Congratulations! If you are a new parrot owner and starting to prepare your home for your bird, it might feel overwhelming to tackle all the recommendations at once. In today’s blog, we’ll cover the absolute essentials to get you started as a parrot owner.
Table of Contents
Essential Gear for Parrots & New Parrot Owners
A key element to a happy parrot is having a happy and comfortable home, which has all of the essentials included. For all parrots they will need:
Cage
Buying a good cage is the best early investment you can make for your future parrot. This will be where you parrot spends the majority of their time, so making it as comfortable can potentially help avoid other downstream issues like parrot anxiety or boredom.
Your parrot’s cage will essentially be their home, so going for bigger is always better. Bigger cages not only promote healthy movement but also helps make sure your parrot doesn’t get claustrophobic. Here are some general recommendations based on parrot sizes:
- Small (e.g. Lovebird): 24’W x 18’D x 24’H (all in inches) or more
- Medium (e.g. Lorikeet): 36’W x 24’D x 48’H or more
- Large (e.g. Macaw): 48’W x 48’D x 60’H or more
Key Considerations
- Cage Color: Parrot cages tend to come in black or white, when choosing keep in mind what your baby bird grew up in. I learnt after owning Tango, that he is more anxious in my black travel cage.
- Cage Shape: Depending on which species you’ve decided to get do some research on their natural movement patterns. For example, sun conures really enjoy being high up and prefer vertical height. Alternatively, some Lovebirds love to move around and prefer lateral mobility so prioritize cage width.
- Bar Width: Just like human shoe sizes, parrots have different bar widths on cages. Make sure you buy a cage that is suitable for your parrots feet & reach.
- Bar Material: It’s important to invest in a cage with high quality materials. Nothing that chips easy, you don’t want metal shavings near your bird! If you are looking for a bigger bird, like hyacinths, be sure to buy tough metal cages. They are known to bend metal and break open cages.
- Features: This isn’t as important, but keep in mind cage features, e.g. food bowl locations, storage compartment, does it come with a top play gym, or is it an open top cage? Those are all small conveniences that you might want to consider before making the investment.
Image Credits: Three examples of cages that you could purchase with different features (Left: BirdCagesForLess, Center: Yaheetech, Right: Panana Cages)
Toys
Toys are an essential part of enrichment for a parrot. To get started, observe what toys may have been available in their cage before coming to your home. If you can get an exact one, that would be ideal! It’s good to bring something familiar to help your new bird ease in.
While your parrot is getting settled, don’t make too many changes at once. Keep things simple and familiar since they are making lots of adjustments in their new home. In preparation, I recommend getting a few key types of toys for them to experiment with later. Don’t go crazy with the purchases though since you don’t know what your parrot might enjoy playing with.
Parrot toys come in a few varieties: Wood Blocks, Shreddables (like fibers/strands), Other (like bells, shiny spoons they can bang on, mirrors, puzzles+).
For Tango, he is in love with these shreddables (Amazon.com : BBjinronjy 2PCS Bird Toys Parrot Foraging Shredder Hanging Toys Sola Balls with Bell for Small Parrots Parakeets Cockatiel Conures Love Birds Budgie Cage Toy : Pet Supplies)
Perches
Perches are stands within their cage where your parrot will spend majority of their time sitting or will use them to move around. In the beginning start with simple perches that your parrot will recognize. Avoid anything new or with lots of colors that could put them on guard.
As your parrot gets settled, purchase a nice variety of perches for the home. This is key to good foot health in parrots. Getting perches of different widths and shapes help exercise different muscles as they navigate.
In general, there are three types of common perches:
- Standard Perches: these are the ones that often come with cages. They are usually a uniform pole of wood that is cut-out
- Rope Perches: these are made of cloth fibers. They have a soft and comfier feel for the parrot. (Tango only sleeps on rope perches)
- Natural Wood Perches: these are made of natural wood branches and look as if it was cut of the tree itself. A common material for this is “grapevine”
Images of perches. Left: Rope Perch, Right-Top: Standard Perch, Right-Bottom: Natural Wood Perches
Food & Water
This is a must for raising a parrot 😂
In terms of food, you want to prepare a few types of food for your parrot:
- Nutritional Pellets – just like dog kibble, pellets are manufactured to have a balanced mix of nutrients for your parrot.
- Seed Mix – a parrot species specific mix of seeds.
- Treats – honey seed bars, millet, sunflowers, peanuts or nutriberries
- Fruits & Veggies
In future, I’ll write a full blog about parrot diet. To start stick to pellets and seed mix at a 60:40 ratio, and don’t get into fruits and veggies just yet. This is because there are some fruits and veggies that are toxic to birds. Fruits & Veggies are always something you can ramp up gradually, as well as other treats like birdie bread, nutriberries, etc.
For water, give the birds what you would drink! And remember, clean the bowl everyday and change the food and water.
Optional Items (but highly recommended)
‘A Second Space’
A second space is another stand or area that your parrot can enjoy that is not your cage. This is nice to have because you and your parrot can be in each other’s presence without your bird being physically on you. Also, you won’t have to constantly wheel around your cage 😊
When choosing a second space for your parrot, go for something that is more lightweight (or easily moveable) that can offer your parrot a toy, food and water. This is the stand Tango has- Amazon.com : LIMIO Natural Grape Wood Bird Parakeet Playground – Perch Stand for Parakeets, Cockatiels, and Small Birds Toys : Pet Supplies. I removed all the bells and whistles though because Tango doesn’t ever crawl down, he likes to stay up high.
Night Cover
This is highly recommended, parrots sleep from sundown to sunrise (and like to nap throughout the day). Nightcovers aren’t necessary but I have noticed it helps with Tango’s quality of sleep. He can be so moody.
The other benefit that many parrot owners see from night covers is later in a parrot’s development. Almost all parrots develop hormonal symptoms, and ensuring long stages of sleep for your parrot is one of the top recommendations to counteract that.
When I first got my parrot I thought it was unnecessary but I think eventually we all get one 😂
Shower Perch or Spray Bottle
Parrots love to shower and it is part of their self care! Get a misting bottle and be a part of this fun process. They love to go crazy in the water!
Final Thoughts
There are so many things that you could buy, to name a few:
- Training equipment – props and clickers
- Foraging stations
- Outdoor aviator harnesses
- Travel carriers
- UV lights, and more
This list is just the bare necessities you should prepare in your first few weeks as a new parrot owner. With time (like so many of us), you will collect all the extra goodies to help enrich your parrot’s life!
Have any questions? or did I miss any essentials? Let me know in the LuvBirb community!
