Emotional Well-Being

Living Wild in Your Living Room; Uncover The Pitfalls Of Problem Behaviors in Companion Parrots

Parrots are wonderful if you have a low tolerance for boredom like I do. Despite living and working with them for over three decades, I still find their complexities stimulating and the study of their behaviors both fascinating and absorbing. However, their complexities are also daunting, and the study of their behaviors is fraught with frustration and a lack of real knowledge. Such a contradiction! Read more

The Optimal Environment for Parrots: The Social Climate

Pamela Clark, IAABC Certified Parrot, Behavior Consultant

A discussion of optimal environments for parrots cannot ignore the issue of social climate. However, as humans living in a busy society, this is an issue that we do largely ignore in our own lives. We have to. So many of us live in cities too populated for our tastes, or in families wherein too much animosity exists. We work at jobs in which we are treated as if we do not matter. Our feelings are expendable. We have to disregard our own personal feelings, if we are to keep our homes, our jobs, and our families...or at least we think we have to. Thus, we have evolved into a way of living in which we largely ignore our feelings about the social climate of the work place and even our homes.Read more

Stress Reduction Methods for Companion Parrots

Pamela Clark, IAABC Certified, Parrot Behavior Consultant

To put it bluntly, keeping companion parrots is similar to trying to pound a square peg into a round hole. The fact that they do as well as they do is testimony more to their adaptability than it is to our husbandry efforts. Still undomesticated, parrots evolved to fly miles every day, have unlimited social contacts with other flock members, forage for food of their own choosing, bathe in a manner and spot of their own choosing, remain active throughout the day shredding plant materials, and mate and raise their own young. Even in the most benevolent of homes, this same parrot remains for hours a day in a cage, eats food of our choosing served at times convenient for us, is dependent for stimulation and activity upon us, is unable to breed and rear young, and receives limited social interaction.Read more