Red Bellied Parrot – Care, Food & Profile

The Red Bellied Parrot is much like the Meyer’s and Senegal parrots in personality. They are a quiet, affectionate, funny bird. Some report that they are easily frightened.

The Red Belly is sexually dimorphic, meaning there is an obvious difference between the male and female plumage. The male will have an orange-red chest area, while the female will have more green and gray on her chest.

Some Red Bellied Parrots will often lie on their backs and play with their toys. Just like the conures, they have a playful personality that requires lots of toys to attack and chew so that they don’t get bored. They love to hang by one toe and swing around on their toys.

The Red Bellied Parrot can be nippy at times and may very well go through a nippy stage at maturity. The relationship you establish and work to maintain will get you through the rough times.

The Red Bellied Parrots will easily become a one-person bird if they are not held and played with on a regular basis by more than one person. They are affectionate and loving with people they are familiar with and love attention.

Talking Ability

The Red Bellied Parrot can become a good talker and can produce a variety of noises and sounds. Although shy at times, Red Bellied Parrots can also be easily excited by new people and may talk or act crazy to attract attention!

The company that has the training program above, also has a course on teaching your bird to talk if you are interested in that.

Diet

You should provide no more than 80 percent of the Red Bellied diet with top-quality pellets. We like the Totally Organics Pellets because they are 100% organic and they don’t even have artificial vitamins in them. This is important if you have a bird with allergies. We also like Harrison’s Organic Pellets.

I suggest that you pick one that is organic and not artificially dyed. Anything artificial has to be cleansed by the kidneys before it can be used. A lot of pellets are just junk.

The other 20 percent of their diet should consist of some seed blend along with dehydrated or fresh colorful vegetables, beans, rice and a little fruit, again preferably organic. Remember that the chemicals sprayed and fed to plants have to be cleansed by their tiny kidneys. The Totally Organics All In One Seed Mix is a great choice!

CAUTION: Never give your parrot alcohol, avocado or chocolate – these can kill your parrot! Also avoid asparagus, eggplant, cabbage, caffeine products, junk food, milk and cream, raw potato, and rhubarb (including the leaves).

Remember that the chemicals sprayed and fed to plants have to be cleansed by their tiny kidneys. Who knows what has been fed and sprayed on all that other stuff!

No matter what the pellet manufacturers want you to believe, parrots that have a variety of fresh healthy foods are much happier and healthier.

When fresh fruits and vegetables are not possible, dehydrated fruits and vegetables are great! Many birds love to crunch on dried fruits and veggies.

The best thing about them is that they don’t spoil, so you can leave them in the cage for hours or even days. This is handy when you are trying to get them to accept fruits and veggies.

When you are going to be home with them, you can moisten them with warm water to provide fresh-like fruits and veggies. Boy does this come in handy when you are traveling or on an outing!

Fresh Water

We provide bath water in the morning and sometimes in the evening on warm days, but we only leave it in there one to two hours so that they don’t drink nasty water all day.

Also, invest in a water bottle. You will avoid lots of potential health problems by insuring they have clean water to drink that hasn’t been bathed and pooped in.

If your Red Bellied Parrot has not used a water bottle before, you will need to provide both a water bottle and a dish until you see that they are drinking from the bottle.

Lixit makes a glass water bottle that has a wire instead of a spring that keeps it on the cage if you are worried about safety. (Some birds get their foot or beak stuck in the spring attachment on other bottles.)

Cage Requirements

The Red Bellied Parrot, like conures, need a lot of room to climb and play. They need lots and lots of toys and they need to be rotated out so they don’t get bored.

Consider getting a cage with a playpen on top for them to play on when you are home. The more room they have the happier they will be.

A minimum of an 18x18x24 cage is really best. If your Red Bellied Parrot is going to be home alone all day, it will need enough room for a variety of toys and room to swing and play between them.

Some will argue with me and say that they should be in a small cage so that they will be happy to get out and play with you. We have not found that to be an issue with our birds.

If your family becomes its flock, because you are spending quality time with it, the bird will want to come out and be with you. A large cage will not change your Red-Bellied parrot’s love for you in my opinion.

Cages for Vet Visits and Outings

You need to consider what type of carrier you will use for transporting your Red Bellied Parrot in. You never know if you might break down or may decide to take your parrot with you on a trip. Purchase a comfortable cage for these occasions.