Parrots need exercise

Exercise is a very crucial part of a parrot's life. Domestic birds tend to get less exercise than they do in their natural habitat. Most pet birds in the US are clipped, thus flying for miles (which is their natural exercise) don't exist in a household environment. They have to find other ways to exercise and vent their high energies. Even birds who are not clipped and are allowed to fly around the house do not have the space they normally would have in the open world, and will still need additional ways to expand that energy. Birds that do not get enough exercise can be overweight, withdrawn, depressed, and can lead to feather plucking, aggression, and other behavioral problems.

There are several things parrots can do in a household environment to use up their high energy. Their toys for one, is the main source of equipment for them. Therefore learn to pick toys that allow your parrot to enjoy and do many different things. For exercise purposes - ropes, swings, bells, and boings are some of the best tools for hanging, swinging around and flapping.

You can also use a handheld rope toy or swing, and allow your parrot to hang from it while you swing the toy back and forth. Get animated with your voice and bring out their excitement. Your bird will enjoy this and start swinging in circles, doing flips and flapping its wings happily. Make sure that you're not too far off the ground in case your bird lets go of the toy.


Climbing up and down free hanging ropes	Fun showers	Playing fetch with a ball.

Zachary loves playing with paper balls. He will toss it to us and want it tossed back. He will bop his body in excitement and wait for us to throw the paper ball at him. This goes on and on until we get tired; and by that time he is winded and you can see him panting hard. Yet he throws it back to us and bops his body like a goal keeper asking for a challenge!

Sometimes he gets so excited that he will grab the ball and tumble over, doing somersaults:

Baby rattles and ferret toys with bells in them are great toys to get a parrot all wound up. Our Senegal parrot, Sidney, will run towards a rattle, attack it and roll all over the floor with the toy:

We will encourage him by taking the rattle and tossing it to a different spot and let him go after it to roll and tumble again. It burns energy that otherwise would gear towards frustrating behaviors.

Zachary does the same thing with baby rattles and with little cups that we throw on the floor for him to go after:

Parrots are great at swinging while holding onto toys, and what a great exercise that is for them. Here's Zachary carrying a pretty heavy bone (for his size) while swinging on his playboing:

Zachary also loves exploring in our other parrots' cages, and will play with their toys in there with the cage door open, while we're home. We therefore have to make sure that our lovebird and senegal's cage toys include strong medium parrot toys that Zachary can use and enjoy. Here you see him having a ball in that cage - which is also a great workout for him:

Other energy burning activities include playing with their interactive toys (see toys page) & during training sessions - playing the baby piano and running back and forth to press the keys; do the ring toss, flag pull, stack cups and anything else that requires the parrot to walk back and forth.