Parrotlet (Nannopsittaca panychlora)”

list by http://beautyofbirds.com/

sites on subspecies:

http://shadypines.com/plets.htm

http://beautyofbirds.com/parrotletspecies.html