So quite often we get asked,
“I’m male/female, is it better to choose a male african grey or a female, which one will take to me best”
Quite often you will hear people telling you if you’re a female then a male bird would bond with you better, sometimes you hear a female will and visa versa if you are male.
Controversially my stance is a little different on this topic, we’ve had many birds come and go through our doors what with the increasing quantities of rescue parrots we are taking on, and the occasional bird we have bred, truly and honestly the answer to the question is that I really don’t think it matters what sex your parrot is, they both have extremely similar personalities, are amiable and just as easy to bond with, given the right conditions.
When I say the right conditions what I mean to say is if you think of it in human terms, just because you’re a female/male does that mean that you can and will only bond with one sex, whether that sex be a male or a female …. I’d say no … right?
Well as we know African Greys are highly intellectual animals with the brain power of a small child, well when you see kids at school (please don’t go hanging around school playgrounds to verify this, but trust me as a parent to 5 children) that kids do not just hang/play with one sex and neither for that case will your African Grey.
So when people contact us asking to buy an African Grey parrot, it astounds me the amount of people that also have strong tendencies to want to buy a specific sex, purely on the basis of all this hearsay that parrots are more likely to prefer you if you are the “right sex”, seriously from my experience, and I don’ care if the scientists want to argue the point, the sex of your parrot really doesn’t matter.
What really matters is the amount of time you are going to spend with the bird, quite often you hear that people say my bird is a one person bird, but why is that I hear you ask, is it your sex or is it that the person your grey likes the most is the one that gives it the most attention and feels less negative towards.
These animals are seriously clever and really do pick up on negativity and if you feel negative about a bird liking you well don’t be surprised if your bird doesn’t pick up on that fact, and lets just say, not be your best friend, just like kids at school there’s always some kid that is difficult to get on with and naturally what do you do if you don’t seem to be able to connect with someone, you tend to keep clear of them, but in the grand scale of things is that the best policy or should you perhaps just work a little harder on that relationship to make it work.
So to conclude sex really doesn’t matter, the most important thing is time, persistence, having an open mind and most importantly give and take and your parrot whether it’s male or female will learn to take to you, something we can talk about in more depth another time!
