Caique
Built like a small clown and behaves like one: caiques hop rather than walk and play until they drop. From the Amazon, and loud for the size.
Photo by @thephotographer, CC BY 2.0
Overview
Caiques are small, stocky South American parrots around 150 to 170 g and nine to ten inches long, and they are the most physically comic parrot commonly kept. They hop rather than walk, they wrestle, they roll onto their backs, and they surf on towels.
They are also relentless. A caique has the energy of a bird three times its size and no interest in sitting still, which makes them wonderful for someone who wants an active bird and exhausting for anyone who wanted a shoulder ornament.
Temperament
Fearless, playful and pushy. Caiques do not have the wariness most parrots have, which is charming and occasionally a problem, because a bird with no sense of danger walks up to dogs and ceiling fans.
They can be nippy, and the nipping is usually play escalating rather than aggression. They also do not read other birds well and can injure smaller species in a shared space, so a mixed aviary is a poor plan. Two caiques together are twice the noise and about four times the trouble.
Care and grooming
A pellet base with fresh vegetables and fruit. Caiques take fruit more readily than most parrots and it can be a larger part of the diet than it would be for an Amazon.
They bathe constantly and enthusiastically, and a shallow dish of water is used within minutes. Feather condition in a caique is a good indicator of whether it is getting enough to do, because a bored one goes after its own feathers before it goes after a toy.
Living and exercise
24 by 24 by 30 inches minimum, filled with things to climb, chew and destroy, plus several hours out of it every day.
The noise is loud for the size and it is not constant. A caique is quiet and then it is very much not. They live 25 to 40 years, which puts them in the same long commitment bracket as birds twice their size.
Something here wrong or out of date?