Phoenix Landing unveils welfare assessment tool for pet parrots

A parrot can be eating, vocal and climbing around the cage while still missing the basics that keep a body and mind in balance. That is the promise behind Phoenix Landing’s welfare assessment tool, introduced through a June 20, 2026 Association of Avian Veterinarians event titled Phoenix Landing: Welfare Assessment Tool with Dr. Andrea Piseddu and described as something that will soon be available to the public and the parrot community.

Andrea Piseddu developed the science-based tool, known in the literature as PsittaWel, as a student at the Centre for Animal Nutrition and Welfare at the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna. Vetmeduni says the project was part of Piseddu’s PhD work, supervised by Jean-Loup Rault and Yvonne van Zeeland, and built for caregivers, veterinarians and behavioral consultants who need a shared way to talk about welfare instead of relying on guesswork. Phoenix Landing said the tool had just been published in Animal Welfare, and it also noted that its educational events are open to people regardless of where they live.

For pet-parrot homes, the useful part is the structure. The final version identified 73 welfare indicators for all or most parrot species, after the team began with 122 potential indicators and refined them through four online surveys, nine focus group meetings and review by four external experts plus 69 parrot caregivers. Among the most important indicators were abnormal behaviors and the management conditions that allow parrots to express natural behaviors. In daily life, that means checking whether the cage is actually large enough, whether the bird is getting enough rest, whether enrichment changes over time, and whether the setup supports social and physical needs instead of just keeping the bird contained.

That shift matters because a bird’s welfare is not always obvious from a quick glance. A companion parrot can look active and still be living in conditions that do not support long-term well-being. A structured tool gives owners, rescue homes and foster placements a repeatable way to notice what intuition can miss and to track whether changes are helping.

Phoenix Landing, a volunteer 501(c)(3) parrot welfare organization serving Maryland, Washington, D.C., Virginia, North Carolina and Northeast Florida, is helping move that research into everyday care. The bigger story is not just that a new tool exists. It is that a parrot’s welfare can now be read with more precision than a passing impression, which is exactly what a bird quietly asks for long before a problem becomes obvious.