Easiest and Hardest Parrot Species In Captivity
All parrot species are difficult to take care of in our homes. To start, they need a lot of space inside of the cage, but a lot outside of their cage as well. Birds are very noisy and messy, which disrupts home life and increases care time. Bird’s diets need to be high quality and varied, which is time consuming and expensive. But beyond basic care, every species has different adding qualities and care needs that may make them more desirable, or less, for most home, or captive care in general. We will go over the hardest and easiest parrots to keep in captive care. These are generalized traits and each individual bird may vary. But these are the top species from my experience for being the most difficult and amongst the easiest.
The first one on this list will be of no surprise to those active in the parrot community, and that is all cockatoo species. Of course, the white cockatoos are the hardest, with the black and galah being slightly easier, but cockatoos in general. Cockatoos are extremely demanding creatures socially. They crave constant companionship. These traits will lead them at a greater disposition to have separation anxiety, increased screaming, feather destructive behaviors, and even increased aggression, especially when going back into the cage or getting off their caretakers. It is easy for them to become over-bonded to their person, due to their high need of social interaction, which can lead to extreme aggression towards other family members, parrots, and visitors.
Cockatoos are generally kept in deplorable conditions. Since they are a large species of parrot, they are high energy, they need a lot of physical or mental stimulation, no size cage will do for them. They need a minimum of an aviary and ideally one they can fly in. the smallest cage I would put a cockatoo in is one that is 5FT by 5FT by 6FT high. Mental stimulation, in the form of enrichment and foraging, is incredibly important to having success with these animals in your home. You can learn more about foraging and enrichment through our webinar. They will also need a lot of consistent training to keep undesirable behaviors, like over bonding, screaming, and aggression, under control. Fluff and Feathers offers behavior consultations to help you through undesirable behaviors by visiting our contact page, or learning more about our in-person training and online training.
Lastly, they have feather down dust protective coatings on their plumage and not oil like other parrots. Therefore, there is an increase in cleaning and showering your bird. It is incredibly important to have HEPA air purifiers with these birds to help ensure your respiratory health. It is very common for people to be forced to rehome their cockatoos because breathing in their dust for so long has caused respiratory illnesses that can be fatal. This species is not recommended to people with respiratory illnesses or asthma. The species is also most known to have a disease called Psittacine Beak and Feather Disease (PBFD) which is deadly to the bird and high contagious to others, so it is important to disease test your cockatoo. They also are the most prevalent with hormonal issues resulting in hormonal implants or injections from your avian vet, constant management, and sometimes if hormones are not managed or cannot be managed, it can lead to death.
The next species to speak about is the Eclectus parrot. These are beautiful birds, but they are incredibly hard to manage hormonally, especially with females. Eclectus parrots breeding habits are unique in the parrot world. The female will have many males care for her while she stays in the nest for around 9 months of the year. The normal hormonal and breeding season is 6 months or less for other species. This means the birds are hormonal all year round. This can be incredibly difficult because it leads to almost constant hormonal frustration. Birds will constantly be preforming hormonal behaviors, like nest site hunting, chronic egg laying, chronic masturbation, regurgitation, etc. They are also a species that is known to pluck, both males and females but most commonly females, due to hormonal concerns. We have a webinar coming up on feather destructive behaviors, like plucking; to learn more, click here.
Also, Eclectus need a different diet than most hookbill parrots. They have very long intestines, which complicates the traditional diet and pellets found on the market. They need a high in fiber, low fat diet with an increase in low-sugar fruits, vegetables, and a natural pellet with no artificial dyes and colorants and preservatives. They also should not be given extra vitamins and minerals unless specified from your avian vet by bloodwork to do so, as it can cause tumors and abnormal behaviors.
The next to talk about is the macaw. This is simply for the amount of room they need. The minimum cage size for each parrot species is double the length of their wingspan, one wing span width, and double tail or head height. This is the bare minimum and does not factor in species-specific traits that need to be implemented into the cage size and design. For a macaw with a 4 foot or more wing span, this means an 8FT long cage, a 4ft wide cage, and a height upwards to 5 or 6 feet, with scarlet macaws and hyacinths with the longest tails being even greater. Remember, this is just the minimum cage size. Most people do not or cannot afford a cage that size, or that much room in their homes, which does not include their space outside of the cage. They also need a place in their cage that allows them to flap fully without their wings hitting into any perches, enrichment, or the cage bars, while the cage still has 5 varied perches, at least 3 items of enrichment, food and water station.
The last hardest species is the amazon parrot. Now, these are my personal favorite species to have and work with. If you look at my list of resident parrots, you will see I have five amazons. Amazons are difficult because they are naturally more prone to aggression concerns. This is not to excuse aggressive behaviors, if your bird is aggressive it needs to be worked with, but there will be a need for constant training to help maintain friendlier behaviors. I have a blue front male named Crazy Bird that I rescued and he almost killed a woman who was in the hospital for two weeks from injuries from him and he ruptured another caretaker’s minor artery from bites. Most experienced bird people will say that their worst bird attacks or bites were from amazons. They are also known to be more one person type of bird, which in a family setting can become challenging without training. They are also very independent birds and generally not cuddly. I say this and I have two amazons that do not want to be pet, I have one that acts like a puppy, and two that likes the occasional head scratch and preen. Personally, I prefer an independent bird because then I have more freedoms in my life, but a lot of people want more of a companion.
Though these species have undesirable traits, they can be amazing companions when you consider these and have the time to manage these traits. These species are not always rainbows and butterflies like you see online, or read articles on. A lot of un-true online articles are from people who just romanticize having these as companions, highlights only the positive (which is about 5% of what caring for a bird is), the authors have only every met one bird of the species, or worse none at all, only met a baby bird of that species, which baby birds and sexually matured birds are different. Getting a bird from a baby compared to an adult and “raising them right” does not mean your bird will never develop undesirable behaviors.
Now to move on from the negative, lets talk about some of the best companion parrot species. My favorite species to recommend is the cockatiel. They are most suited for any home environment because they are smaller in size, meaning a flight cage for this species is smaller and easier to maintain in home life, especially compared to a macaw or cockatoo. They are relatively inexpensive birds to start with because they are small, they do not cost a lot, they’re plentiful to find in rescues and breeders, they need a smaller amount of food compared to a larger species, and it takes less time to clean their cage, as their droppings are smaller. They can come in some stunning colorations and patterns. Their beak size is less intimidating to caretakers, perfect for beginners. They live a modest amount of 25-35 years old. They have wonderful mimicking abilities. They’re great family birds, perfect for children to help care for and interact with, and can be very affectionate. A downside is they too have feather down dust, so a HEPA air purifier, increased showers, and allergy and respiratory system concerns still arise, though not as severe as a cockatoo because a cockatiel is smaller in size, so less air contaminants.
The next bird is super underrated. The budgie! These are pint size birds with so much personality. Most do not know that the best mimicking bird, knowing over 105 words and phrases is NOT an African grey parrot, it is a budgie! These birds are very similar to the cockatiel just even smaller. They are also incredibly easy to pair up and create a flock for. A downside to a parakeet is a lot of breeders sadly do not put the time and effort into taming them and socializing them properly. This can be a set back when first getting your budgie, depending on where that is, but building trust with your new bird can be easy with an appropriate training plan. We do offer training plans if you contact us!
For those who want a macaw, do not mind some noise, but cannot work with the size of a macaw or is intimidated by their beak, a conure is similar in behavior to macaws. It actually is not uncommon for mini macaw species, like the Hans the smallest of macaws, to be housed with conure species. Conures are very playful and affectionate. They like to be in the action and can be described as a family bird species. They are not suitable for apartment living because of the noise, which can be dependent on the sub species you get and the individual bird. The green cheeks and Patagonian conure are the quieter species with the sun, jenday, nanday, goldens being the noisiest. Conures can live quite awhile ranging from 25-40 years. I have seen conures that are documented pushing close to 40 years so that can be a realistic timeline for this species, which is a huge commitment.
Of course, this does not mean that all of the species I recommend to be the best and easiest for homelife are a walk in the park. All parrot species have their quirks, individual birds have their behaviors that may not exactly align with these positive descriptions. But I am often asked as a professional in the industry and as a trainer my thoughts on this topic a lot, as well as helping people pick the right species for their life through my consultation services. So, I thought there was value covering the topic and going over my thoughts on it on an extremely basic level. There is much more to go into with each species, outlining the good, the bad, and the ugly, but that all cant be covered in a single blog post. Again, every bird is an individual and may not fall into these descriptions. This is just based on my experiences working with thousands of parrots of all ages, backgrounds, and more.