When a bird can't sit still

Until I got Kesha the parrot, I, of course, knew about the difficulties in communicating with birds. But, as it turned out, she had a very distant idea about this.

Firstly, the parrot I got was quite talkative and it was absolutely impossible to talk to him. Secondly, when my husband and I let him out of the cage, he immediately began to stick his beak where it shouldn’t. A parrot is a rodent by nature; it needs to sharpen its beak on something. Our entire apartment became this “something”.

I forgave Kesha for his antics for a long time. She turned a blind eye to the fact that he was gnawing and tearing off the wallpaper . She was silent when he suddenly discovered that throwing discs onto the floor was very exciting. Patience ran out when Kesha switched to the curtains.

It was then that I realized what it means to raise a bird. This is not a dog you can yell at. And not a cat that can be controlled with a regular spray bottle of water. My restless parrot even liked the fizzing sound.

At first I tried to make suggestions to Kesha. She said: “Aren’t you ashamed, Kesha!” He tilted his head, glanced sarcastically at me and continued to gnaw at the curtains. When I started raising my voice at him, he began to raise his in response - apparently he decided that this was some kind of new game. I know that some bird owners, desperate to control their pets, stop letting them out of their cages altogether. This is not a solution: if you deprive a parrot of the ability to fly, it will wither and may even die.

Then I read somewhere that parrots do not like to be looked at closely, strictly and for a long time. But this experiment did not end well either: Kesha squinted, became all bloated and... began to look at me just as sternly. There's nothing you can do about it - a parrot is a parrot.

The only thing that saved our curtains, wallpaper and nerves was the “game tree”. At the pet store we bought wooden ladders, rattles, and foil toys. The husband attached all this bright and shiny wealth to the chandelier. Of course, Kesha paid attention to the “tree” - a parrot is a bird with intelligence, and he, like a person, needs entertainment. Now, when Kesha is released from the cage, he immediately sits on this tree. He had already chewed off several “ladders” and had to buy new ones. But it's still cheaper than spending money on new curtains.