Our oldest daughter left for college about four hours away and decided she wanted a pet, so naturally, since we are a bird family, she read a book “the Guide To Companion Parrot Behavior” , (found at Amazon.com and many book stores) and researched on line and ultimately chose Pudge, a Quaker Parrot.  He is also affectionately known as Pudge Bucket, Pudges and the Doc.  The latter because my daughter says he instantly makes her feel better when she’s having a bad day.  Easily the most interactive and responsive to being spoken to of all of our parrots.  He thrives on attention and is ridiculously intelligent.  Ask him what a dog says and he replies “roof, roof, roof” as only a Quaker can sound.  He sings “Who is the baby? Pudge is the baby!”  For some reason, every larger parrot we own says “Peek a Boo” and that is Pudge’s go-to phrase.  He must say it at least two thousand times a day, but to add a little flair to it, he cocks his head sideways away from you like he’s hiding and then pops around and yells “PEEK” or “Peek a Boo!”  He has an unlikeable squawk when you are in the pantry or refrigerator and my daughter says to him, “That’s not nice.  What do you say?” and he politely replies “Come here!” and then gets a bite of food.  We look outside through the window and he whispers, (not sure why it’s a whisper) “birdies”.  He can count to ten and his head bobs with every number but every number is pretty much “six”.  When he is the mood to cuddle, he snuggles up in the crook of her neck and sleeps and every once in a while comes around the front gives her kisses between her nose and lips.  This guy is an attention junkie and is miserable if he’s not getting it.  But buyer beware, Quakers are very fickle and tend to play family favorites.  The favorite on one day can be the enemy on the next, and they will let you know it.  He has on more than one occasion taken a nip from an unsuspecting neck or hand.  His mother is clearly his favorite and has the best rapport and command of him.

As if three parrots weren’t enough, about 9 months after we got Peaches, I found Callie, a gorgeous female Eclectus.  The females in the Eclectus family are a vibrant red and neon blue around the neck and a black beak and the males are gorgeous green with a yellow beak.  They are a good speaker and enunciate very well often sounding like someone in the family.  My husband tells the story of one evening when he was home alone and he heard me come into the house and say something, so he said, “What?  You’re home?”  Thought it was kind of rude that I didn’t answer his question and went into the kitchen to talk to me.  There sat Callie looking at him and he soon realized that her voice was mine.  The most common personality of the Eclectus, though, is that they are extremely shy, do not like strangers and become very quiet around them.  Forget about trying to get them to perform for the guests because they’d rather go sit in a corner and stare at you.  However; put Callie on the shower door in the bathroom, turn on the fan and when she thinks no one can hear her, she can go on for an hour with riffs that I had no idea she even knew how to say.  Again, you will hear a lot of “Where’s Callie?  EH! Peek a Boo!”  For some reason she doesn’t just say Mama, she says “MAMAMAMAMAMMA.”  She is currently wearing a collar around her neck because she decided to pick at her foot until it bled and we had to intervene and let the vet design a foam collar just her size so she cannot reach her foot.  Since she’s had the collar on, she resorts to just various types of grunts.  There are two words that she says loud and clearly, though, “out!” and “hiiiiiiiiii!”  When she is ready to come out of her cage, she says “out” and we take her to one of the few other places around the house that she enjoys.  A shower, the manzanilla perch in the basement, the screened in porch or the cage on the deck.  When she’s ready to change, she says “out” again and it seems like we are transporting her from one place to another all day long every day.  Whenever we walk into the kitchen, where her cage is, she says an emphatic ‘Hiiiiiiiiii!”  And continues to say it until you say Hi back.

There are certain times during the year when she gets very hormonal and all she wants to do is sit in front of the wooden cabinets in our living room as though it’s her private bungalow and she will occasionally bite anyone who tries to pick her up.  There are two reasons why we would not want her to sit there, one is the mess she would make on the carpet and the other is that she starts chewing on the wood.  Painted wood at that, so not a healthy habit.  Starting this month, Callie is going to receive hormone shots from the vet to see if we can get the September through March bad habits and moodiness under control.  I will be posting more about that later on keeping you abreast of any changes.

Eclectus are very active within their cages and move around a lot, so for them, it’s best to go with as large of a cage as you can afford because you might often see them start at the top and slide their way down the rungs to the bottom.  Climb back to the top and start over, as Callie likes to do, especially when my husband and son stand there and clap for her.

So for now and probably many years to come, this is the extent of our bird family, as parrots live long lives.  The larger the Parrot, the longer the life span, provided they don’t get injured or contract a disease.  According to author Kimberly Santor of “The Caged Bird Courier” these are the life expectancies of birds:

Macaws:  50-100+

Cockatoos:  40-60 +

African Grays:  50-60 +

Eclectus: 65-85+

Conure:  12-30

Lories and Lorikeets:  13-25

Caique:  30

Senegal:  50

Cockatiel:  12-20

Parakeets:  7-18

Lovebirds:  15-25

Canaries:  10-15

Finches:  5-10

If you are thinking of purchasing a Parrot, all things must be considered.  They may outlive you, they are perpetually 2-5 years old so if you don’t like attending to a toddler, you will not like owning a Parrot, they require lots of cage room, constant cleaning of the cage floor and changing the water, (I try to twice a day) and love and attention to be happy.  With that said, they can be the best companions one could have.  What other pet actually talks to you and tells you what they want!?!