Strictly for the Lovebirds

In their devotion to television parakeets are just like people. So says Lu Van Wiseman, whose Pet Time (Sun. 9:45 a.m., Manhattan station WNBT) is aimed largely at the 1,000,000 parakeets (often known as lovebirds) in New York's metropolitan area. Each week the show features eight or ten parakeets hopping about, looking into mirrors and climbing ladders. Says Lu: "It gives the birds at home a psychologically happy reaction."

Lu and her husband, Jerry, are capitalizing on Manhattan's current parakeet boom. They claim that parakeets are outselling canaries at a rate of 9 to 1. The reason? Many urban apartment buildings now bar cats, dogs and children, so parakeets are fulfilling "the pent-up need for pets." Explains Lu: "Parakeets can be taught to talk. They can be taken out of a cage and handled. There's a sensual thing involved. A parakeet offers one of the few rewarding relationships that are left."

Parakeet reactions to TV are fairly complicated. Lu Van Wiseman says that most of them go "nearly crazy with excitement" at the sight of their own kind on the TV screen. Certain music appeals to them ("They just love the Hopalong Cassidy theme song"). And some parakeets act like some people: they just stare at TV in a pained silence.

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