Book Review: A PARROT FOR LIFE

There are more than 6.4 million households that include parrots in the United States and the majority of these long-lived birds will have seven different homes in their 30-60 year lifetime. The number of unwanted parrots is reaching crisis numbers. Parrot owners need help and guidance.

Parrots are wild animals and unlike their domestic household counterparts-cats and dogs-parrots are difficult creatures to understand and manage. Parrots that are maladjusted may scream, bite and pluck their feathers, making themselves and their human companions miserable. A PARROT FOR LIFE gives parrot lovers the information and tools that they need to retain domestic bliss throughout the lives of their parrots.

New and experienced parrot owners alike will find the information and advice presented in A PARROT FOR LIFE invaluable for making their feathered companions long life the best that it can be. This comprehensive guide to life with parrots includes complete care
information such as feeding, housing, and health concerns as well as positive training methods and troubleshooting tips.

Most importantly, the book is written in a breezy approachable manner that encourages the reader to take pleasure in their parrot and work toward a healthy mutually enjoyable relationship. Many parrot owners are unprepared for the seemingly inevitable difficulty that an adult parrot will bring to the table, but O'Connor encourages the reader to work through problems and not give up. She understands both the pleasures and the difficulties of parrot companionship from direct experience. She had been training birds professionally for 15 years and sharing her home with them for two decades. In fact many of the anecdotes in the book involve a trouble-making Senegal parrot that has run her home for years.

O'Connor is also no stranger to helping others deal with avian troublemakers. She frequently consults in homes around Southern California. "I believe in giving just as much attention to the people that I work with as the animals they love," states O'Connor.
"It is heartbreaking when a long-time companion becomes a feathered-demon. It really makes a difference when someone understands not only how to help you, but how you feel." Her book is full of this brand of compassion as well as some light-hearted recommendations on how to keep your parrot from becoming a problem in the first place.

A PARROT FOR LIFE is a hard cover book with full-color illustrations, retails at $18.95 and is published by TFH Publications.

About Rebecca K. O'Connor:

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Rebecca has trained birds professionally at Disney's Animal Kingdom, the Toledo Zoo, the Texas State Fair,The Living Desert, Healesville Sanctuary in Australia and recently returned from a consultation at Zoológico Guadalajara in Mexico. She has been a falconer for 13 years and has experience working with a tremendous variety of animals. Rebecca believes strongly in applied behavior analysis, positive reinforcement and focusing as much attention on the people who work with the animals as on the animals themselves. She shares her home with a mighty flock of three African parrots, a peregrine falcon and a Brittany Spaniel. She is currently finishing an MFA in creative writing at U.C. Riverside where she also graduated with a BA in creative writing in 1994. You can learn more about her and work at www.rebeccakoconnor.com.\*\*