What’s It Like Owning a Parrot?
TLDR
The short summary is, living with a bird is like living with a 2-3 year old child. They are loud, messy, funny, relatively intelligent, entertaining and filled with lots of love and days where you have no idea what your feathered friend will do. But it is a life-long commitment as many parakeets live 15 years and parrots living 40-60 years! Yes, you read that right - human years. I do not take it lightly to own a bird. They require minimum 4-5 hours of your family’s time a day otherwise they a prone to depression and self-mutilation.
However, I wanted to take the time to go into detail about our daily routine with our parrot Yoshi. So read on to learn how we live with our dinosaur!
This post focuses on parrots and a little bit of larger parakeets (like Quakers/Monk Parakeets, and Conures). Birds have such various species and personalities it’s difficult to generalize so keeping this article focused so it’s useful!
Meet Yoshi, Our 13-Year Old, Lilac-Crowned, Amazon Parrot
My husband and I have a 13+-year-old Lilac Crowned Amazon Parrot named Yoshi (named after the Nintendo Dinosaur; which is to say she is our child and very much the center of the household. She has the intelligence of a 2-3-year-old which includes all the loud noises, screaming, and tantrums (more on that later). In case you couldn’t tell, we love her very much! It’s literally a joy living with a parrot and having her as part of the family.
That being said, it’s a lot of work. So let’s dive into our daily routine and what it takes to keep this feathered friend happy.
What’s a Normal Day with Yoshi like?
7:30AM: Wake Up and Breakfast
Yoshi is extremely routine-driven (more than any other bird or dog I’ve cared for!). She wakes up with the sun by 7:30AM she “calls the flock together” by talking and chirping to get our attention. If we’re not up and reporting to duty, she starts throwing food bowls and toys on the ground to get our attention (in her mind, loud noises are good). Once we’re awake, she refuses to eat her fresh bird pellets but instead stands on the edge of her bird stand watching me prep my human breakfast. Sometimes patient, sometimes not, she bats her wings and sits in a forward hunched stance (like she’s about to fly) to signal that she really wants my food (sharing is caring!).
Lately, I’ve been eating steel-cut oatmeal, and she loves dissecting each grain as if it were a seed. Due to the shape of their beak, it eventually forms an adorable, mushy “food beard” which she either pushes back to eat or flings/wipes on her perch to clean her beak.
It’s a messy life living with a bird. At about this time, I will sweep, vacuum, and/or wipe up any stray bird droppings (and repeat this 3-5x a day depending on my patience, schedule and/or how messy she’s being. It’s common for Yoshi to chew on her wooden toys; often there are a lot wood chips on the floor. That or she could throw a tantrum and fling her full food bowl to the ground, in which case, I will be cleaning up mushy pellet food (no fun).
8:30AM: Morning Hand-Holding Session
After breakfast, Yoshi and I sit together for ~15-20 minutes. I catch up on news and Instagram while mindlessly scrolling my phone. During this time, Yoshi prefers sitting on my hand, nearly directly in front of my face (must get optimal human attention). She will say her phrases (“Hi”, “I Love You”), pin her eyes, and try to engage with me to give her lots of attention and love - which I do as much as possible (because it’s fun to interact with her).
You can tell she enjoys the back and forth due to her pinned eyes, full attention, and flared tail. It’s the cutest! Yoshi’s preferred activity is sitting still together. This means no sudden movements (as this is scary). I do what I can to keep Queen Yoshi happy. She communicates her dislike of sudden movements by fake biting or even air biting with an unhappy, “stop that” face (you have to know her to understand her subtle expressions but she really does make this evil birb face).
9:15 AM - 12 PM: Alone Time While Mom Works
After our time together, I head to my home office to start my work day which includes a lot of virtual meetings. I don’t want Yoshi distracting me - so glad we have different rooms. While I’m busy making money, Yoshi will eat more food, and catch up on sleeping or preening. She likes a little time alone.
Amazons are known as the laziest bird genus! They love taking afternoon naps and have no problems just sitting in one stop all day aka she’s a perch potato. She especially loves it with her flock (together is better)!
1PM - 2PM: Lunch
For lunch I come downstairs to fix food. At this time, Yoshi greets me by doing a big floof. For those who don’t know, a floof is when a bird does a full body shake. All their feathers make an adorable fluff sound and it usually unleashes a small cloud of birdy dander. It’s Yoshi’s way of saying, I’m ready to move! If she’s feeling extra, she might do a one-foot and wing stretch where she shows off her pretty wings (again, most adorable bird award).
As I prepare my lunch, I put together a small Yoshi bowl which often includes apples, oranges, rice and tofu. To prevent Yoshi from constantly begging for food, I feed her when I’m done eating. While I’m eating, Yoshi will sit as close to me as possible and just stare at my food LOL!
When I eat out, and Yoshi will start to get antsy and call up to me a birdy “Eh” as in “Come Down and Feed Me!”. So even if I eat elsewhere, I try to give her a little something so she has a pleasant lunch. It’s not needed, but I can tell she loves it.
2PM - 5PM: Work
Back to work, I return to my separate home office. Yoshi is typically tired after lunch and happy to sit, nap or preen; she knows the routine! If I am able to work in the same room, I may work from the dining room table so Yoshi gets more family time.
Throughout the day, my husband will stop by and greet Yoshi as he fills up his water bottle, grabs something to eat, etc. During this time, Yoshi demands to sit on his shoulder so she’s a part of the routine. This is a big deal as Yoshi does not like moving objects but she’s adapted as she knows she’ll get more dad-time in!
5:30 PM: Daily TV and Family Time
By 4:30p - 5:30p, Yoshi will yell at us to come downstairs and engage in the evening routine! This is her favorite part of the day, so if we are late she will persistently scream at us until join her.
Once my husband and I are in the living room, we will spend time holding Yoshi. For example, my husband will take her to the window and they look outside. She loves seeing people walk by and see the delivery people ring the doorbell!
Once we’re ready to start the nightly TV show, we gather on the couch. We must sit on the right side of the couch, as Yoshi does not like it if change it up from the standard routine.
If we are running late, she might fly circles in the living room, to shepherd us to the right location. If that doesn’t work, she will literally fly and land on the couch and look at us like, “Are you coming?”. It’s hysterical how much she loves TV time. So my husband and I try to stick with this routine as much as possible for Yoshi’s sake! It helps her know she’s safe and with her flock and always has a relaxing evening routine to look forward to. I think it mimics her species in the wild where they gather together and get ready for sleep. It’s the only time the entire flock is together, and surprise - saying in one stop (which makes her doubly happy)!
7 PM: More Living Room Time with Yoshi and Mom, then Bedtime
The daily routine is constantly changing, but recently when I workout in the living room, Yoshi has taken to flying the lamp and hanging out with me. She used to retire to her dedicated bird room and sleeping cage, but after a while, she asked to stay up later and later. She just doesn’t want to be separated from us! Now and days, she’d rather stay up late and be together, than be apart and have a good night’s sleep. She’s just a sassy, rebellious teenager - is how I think of it.
FAQs
How Much Time Out of Her Cage Does Yoshi Spend?
Yoshi spends all day outside of her cage #cagefree. Yes, this is excessive and we eased into this; it did not happen overnight. I do not in any way recommend this for all birds. It only works because Yoshi is a lazy bird and happy to sit on her perch most of the day. For more active and explorer birds, they should definitely be caged when not supervised.
The best rule of thumb for keeping a happy, healthy parrot is at least four hours of time out of the cage every day. This could mean sitting near your parrot, holding them, talking to them, or just basic interaction where they feel loved and happy!
With Yoshi, she now lives a cage-free life. In her first 7 years, she would go into the cage when my husband and I went into an office. She mostly napped when we were gone. As we transitioned to working from home, she slowly spent more and more time out of her cage and on her stand. We would watch her very carefully and learned she was able to spend hours of unsupervised time outside of her cage on her stand, as she was very sedentary and didn’t move from where we left her! It started with us doing a quick hour errand (and checking in on her via pet cam). Then we slowly increased our time away. Nowadays, if we’re gone all day, we do not hesitate to leave her outside of her cage and on her stand.
However, this cafe-free life cannot be said of all birds. I have pet-sit a lot of birds; many birds are extremely curious and will get themselves into trouble (like getting tangled into fabric). So if your bird is a little explorer, then they absolutely should go into their cage when unsupervised, and we practice the same when we bird sit! Safety is first and foremost! If you’re unsure, cage the bird when you’re not actively supervising or in the same room.
Does Yoshi Bite?
Yes, all bird was basically wild. They still act like a little dinosaur and don’t fully realize when they bite, they are bringing bodily harm. Instead, if you yell or scream, they read that as excited and they love excited. They also read biting as a way to get what they want. For example, if you always reach into bird’s cage when they do not want to come out, and they bit you, said hand goes away - then it’s logical they are trained to bite you. That being said, try not to reward your bird for biting you.
The bodily harm is real. As one time, Yoshi bite my knuckle really bad, held on and now I have a long-time knuckle scar. It bled a lot (gross, I know). Overall, if you have a bird, be willing to accept that you will be bitten and it will hurt. Birds are still wild no matter how long you live with them.
Anyway, Yoshi will watch me workout, while she preens. This lasts for about an hour as she obviously starts to get super tired. Typically birds wake up and sleep with the sun; so any time after sunset makes her very sleepy. Once she’s in her tired stage, she will do a full on beak tuck (where she tucks her beak into the wing) and fall asleep as much as she can.
Any loud noises, you will see her eyeballs flutter and she looks around to assess if there’s any true danger. If anything truly disturbing happens, she will untuck her beak and look around.
Usually, I will finish up my workout, turn off the light and let her sleep on the living room lamp. And yes, we have newspaper in all the common places that she perches, to catch her droppings! After this, it’s the end of the day and the routine starts again!
Does Yoshi talk?
Yes, here’s a list of Yoshi’s limited phrases:
Good girl, Yoshi
Hi
I love you
A series of fun whistles
Go on (she uses this one when she wants to go somewhere, as that’s what my husband says before he picks her up)
Yoshi only picks up phrases that she wants to learn, as she’s her own independent birdie. If the phrase does not get the response she wants, she will stop saying it. I think her phrases are so limited because she genuinely doesn’t care about talking as she’s able to communicate much of her needs via her body language!
In the wild, birds mate for life, so this mate is attuned to reading subtle body language and understanding their partner. Yoshi expects the same from us. If we don’t “get” her, she becomes visibly annoyed and will make biting motions to tell you she’s unhappy with what we did. She very much expects us to understand her needs and wants.
About Me (Yoshi’s Mom)
I grew up with a Quaker Parrot for 10+ years; he was my best friend. As an adult, I paired up with my significant other and convinced him to adopt a young Lilac Crowned Amazon Parrot. He hoped that she would talk, and talk she did! Now, we are a happy flock. We have been living with Yoshi, our Lilac Crowned Amazon Parrot for 13+ years now. We expect she’ll live 50+ human years if she’s healthy! I also bird sit as many varieties and types of birds. Feel free to Say HI to this bird-loving household, send any questions our way! hello@birdsittinglosangeles.com
Reach out if you’d like us to bird sit; we’re in Los Angeles :)