A Parrot’s Bill of Rights by Dr. Stewart Metz

GET TO KNOW ABOUT PARROTS BEFORE YOU BRING ME HOME – I am not a domes­ti­cat­ed pet like a dog or cat. I still have the spir­it of the jun­gle in me. I have spe­cial needs which you may find it hard to fill. Please don’t learn these too late for my well-being. And please don’t acquire one of my cousins wild from the jungle—it will jeop­ar­dize his sur­vival and well-being, and that won’t be a par­ty for you either!
GIVE ME THE LARGEST HOME POSSIBLE –

I am used to fly­ing through rain­forests or savan­nahs. I have giv­en up this great gift for your plea­sure. At the very least, give me enough room to flap my wings and exer­cise. And I need toys for my amuse­ment and wood to chew—otherwise, I might con­fuse your Home with the for­est and its trees.

GIVE ME A NUTRITIOUS DIET –

I need a wide vari­ety of fresh and nutri­tious foods, even if they take time to pre­pare. I can­not sur­vive on seeds alone. Take time to learn what my needs, and pref­er­ences, are.

LET ME HAVE A SOCIAL LIFE –

I am a gre­gar­i­ous flock animal—but I am not one of you. I need lots of social­iza­tion to learn how to act with you, and with my sib­lings. I also need to have ade­quate qual­i­ty time with you every day—no mat­ter what your sched­ule or oth­er needs are. I am a liv­ing, feel­ing crea­ture. Above all, I need to be able to have com­plete trust in you, and count on your pre­dictabil­i­ty in look­ing after me—every day.

LET ME BE CLEAN –

I may like to drop food or even throw it, but I need metic­u­lous clean­li­ness to be healthy. My skin itch­es with­out fre­quent show­ers, the barbs of my feath­ers won’t seal if they become oily and, worst of all, I may become ill if my food or water is not always sanitary.

I NEED MY OWN DOCTOR –

You may not under­stand my phys­i­ol­o­gy and there­fore you may not rec­og­nize it ear­ly on when I get sick. And it may be too late when you do, because I hide my ill­ness­es (remem­ber what I said about my being an ani­mal of the jun­gle, where there are lots of preda­tors). And I need an avian vet—a spe­cial­ist (no HMOs for me please). If you can’t afford one, per­haps you shouldn’t have tak­en me home.

PLEASE DON’T PUNISH ME –

Just as I don’t always under­stand your pecu­liar­i­ties, you may not under­stand mine. I don’t TRY to get in trouble—remember, a house is not the jun­gle. If I do screw up, don’t yell at me and nev­er hit me. I have sen­si­tive ears and I may nev­er trust you again if you strike me. Hands are some­times scary things to us (why in the world would you not be zygo­dacty­lous like us?). Even more impor­tant­ly, we don’t learn by pun­ish­ment. We are gen­tle crea­tures who only strike back to pro­tect our­selves; we learn through patience and love.

SPEAK MY “LANGUAGE” –

I know you get upset with me when I knock over my water bowl, throw food, scream or pluck my feath­ers. I don’t do these to annoy you—I am prob­a­bly try­ing to tell you some­thing (per­haps that I am hurt­ing, lone­ly, or sad.). Learn to speak MY (body) lan­guage. Remem­ber that I, alone of all crea­tures on this plan­et, learn to speak yours!

SEE ME AS AN INDIVIDUAL – I am a unique and feel­ing being. No two of us are alike. Please don’t be dis­ap­point­ed in me if I don’t talk like you want­ed, or can’t do the tricks that your friend’s par­rot can do. But if you pay close atten­tion to me (and I always empathize with you, whether you know it or not), I will show you a unique being who will give you so much more than talk­ing and play­ing.. Give me a chance to show you who I am; I think you’ll find the effort worth it. And remember—I am not an orna­ment;. I do not enhance ANY liv­ing room décor. And I am not a sta­tus symbol—if you use me as such, I might nip at your up-turned nose!
SHARE YOUR LOVE WITH ME – Above all, please remem­ber that you are my Spe­cial Per­son. I put all my trust and faith in you. We par­rots are used to being monogamous.(no bar-hop­ping for us!).So please don’t go away for long peri­ods or give me away—that would be a sad­ness from which I may nev­er recov­er. If that seems to be ask­ing a lot, remember—you could have learned about my needs before bring­ing me home. Even hav­ing a baby or tak­ing a new job isn’t a fair reason—you made a com­mit­ment to me FIRST. And if you think that you must leave me because you might die, pro­vide for me for­ev­er after you leave. I may live to a ripe old age but I can’t pro­vide for myself. Remem­ber I’m in a small cage amongst peo­ple who are not of my blood.
YOUR RIGHTS – You have lots of rights, but I can only assure one. And that is, if you treat me the way I described above, I will reward you with unwa­ver­ing love, humor, knowl­edge, beau­ty, ded­i­ca­tion — and a sense of won­der and awe you haven’t felt since you were a child. When you took me home, you became my Flock Leader, indeed, my entire uni­verse – for life. I would hang the moon and stars for you if I could. We are one in Heart and Soul.
About the Author …
Dr. Stew­art Metz is the Direc­tor of the Indone­sian Par­rot Project, a not-for-prof­it orga­ni­za­tion ded­i­cat­ed to wild Indone­sian par­rot con­ser­va­tion … and edu­cat­ing pet own­ers on prop­er pet bird care and con­ser­va­tion of endan­gered birds.