We have a hand-raised female Pacific parrotlet named Emme and she is a pit bull dressed in green feathers! lol That is, until she is out of her cage, which is her territory! She obeys the step up command very well. She does complain loudly about the intrusion of privacy and she gives us a hard warning bite. Emme's bite can be tenacious, somewhat like a budgie "gone wild" and on steroids!lol She is really saying, "get your hand out of my cage, this instant or you'll be sorry!" Not having a mirror, Emme thinks she is a huge, ferocious, Amazon parrot, not just a tiny, little, feathered pipsqueak!

When she is out of her element, she becomes extrememly docile and sweet, to the point she will just cuddle up and lie under my hand and go to sleep. She loves a bath and even loves to be dried with the gentle, cool setting of my hair drier. She will turn over on her back and then lie flat, speading her wings out, so the cool breeze can dry each and every feather.

She does not get along with any other members of our feathered family, which include two Congo African greys, a senegal parrot, a green-cheek conure and a lineolated parakeet. She is very confrontational...always looking to start a fight and much to small to ever claim victory!

We can't leave any soft and cuddly items in Emme's cage or anything she can snuggle up in (paper towels, newspaper, birdie hut)because she will shred it up and she will go into an egg laying cycle. She has laid up to 7 infertile eggs in a clutch at one time. We have left the eggs with her for weeks, and if we remove them, she will begin to lay again. All the while, she begins to look really rough...her feathers get dull, she plucks feathers out of her chest, she will not eat enough and her disposition is awful. I worry about this because I know it's not good for her to get in this condition. Just trying to clean her cage is difficult at this time due to her protecting her eggs. We finally realized that giving her any snuggly will cause problems and once we stopped, the egg laying cycles stopped.

Emme loves to eat and we give her a good small hook-bill seed diet along with Harrison's pellets and she eats both with equal delight. She also loves boiled egg yolks, pasta and veggies.

If I'd known about the female parrotlet territory issues, I'd probably would have chosen a male bird instead of a female, but I didn't do my research. We've just all learned how to get along with Emme and we love her in spite of her foul moods! A parrotlet is a terrific companion if you don't mind a pinch now and again and what true parrot lover would? We love Emme and in her own way, she loves us too!

"She was not quite what you would call refined.
She was not quite what you would call unrefined.
She was the kind of person who keeps a parrot."
~Mark Twain~

That's interesting that you found a connection between snuggling and egg laying. I've heard people talk about egg laying from time to time but you might be the first person I've heard who actually found a way to prevent it. I wonder how commonly that tactic would work for others' birds.

Nate Waddoups
Redmond WA USA

Actually, it was purely an accident that we discovered the connection between snuggling and egg laying.

We first contacted her breeder, who told us some things to try, but they didn't work. The fact that Emme, who was just a few months old at the time, and already laying, worried her.

We made sure Emme had a good diet, with boiled eggs, including the shells and a good calcium source to eat and we only gave her about 8 hours of daylight a day.

After multiple egg-laying cycles, one right after the other,we were so concerned about Emme's futile attempts at laying, that we talked to a vet at UGA, who suggested we limit her exposure to light again. Which we did, but to no avail. He then told us about hormonal intervention, but I really did not want to give her artificial hormones unless I had to.

When Emme was in her egg-laying cycle, she would look so bad, just sitting on her eggs for weeks at the time, not wanting to come out of her cage and be part of the family. I was very worried about little Emme. I am a retired vet tech and have seen egg bound birds, some even dying from the inability to pass an egg. Emme was depleting her calcium levels, ruining her health and even worse, shortening her life span.

Emme would cover herself and her eggs in the paper towels we used in the bottom of her cage. She would shred some and then cover herself up, refusing to come out and attacking our hand if we went in. So we took away the paper towels and hung her a little birdie tent in the top of her cage to sleep in. She immediately moved her makeshift nursery to the tent and began laying her eggs in there! So out came the tent about 6 months ago and since then, no eggs! I hope that solved the problem, but I still wish she could have a nice, comfy place to roost at night.

~kathy~
"She was not quite what you would call refined.
She was not quite what you would call unrefined.
She was the kind of person who keeps a parrot."
~Mark Twain~

Well, if it makes you feel any better, both of my birds choose to sleep on perches rather than in the boxes that they have. They play and chew on stuff in the boxes during the day, but roost on perches in other places.

Nate Waddoups
Redmond WA USA

I've had pacific parrotlets for over 12 years. I just love them. To me they are the perfect little guys. They are fearless and so cute. My first two were very bonded to me and they were hand-feds. They are just so incredibly cute and undestructive. They can't be loud, they are just too small.

I've heard that they have really big attitudes, did you ever have trouble getting along with your parrotlets?

(I really wonder how many species get bad reputations that they don't deserve...)

Nate Waddoups
Redmond WA USA

Ours (Munchie) has a huge attitude. Not only does HE try and bite you when you stick your hand in the cage, but pretty much everywhere else as well :) If I have our sun conure on my shoulder, and not Munchie, Munchie will go wild, even if its only for a couple of seconds, however if they're both on there and AS LONG AS Munchie can see Santana (sun conure), all is fine.
Buy you're totally right.......stick your hand in that cage, and beware the winged pirrahna :)

Michael
Miami, FL