Tom (South American Conure)

 I had a next-door neighbor once who loved parrots. She even had one as a pet: an African Grey Parrot named Percy. Parrots are pretty cool pets in a lot of ways, particularly if you want a pet you can talk to. Not that parrots can actually talk exactly like a person. They just repeat what they hear around the house. Some parrots are very intelligent, like the aforementioned African Grey, which has the intelligence level equivalent to that of a 7-year old child! Of course, when you think of a 7-year old human kid, it doesn't sound that smart. However, that IS pretty smart for a bird. 

Anyway, parrots are neat pets to have...if you have the time to commit to spending with them. Parrots are also high-maintenance pets that require a lot of attention and interaction from their owners. However, I feel I must warn you that most parrots, in general, are one-owner pets, meaning that they bond mainly with one person in the household, and they bite the crap out of everyone else. Needless to say, the person that your parrot bonds with is often the only person your parrot will tolerate handling it. 

Am I speaking from personal experience? Yes, I am! I had a pet parrot once, too: a South American blue-crowned conure that I called Tom. Odd name for a parrot, I know, but I didn't want to name him Paulie because I felt that name was so common for a parrot. As I told my Dad, "Every parrot owner names their parrot Paulie!" Anyway, Tom was a fun pet to have for as long as we had him, but in the fall, once we started going back to school and work, owning a parrot became less realistic, because like I said before, parrots are pets that need a lot of human interaction, which means that the owner should be home more often than not. My point is, parrots are not pets for everyone. Then again, pet ownership itself isn't for everyone, either. Any pet is a big responsibility to take on, but when you're a true animal-lover like I am, the challenge is more than worth it!

Here's a picture of Tom's species: the Blue crowned conure:




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