Parrotlets are the smallest parrots in aviculture. With an average length of 5 inches, they may look like harmless bugs, but as breeders, they can be overwhelmingly intimidating. They are close cousins to Amazon Parrots, known for being one of the best talkers. Parrotlets also have the capacity to talk, though their voices can be somewhat hard to hear and hard to decipher.

My male Pacific Parrotlet, Simon is a normal green. He is small but fierce and he guards his cage and mate, Doe, with an iron claw. He hisses and raises his feathers in an attempt to chase me away but I see it as a warning and continue to go about my business in their cage until he charges my fingers. Doe is a Blue mutation Pacific Parrotlet and she is much calmer than her mate. She sits calmly and watches me from afar, waiting until I replace the food dish with fresh goodies until she jumps to the front to eat.

They are housed in my kitchen, not only for quarantine, but also to keep the Lovebirds from harassing them. I first put them into a smaller cage until they got comfortable with their new surroundings and then moved them into a larger flight cage. Within minutes of putting them into the flight cage, they began mating, right there on the kitchen table. They mated a few more times before I was able to add their toys into the new cage. That was about 2 weeks ago. Hopefully within a few days we should see our first egg!