Parrot keeping through the ages....

A facinating and well-researched article by Laurel Rockefeller on the history of keeping parrots:

In the middle ages, medieval Europeans didn’t have our science to tell them what to feed their parrots, yet they managed to feed them more accurately than most of us do today with fresh fruits and vegetables from the garden, some people food, and much less dependence on seeds and grains than our parrots usually get, allowing their parrots to match the wild diets more closely in a more “primitive” time than in the so called ‘modern” era with “improvements” that took our birds further from nature, replaced natural, cut perches from outside with smooth dowel perches that cause bumble foot and other previously unheard of foot illnesses from the wrong perching surfaces, and even made their housing far smaller than their previous aviaries could be before.

In many ways, the truly medieval parrot had a good life.

Be sure to read the entire article: Introduction to Medieval Aviculture.