Common Myths about Pet Birds

rastalovebird · admin. Joined: 09 Jun 2007 Posts: 71 Location: jamaica

Common myths about pet birds.

1. Birds are tiny, delicate things that do not live very long.
False. A well cared for bird can live quite long. Budgies, parrotlets & lovebirds can live 10-15 yrs on average. Cockatiels can live an average of 15-20 yrs, and so can pyrrhura conures. Medium sized parrots like poicephalus & larger conures can live 40+ years, and largish parrots like amazons, greys & cockatoos can live 50+, and macaws can live 50-80 years, sometimes even 100.

2.Parrots can live way longer than people, all the time.
False. Parrots can & do sometimes live longer than people, but not all the time. But still, write your bird (even a budgie, you never know with those budgies ) into your will, just incase.

3.You need to split a bird's tongue to make it talk
False. I have no idea where this came from, but it is just an old wives tale.

4. Birds will live fine on bird seed
False. Birds need a wide variety of food, including some seeds, uncoloured pellets, veggies, fruits, some well cooked meat, well cooked eggs, pasta, etc.

5. Newspaper ink is toxic to birds.
False. Think of the millions of people a day who read the newspaper. They are not dead. Long ago this was true, but today the ink is not toxic.

6. White cages cause problems for your birds' vision.
False. White cages do not cause vision problems.

7. Sandpaper Perches are good for your birds' feet.
False. These are very hard on your birds feet and can make them bleed.

8. Grit/Gravel helps birds digest their food and they need it.
False. Hookbills remove the hulls from their seeds, so they do not need the grit to grind the shells off in their tummies. This will just impact them and kill them.

9. You need to cut the tails off birds with long tails. This will help them navigate around the cage.
False. If your bird is having trouble moving around the cage, either your cage is too small or it is overcrowded with toys.

10. Birds from rescues are all horrible, plucking, biting birds and it is much better buying one from a breeder or pet store.
False. Most birds in rescues are perfectly tame. They may have come in because the owner moved, went to college, died, "got sick of them" etc. Do you know where most birds in stores come from? Bird mills, 500+ parrots packed into cages being forced to breed, and killing each other.

11. Birds are stupid.
False. Parrots are as smart as a 3-5 year old child. Therefore, being called a bird brain is a compliment!

12. Parrots can't talk, they mimic.
False. Parrots do know what they are saying, they learn to associate words with items. There is a research project going on called the Alex Foundation. The leading bird, Alex, passed away at the age of 31, but there are a few other African Grey parrots included in the research.

13. A parrot will repeat anything you say.
False. Some words, said with drama, will be picked up, but other words will take a while to learn.

14. If you spray your parrot with a water pistol, it will stop screaming/biting.
False. This will make your bird hate water. This and other "quick-fix" ideas are usually faulty.

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