Parrots don't like children?

Stories often happen to parrot owners that are reminiscent of the joke about a hamster that grew into a bear. Wavy hawks, of course, do not turn into hawks, but they are not without surprises. We asked ornithologist Vladimir Chuguevsky, a specialist at the Zoovet veterinary clinic, to clarify some of the surprises.

Surprise 1: They understand what they say

Never, under any circumstances, swear in front of your parrot. This simple advice will save you in the future from many tragicomic situations and the need to make excuses, for example, to guests for the behavior of a “foolish bird.” Firstly, parrots' speech is based on imitation. If Kesha swears like a shoemaker, calls Marivanna a fool, or is sure that Pyotr Petrovich is, to put it mildly, a radish, it means that the owner has repeatedly voiced all this in his presence. The surprise is that, having remembered all this, the parrot will repeat it constantly - both simply in moments of excitement, and on purpose.
Secondly, a parrot is a completely intelligent bird and can understand what it is saying. “Large parrots understand words very well,” says Vladimir Chuguevsky. – They are able to have a meaningful conversation with you. Western scientists conducted research and found that in terms of intelligence, large parrots can be equated to five-year-old children. Moreover, capable parrots can also give away secrets - this is very rare, but still possible, provided that you become a friend of the parrot. Little ones perceive speech more at the level of emotions, but sometimes they also get into the topic.”

Surprise 2: we bought a “cute bird”, but it terrorizes the cat

It can be a big surprise for the owners when it is not the cat that chases the bird, but quite the opposite - the parrot teases, provokes in every possible way, and sometimes outright terrorizes him. For specialists, there is no discovery in this: birds, like people, have psychological characteristics - among them there are hot-tempered and touchy choleric people, calm, slow phlegmatic people, lively but easy-going sanguine people. If a bird is combative and decisive in nature, it will vigilantly guard its territory and punish tailed insolent people who stick their mustachioed muzzle into other people's affairs. This can be expected from large parrots, but small wavy parrots are also capable of persecuting animals that are many times their size.

Surprise 3: not all birds love children

In principle, parrots easily become attached to people. Small species are especially good with children. If there is only one parrot in the apartment, as is usually the case with large ones, it becomes a companion bird, distinguishing one from the people around it. Often this is a person of the opposite sex - girl parrots choose male owners, and vice versa. Indirectly, this way you can determine the sex of the bird, although there is no 100% guarantee.

A companion parrot is unlikely to love all the inhabitants of the apartment equally and selflessly, even if they are children. Especially if for some reason they, children, are allowed to offend the bird - tease, scare, pick it up at any whim. In such a situation, the parrot may well peck and claw, regardless of the age of the offender, or even harbor a grudge.

In general, one should not think that a “cute parrot” by nature is obliged to love children. It's a bird - it has no responsibilities.

By the way

Can a parrot shut up?

Having taught a parrot to speak, many owners then ask if it is possible to play it back. It is almost impossible to stop a conversational bird from chatting. According to Vladimir Chuguevsky, she can remain silent only due to stress or illness:

– In my practice, this has happened among budgies. The reasons were strong emotions. There were cases after colds. The physiology of the respiratory system of birds is such that they have two larynxes. The lower one is the singing larynx, it is located in the place where the trachea divides into two bronchi. With any cold that affects the trachea, the singing larynx may be damaged, and this in turn affects the bird’s voice. It is extremely difficult to specifically wean a bird from speaking - for it this is a natural process, like eating and drinking.