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20 | JAN. 25 —FEB. 7, 2013 | www.ReporterNewspapers.net
PET
REPORTER
Parrots can be great pets, but
make sure to read up first
UK MELISSA WEINMAN
melissaweinman@reporternewspapers.net
PHOTOS BY MELISSA WEINMAN
Above, Dunwoody resident Marie
Frank with one of her cockatiels.
Below, admiring a coffee mug.
When you ring the doorbell at Ma
rie Frank’s Dunwoody home, she bare
ly cracks the door.
“Come in quickly,” she says, open
ing the door just enough for you to
squeeze through.
Once inside, the reason for her cau
tion is clear. Frank has three pet cocka
tiels that fly freely about her home.
Dixie perches on the handle of her
oven, singing to his reflection in the
stainless steel appliance. Lucky hops
over to the table where Frank is sitting,
curiously inspecting her coffee mug.
Frank said her birds are always en
tertaining her. But she said most peo
ple don’t know what they are getting
into when they buy a parrot.
“These are the best pets,” Frank
said. “But if you don’t treat them well,
they can be your worst nightmare.”
Frank is passionate about teaching
people about responsible bird owner
ship.
Frank said when she got her first
gray and yellow cockatiel, Dixie, she
assumed it would be happy living in
its cage. “I had a 5-year-old son who
wanted a parrot,” Frank said. “I think
people think — like I did — that you can
buy a big cage and look at him because
he’s pretty.”
But she soon learned that her bird
needed to spend time outside of his cage,
flying and interacting with her family.
“Dixie is kind of the one who trained
us on how he wanted to be treated,”
Frank said. “To treat them properly, you
have to give them little or no cage time.”
Since getting her first cockatiel, Frank
has rescued three more and has traveled
to Arizona to volunteer with a bird res
cue sanctuary.
She said there are many things people
don’t know about parrots — the family of
exotic birds that includes macaws, cocka
toos and Amazons.
If birds are bored or unhappy in their
cage, they can be very loud and destruc
tive, she said.
Some birds will even pick out their
feathers and bite their skin with their
beaks if they are confined to a cage.
“People need to know they are social
creatures, they do need stimulation, they
do need interaction,” Frank said.
Frank said many people give away
their parrots, annoyed by the noise the
birds make. There are only a few bird res
cue groups around the country, and there
often isn’t much space.
“The rescues are bursting at the seams.
They’re so overcrowded,” Frank said.
One reason those rescues are so crowd
ed: birds have incredibly long life spans.
Smaller parrots like cockatiels can live
up to 25 years. But some larger birds, like
macaws and African Grey Parrots, have a
life span of up to 100 years.
Ron Johnson, owner of Feathered
Friends Forever, cares for 1,400 birds at
his rescue facility near Augusta.
Fie said birds come to the rescue from
around the country for a variety of rea
sons. Some have owners who have died,
or owners who have moved and can no
longer keep them. Some people turn
their birds in because they are simply
tired of being bitten by the birds or hear
ing them chirp.
Johnson said the problem is that
breeders continue to sell the birds for a
large profit.
“Breeders and pet stores don’t care
what people buy so long as they collect
their money,” Johnson said.
Johnson said someone recent
ly dropped off a bird that was only six
months old.
“A breeder convinced this lady that
this was a quiet, lovable bird,” Johnson
said. “She paid $900 for the bird, $300
for the cage, and had it 48 hours because
she couldn’t stand the noise that it made.”
Fie said it’s important to keep in mind
that parrots are wild animals. They still
have natural instincts that can make
them unfriendly.
“They’re in a sense “domesticated” in
that they will take food from your hand
and they will talk to you,” Johnson said.
“When it’s breeding season, you have Dr.
Jekyll.”
