CheckeredTail
Walking the driveway
This is about my parrotlet Curtis, who died at age 8 of respiratory infection. I like the idea of bad first to end on a good note, so that's what I did.
The Bad: Curtis was aggressive and nippy with everyone who wasn't us, and was not willing to step up on other people's hands. He was often aggressively protective of anything he deemed "his". Paper Towel rolls, Kleenex, receipts, pill bottles.... anything he took a shine to! And he would get a bit flirty with that stuff too, so we had to spend time to sometimes discourage him. We were no stranger to beak based punishment or poop based punishment. If he was mad that we were taking something he wanted, he would fluff up and charge to bite! And usually would poop angrily on our tables or our things to show us his displeasure. He could be real brat sometimes. He would get loud occasionally, yelling at something he was unhappy about or interrupting phone calls etc. Not as loud as some of the larger birds, but certainly could be shrill and annoying once in awhile. He would make a mess of his food, and fling it around. Cleaning strawberry off the walls!
The Ugly: Sometimes, when Curtis was hormonal or just overstimulated, he could go from sweet and playful to a bad bite attack. Repeatedly viciously biting the same spot, ripping skin and drawing blood. He did some serious damage (for such a little guy) and pulled off a large chunk of skin once in awhile. This isn't OFTEN, I would say once every six months, but it was hard to deal with, since it was extremely painful and without warning. Overall, his size was the big drawback to the breed, even though small birds are easier to house and less costly to feed, they are more fragile. Fragile in the physical sense, being so small, and also, just less blood, and small body means if they need surgery, or they get something like a toenail bleed, you have less leeway. It's not easy to deal with medical issues in a bird this small.
The Good: Curtis was the light of our life, my wife and I's only bird. We travel about once a month for work by car and he was great at traveling with us, meeting people and seeing new places. We had a large travel cage, and a small one for the car. He was always so mopey and clingy when we left him with a friend to birdsit him for the weekend, and when we started bringing him more, he was much happier. He adapted well, he would play around in the hotel rooms, flying to us and hanging out in the front seat of the car, sharing some nice grapes with us by throwing them on our shirts. He loved to be with us and constantly wanted to play. He had a huge personality and was a somewhat limited but great talker. He would say "Hey baby!" "come here!" to get let out, tell us "easy, easy" to calm us down if we were upset, just like we would tell him if he was scared or upset. He would come when called, give verbal response when we would say his name. He would fly with us to the fridge and "help" when we prepared his veggies and fruit in the morning. He was potty trained (when he was on good behavior). He was not always cuddly, since his energy level was so high, he would usually want to just scramble all over us, up and down our hands and arms, but when he was ready to settle in and cuddle, he was sweet and would curl up and sleep right next to our hands. He loved to sing with us, he loved to watch movies and tv, he would mimic studio audience laughter to laugh at jokes. He was so smart and so loving. By the time he was 6, he was a lot easier for us to read, and a lot more mellowed out, we could avoid most bites by just reading his signals. As long as he was in a decently quiet environment, he was not a screamer. He was an attentive, and active member of the family, the always wanted to be involved, and almost always wanted to play with you.
In the end I'd say that having Curtis was super special, he was one of the most important relationships in my life besides my wife and he was great friend to me, even if he was sometimes a handful. If you have time and love to dedicate several hours a day, you can and will have a deep bond with your parrotlet. They aren't always going to listen or obey you, but honestly I don't think many parrots would, no matter the breed. That's more of a dog thing. Parrots are like a friend, you can tell them what to do or change, you can ask them to come and hang out with you, but can't really control them. But just like a friend, they can be there for you and show you tons of love.
The Bad: Curtis was aggressive and nippy with everyone who wasn't us, and was not willing to step up on other people's hands. He was often aggressively protective of anything he deemed "his". Paper Towel rolls, Kleenex, receipts, pill bottles.... anything he took a shine to! And he would get a bit flirty with that stuff too, so we had to spend time to sometimes discourage him. We were no stranger to beak based punishment or poop based punishment. If he was mad that we were taking something he wanted, he would fluff up and charge to bite! And usually would poop angrily on our tables or our things to show us his displeasure. He could be real brat sometimes. He would get loud occasionally, yelling at something he was unhappy about or interrupting phone calls etc. Not as loud as some of the larger birds, but certainly could be shrill and annoying once in awhile. He would make a mess of his food, and fling it around. Cleaning strawberry off the walls!
The Ugly: Sometimes, when Curtis was hormonal or just overstimulated, he could go from sweet and playful to a bad bite attack. Repeatedly viciously biting the same spot, ripping skin and drawing blood. He did some serious damage (for such a little guy) and pulled off a large chunk of skin once in awhile. This isn't OFTEN, I would say once every six months, but it was hard to deal with, since it was extremely painful and without warning. Overall, his size was the big drawback to the breed, even though small birds are easier to house and less costly to feed, they are more fragile. Fragile in the physical sense, being so small, and also, just less blood, and small body means if they need surgery, or they get something like a toenail bleed, you have less leeway. It's not easy to deal with medical issues in a bird this small.
The Good: Curtis was the light of our life, my wife and I's only bird. We travel about once a month for work by car and he was great at traveling with us, meeting people and seeing new places. We had a large travel cage, and a small one for the car. He was always so mopey and clingy when we left him with a friend to birdsit him for the weekend, and when we started bringing him more, he was much happier. He adapted well, he would play around in the hotel rooms, flying to us and hanging out in the front seat of the car, sharing some nice grapes with us by throwing them on our shirts. He loved to be with us and constantly wanted to play. He had a huge personality and was a somewhat limited but great talker. He would say "Hey baby!" "come here!" to get let out, tell us "easy, easy" to calm us down if we were upset, just like we would tell him if he was scared or upset. He would come when called, give verbal response when we would say his name. He would fly with us to the fridge and "help" when we prepared his veggies and fruit in the morning. He was potty trained (when he was on good behavior). He was not always cuddly, since his energy level was so high, he would usually want to just scramble all over us, up and down our hands and arms, but when he was ready to settle in and cuddle, he was sweet and would curl up and sleep right next to our hands. He loved to sing with us, he loved to watch movies and tv, he would mimic studio audience laughter to laugh at jokes. He was so smart and so loving. By the time he was 6, he was a lot easier for us to read, and a lot more mellowed out, we could avoid most bites by just reading his signals. As long as he was in a decently quiet environment, he was not a screamer. He was an attentive, and active member of the family, the always wanted to be involved, and almost always wanted to play with you.
In the end I'd say that having Curtis was super special, he was one of the most important relationships in my life besides my wife and he was great friend to me, even if he was sometimes a handful. If you have time and love to dedicate several hours a day, you can and will have a deep bond with your parrotlet. They aren't always going to listen or obey you, but honestly I don't think many parrots would, no matter the breed. That's more of a dog thing. Parrots are like a friend, you can tell them what to do or change, you can ask them to come and hang out with you, but can't really control them. But just like a friend, they can be there for you and show you tons of love.