"Manual of Parrot Behavior"

I pulled this book off my shelf recently and have been diving back into it. It's not what the title calls it, and it's not a light read, but it is about as much solid information relevant to companion parrots I've seen in one place. I've recommended it before, but I thought it was worth mentioning again. The book is about 5 years old, which seems to be pretty current in parrot research. I will say, I paid nothing like the current Amazon price for it, so if isn't reissued soon you might want to look for it at a library. It devotes relatively little space to pet-relevant behavior, but it does cover the current state of knowledge about parrots ranging from behavior in the wild to nutrition to cognition to the effect of handler attitude on chick development and there are several articles relevant to plucking, agrression, etc.

It reads more like a conference proceedings than a lay reference book, but if you aren't intimidated by a certain amount of scientific language, this is straight from the researchers doing the relevant research -- each "chapter" is a review of the research on a given subject. I'm an astronomer, not a biologist, and it's not so technical that I have much trouble with the language, but it is a bit on the dry side -- with lots of references to refereed and conference papers.

Hey SnS, may i suggest reading some of Dr Howard Voren's work. Roz sites his articles sometimes,A lot of his work is with breeding but he spent years collecting and observing Parrots in Cenral and South America and has tons of insight,I think you might enjoy some of his topics. voren.com

I've bookmarked that, thanks! He seems definitely into color mutations from the home page!

Edited to add: you have to like a guy who creates a lecture title such as "The Creation of the Maladjusted Parrot To Politically Pacify Psittacine Concerned Citizens". I am going to suspect he's an opinionated guy... but I like him already.

If you think his articles are opinionated you should meet him inperson.I consider him a good friend but you better have your "ducks in a row"when you voice an opinion.

Thanks. I'll definitely have to check this book out. I like reads that aren't about "Paulie & You".

henpecked wrote:

If you think his articles are opinionated you should meet him inperson.I consider him a good friend but you better have your "ducks in a row"when you voice an opinion.

Ducks or parrots? I have colleagues and relatives like that, so I can well imagine what you are saying.

"Supposedly" you can download the book for free if you join this site:
http://www.elib4vet.com/

I disavow any knowledge as I haven't tried it yet.

Edited to clarify -- I mean the site Roz posted just above.

I'm a little wierded out by the way that site is presenting itself. Do you know anything about it's origin? If it is legit it sounds as if it would be really, really useful. OTOH, I have a sinking feeling they may be violating copyright.

I always seem to be flowing against the current, but I actually believe/agree with a lot of Howard Voren's opinions and heresays.

GlassOnion wrote:

I always seem to be flowing against the current, but I actually believe/agree with a lot of Howard Voren's opinions and heresays.

I meant the vet-docs site, not Voren's, in case that wasn't clear!!! I agree with some of what he has to say as well. I have only read a few of the items on the site so far.

In fact, the more I read, the more I agree with. This article on gender bias sounds right on to me!

http://www.voren.com/articles/gender-preference/

ScooterNScotty wrote:

Edited to clarify -- I mean the site Roz posted just above.

I'm a little wierded out by the way that site is presenting itself. Do you know anything about it's origin? If it is legit it sounds as if it would be really, really useful. OTOH, I have a sinking feeling they may be violating copyright.

No, I know nothing about the site and have not tried it out. It's just something I stumbled on. I'm supposing they're getting around copyright issues by not being in a country that can enforce.'

I tend to agree with Howard Voren a lot more than I agree with what I read by EB Craven.