Actually it appears a 104 year old parrot named Charlie is alive and well in the UK, but there is debate as to whether or not Churchill ever owned him or any parrot.
Interesting sidenote is the parrot reportedly goes on anti-Nazi tirades.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/3414323.stm
Doesn’t look very healthy though.
I have a conure and when he wants to be heard (i.e. when I come home), you can hear him outside the house.
A few things not mentioned yet:
[ul]
[li]These birds need toys. Word of warning, if the toy comes with a bell you may want to remove the clapper. My conure would ring the bell like a sick kid in a sitcom.[/li][li]They need things to chew - otherwise they will gnaw on ANYTHING. There are toys made just for the gnawing urge.[/li][li]They like to figure things out - if I let my bird out of the cage, he’ll climb over to the lightswitch and flick the lights off/on, looking very pleased with himself.[/li][li]The “two year old” quote is spot on - including jealousy. I have a cockatiel as my conure’s companion and if I pay attention to her, the conure will poke himself in the middle. He also will start acting up if I’m on the phone - just like a kid. :)[/li][li]They need a diet beyond the seed/nuts mix sold at the store. They need fresh fruits/vegetables - apples, pears, bananas, carrots, etc. They should also get a hard boiled egg with the shell included once a week to promote bone health/give them additional protein.[/li][/ul]
Forgot to answer this: No. Parrots are a specific type of class.
Also wanted to mention a couple more things:
They need toys, but they are fussy. My bird HATED the $5.00 - $15.00 toys we bought her. Wouldn’t even throw them on the floor, just ignored them. Give her the cardboard from the inside of a toilet paper roll and she was ecstatic. Finally my SO rigged up a mobile with 5 rolls and it kept her entertained for quite a while.
And they eat through them quickly, too.
Oh, and they like nuts but be careful how many you give them. I took mine to the vet once, and she said “Wow, you’re a little pudge, aren’t you?” (to the bird! not me!). Turned out we’d been giving her too many nuts.
I miss her.
Ah, the nuts post reminded me of something.
Plan on NOT feeding your bird seed primarily. Seed is not the best diet for a bird. Even with a mixture of seeds, they tend to pick out the things they like and ignore the rest so they don’t get all the nutrients they need. Plan on your bird’s primary food being a pelleted bird food. I am partial to Roudybush. It comes in several different pellet sizes, from crumbles to large pellets suitable for a macaw. It comes in several different quantities, from half-pint containers to 40 lb. bags. And it’s not full of artificial colors, like some others.
If you get a young bird that is weaned onto pellets, it’s simple. But if you get an older bird that has lived a life of nothing but seed, you should switch it over to pellets. Unfortunately, this isn’t just as simple as replacing seed with pellets. There’s usually a conversion process.
I also like to give my birds seen one day a week. This way they get plenty of oil in their diet. I just put another container with seed in their cage and leave the pellets too, so they can have their choice. It’s a bad idea to mix the seeds with the pellets, because then they’ll get in the habit of digging around in their pellets looking for their favorite seeds.
Aside from pellets, plan on giving your bird plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables. They can eat virtually anything you do, but stay away from salty or fried foods, and NO avocados or chocolate.
Co-worker parrot stories - -
Harold swears that his parrots have learned to bark (getting the dogs into trouble) and to call the dogs with his voice. The dogs kept coming, even when they knew it was the bird because the bird threw them fruit when they came. Hey, Harold gave them treats when they obeyed and the bird had been watching.
One bird’s new trick is picking up all of the ‘yes, dear’, ‘uh-huh’ noises that Harold makes when his wife is talking to him. He sat out on the porch one night and heard his wife talking from the kitchen while the bird answered from the front room. He had to go in later and find out what he had agreed to.
Harold says that each bird needs to be ‘worked’ about half an hour each day and that if they don’t get it, there are repercussions. I think the dog is enough of a stretch for me.