Interesting Facts About the African Grey Parrot

Of the African parrots the species best known for its intelligence and vocabulary has to be the African Grey parrot. There are actually two subspecies of African Grey parrot, the Congo African Grey and the Timneh African Grey. Visually you can tell the 2 varieties apart as the Congo African Grey is light grey in coloring with a red tail whereas the Timneh African Grey is a darker colored grey and has more of a maroon colored tail.

The African Grey originates in the Central region of Africa and is indigenous to The Congo, Zaire, Cameroon and Uganda with lesser amounts of birds having spread out to neighboring countries like Kenya, Tanzania and Angola. Due to the general economic climate in this part of the world it is estimated that over 20% of the natural population of these parrots are captured each year primarily to sell in the pet trade and as such they have been elevated on the Avian conservation status to 'Near Threatened' which is one class away from them become a protected species.

Prices can differ quite a lot due to a number of reasons such as the age of the parrot, if it has been certified and where are you buying the parrot from, however the guidelines are that you should expect to pay between $150 to over $1000 with the Congo African variety seeming to fetch more money than the Timneh. This is a somewhat strange situation as the Timneh is in no way inferior to the Congo except that it is slightly smaller and has a different coloring but they both have the ability to mimic sounds and indeed talk using an extensive vocabulary. However what isn't strange is that with both types of African Greys if they are hand reared they usually make better pets rather than imported birds which have been caught in the wild as these birds will usually be nervous of humans and display this in their behaviour, being aggressive nipping and sometimes growling.

Although these parrots make excellent pets macaw for sale uk because of their intelligence and ability to speak this does not mean that they are an easy pet to keep. Firstly as with most medium to large parrots the African Grey can live up to 60 years and beyond, so they are a large undertaking for their owner and their owners family. Also they need a fair amount of interaction each day and it is recommended that you to take your parrot out of its birdcage for at least one hour every day and sometimes a longer spell of up to 3 hours to keep the parrot happy and healthy.

I haven't detailed any of the other requirements you would need to successfully keep an African Grey as a pet such as, the correct diet, birdcage, lighting and toys etc but I have given you a little history as well as their price range and an indication of the dedication required to own what is a fantastic parrot and a fantastic pet.