VMD 513: Pet animal Breeding, Management, Nutrition and Health Care (1+1)

1. Parakeets

PARAKEETS

• The term parakeets generally applies to long tailed slender bird belonging to the family Psittacidae.
• In India there is no parrot but only parakeets (parrot like birds). The common parakeets are:

Budgerigars	Melopsittacus undulatus
Rose ringed parakeet	Psittacula krameri
Blossom headed parakeet or plum head parakeet	Psittacula cyanocephala
Blue winged parakeet Or Bamboo parakeet or Malabar parakeet	Psittacula columbodis.

• Parakeets, if acquired young can learn to talk quite well and they will develop elaborate vocabulary.
• In training a young bird to talk, it is best to keep it out of hearing distance of other birds of its kind and to patiently repeat over and over the word that is being taught.
• It is best to speak more slowly than normal because the birds have a tendency to speed up the words when they repeat them.
• There is no sex difference in the ability of birds to mimic words.
• The genus Psittacula is made up of the larger parakeets; the males all have red beaks.