Parrots are highly intelligent, long-lived, and socially complex birds whose welfare is frequently compromised in captivity. Understanding their needs and the challenges of domestic parrot keeping is essential for prospective and current owners.
Companion parrots are among the most welfare-compromised animals in domestic settings. Their exceptional intelligence and social complexity mean that standard pet keeping — a cage, some toys, limited daily interaction — is profoundly inadequate. Parrots need several hours of out-of-cage social interaction daily, foraging enrichment that occupies their cognitive capacity, and ideally the company of conspecifics. Feather destruction and self-mutilation, screaming, and aggression are behavioral expressions of unmet needs. The mismatch between parrot needs and typical owner capacity makes responsible parrot keeping extremely challenging.