Menu:
Meyers Parrot
Meyer’s Parrot, also known as Poicephalus meyeri, is a small and stout African parrot. Meyer’s parrots are native to central and eastern sub Saharan Africa. They are also found in woodlands, such as savannah woodlands, wooded grasslands and forests adjoining watercourses or agricultural ground.
There are six recognized subspecies of P. meyeri with different home range, size and even in the extent of yellow markings on the head and wings. Moreover, there are also some types who do not have any variations at all.
Having about 21 cm body, Meyer's parrot has dull brown head, back and tail and a grayish black beak. Their abdomen is green with blue bottom and yellow thighs. They are attractive and intelligent little birds, related to Senegal parrots, which are more popular. The Meyer’s parrot may seem a little drab to you at the first glance, but hold and take a closer look. When seen with a close look, their colors are astounding and beautiful. Particularly speaking, their chest and rump have a lovely iridescence. The eyes of the mature parrots are orange red. Meyer’s parrots are normally seen in pairs and small flocks when food is abundant around them.
The wild diet of Meyer’s parrot comprises of berries, fruits, nuts, seeds and cultivated crops. For your pet, you can buy ready made staple seed mixes, which are easily available at a nearby pet store. There is a variety of canary grass seed, yellow millet, white millet, niger seed, oats and groats and red millet and linseed.
You can also feed your Meyer’s parrot seed mixtures, in combination with anise, thistle, rape, sesame, and safflower seed. The bird also loves nuts, berries and cultivated grain. Offer fresh foods such as eggplant, green peas, cucumber, young dandelion greens, sweet corn, beet greens, carrots, unsprayed lettuce, green peppers, sorrel, spinach leaves, tomatoes and zucchini, should also be given. Fruits appropriate for her are pineapples, apples, apricots, bananas, most other fruits.
Meyer’s parrot can live comfortably in a roomy cage and the minimum dimensions should be 20 inches long x 12 inches deep x 18 inches high. You should prefer a cage with horizontal bars to ensure the bird gets an easy climbing. You can also make a perch or play area on the top of the cage. There may be a swing and mirror in the cage. Do not forget to leave enough room to fly.
To make feeding easy for your bird, you should keep food and water dishes in the cage. Preferably choose the automatic dispensing ones or the ones with guards to avoid any sort of waste or contamination of food.
Meyer’s parrot breeds freely in winter months. They begin to breed at about 3 to 4 years of age. Normally, they lay 3 to 4 eggs and in two days interval between eggs incubation. The young parrots are ready to take flight at about 9 weeks and become independent in about 12 to 13 weeks.
Meyer’s parrots are excellent pets if you want to have a small parrot. They are readily available and are fairly expensive.