October 13th, 2008 by Gypsy

So you’ve made the decision to enrich your life with a feathered friend. Parrots are unique among pet birds in that they have the potential to be with you for your entire life. A parrot’s life span in captivity is considerably shorter than his potential life span. This is due to environmental reasons.  How long they enrich your life is in your hands. Proper nutrition and veterinary care are key in the life span of your companion bird. Here are some approximate life spans for various species of common companion birds.
NOTE: The larger the parrot the longer the commitment. Most of these birds require a lifetime commitment.

Macaws 50 to 100

Cockatoos 40 to 80

Amazons 50 to 70

African Grays 50 to 80

Conure 25 to 40 years

Cockatiel 15 to 30

Parakeets 18 years

Lovebirds average 15 years

Canaries average 10 to 15 years

Finches average 5 to 10

October 7th, 2008 by Gypsy

Are you yearning for a feathery friend to sit on your shoulder and ask you for a cracker? Parrots make excellent companion pets, but are also very high maintenance, have specialized nutritional needs, and vary greatly in temperament and personality by species. Here’s what to consider in deciding whether or not to make a parrot a part of your household, and which species would suit your lifestyle best.

Steps

1. Do your homework. Scour the Internet for information on the different kinds of parrots that exist, and what their needs are (see the External Links below). But be aware that many specialty “enthusiast sites” may emphasize how nice a pet is, with insufficient warning of the challenges. The “Birds for Dummies” book is a good reference.
2. Make several visits to a local pet store that specializes in birds. Get to know the different species, and don’t buy on impulse. Parrots, depending on species, can live to be 20 years or more, and many live to 50-80 years. They also bond strongly to their owners. It’s practically like getting married, so don’t step into it lightly.
3. Talk to other bird owners about their parrots, as well as their personalities, needs, and time commitments involved. Ask how active different species are, how loud (all parrots are noisy, some are just more so than others), and how much interaction they require on a daily basis. ALL parrots require at least a few hours a day outside their cages when they can interact with the family. The more time outside the cage and with their “human flock” the better!
4. Think about where you will be putting your parrot friend. Remember that…
   • All parrots are messy. If you’re a neat freak, you will be cleaning up after them all the time. A dustbuster will become your best friend. In fact, you may find yourself acquiring a large group of such friends!
   • You will need ample space for any of the medium to large size parrots. This means cages that are about 24×36″ wide and 36-60″ tall or more. All parrots should also have some kind of perch or play gym outside the cage.
5. Remember that parrots are wild animals. They have not been selectively bred for generations to be domesticated or household pets like cats, dogs or even farm animals. They have millions of years of instincts that are genetically a part of them. You are bringing this into your home and can’t expect their disposition to be as docile and predictable as cats or dogs. You will need to be able to give your parrot guidance, but you will also need to learn and adapt yourself to their personalities.

Give your parrot room to spread his wings

Tips

• Some broad generalizations about species personalities:
  • Parrots usually known for even dispositions: Conures, Meyer’s, some Macaws.
  • Parrots known for being very playful: Jardines, Conures, Meyer’s, Budgerigars (”parakeets”), Cockatiels, Caiques.
  • Parrots known for being especially loud: Cockatoos, Macaws, Conures, Amazons.
  • Parrots known for being very intelligent and sensitive to their environment: African Greys.
  • Parrots known for being aggressive (not mean necessarily, but rather, domineering): Amazons
• African Greys, Amazons, Cockatoos and Macaws all require an especially large amount of attention and interaction. Unhappy birds can make for a very unhappy household. These species also live the longest, so be sure you understand you are essentially adopting the equivalent of a small child, who will remain a small child and most likely be with you for the rest of your life.
• The inexpensive Budgerigars (”parakeets”), if tamed young, are remarkably smart and playful if given the time and attention they deserve! They can even be talented talkers.
• All parrots need a combination of fresh and packaged foods. A good balanced diet includes pellets, seed mixes, nuts, fresh fruits and vegetables. You will spend more time with preparing their food than with a cat or dog.
• A parrot needs daily interaction and ‘out of the cage’ time. Try to dedicate at least two hours a day to spending with your bird. Parrots are highly social and are very rarely alone in the wild, spending all day with their flock. You become your parrot’s flock so be responsible about spending time with the bird.
• Toys are important for a parrot’s mental stimulation. They will help entertain the bird when you are unable to, and give him something to play with and explore. Keeping the toys ‘fresh’ and exciting is important and you should plan to rotate new toys in (and old ones out) several times a month. For small parrots this is easy, but for large ones it can be quite expensive.

October 5th, 2008 by Gypsy

Build An Outdoor Aviary
Build a beautiful outdoor aviary for your feather companions
By Rebecca Sweat

In general, outdoor aviaries are much more spacious than traditional cages, and they allow birds more space to move around and exercise. They offer a more natural environment and give birds exposure to fresh air and unfiltered sunlight — an important source of vitamin D3.

Design Your Aviary

Every aviary is going to be different, depending on the species of birds you keep in it, your climate and whether you are breeding birds or simply providing an outdoor play area for your pet. Some people prefer a patio or solarium-style of aviary connected to their house. Others opt for a free-standing facility. Some aviaries resemble a greenhouse, while others look more like a barn or chicken coop.

How big of an aviary should you build? At a minimum, veteran aviculturist Jerry McCawley recommends flights be at least two or three times the wing span of the bird for the width, six times the body of the bird for the length and at least four times the bird’s body length for the height. A flight that is 8-feet long, 4-feet wide and 8-feet tall would house a group of about 20 budgerigars or cockatiels, or a pair of African greys or Amazon parrots.

Find out if there are any zoning regulations or noise ordinances that may prohibit your plans. If you live in a subdivision, town home or other planned housing development, there may be restrictions for your community regarding the types of outdoor structures residents are allowed to build.

Build Your Aviary

To build a simple floor-to-ceiling wire flight, start with the foundation. Texas aviculturist Mark Moore recommends concrete flooring for hookbills. “Concrete floors can be hosed down, which makes them easy to clean,” he said.

For a more natural look, put a layer of sand, gravel or pine shavings over the concrete; then every couple days you scoop out the dirty sand or shavings. You may also want to leave “holes” in the concrete where to plant trees, shrubs or edible, nontoxic foliage for your birds to enjoy.

For softbills, a dirt floor aviary will also do, according to Moore. “Generally, I don’t recommend dirt floors for hookbills because there’s a lot of parasites in the dirt, which can harm them,” he said. “The softbills, on the other hand, don’t tend to have as great of intensity of the health problems associated with the dirt that the hookbills do.”

If you are going with a concrete floor, Moore suggests you lay about a 12-inch slab of cement into the ground for the foundation. After that’s down, you can build on your frame. If you will be housing softbills, use either stone, brick, metal or plastic pipes, redwood or treated lumber to frame your flight. For hookbills, however, stone, brick or metal are your best framing materials.

After the frame is in place, use a galvanized, welded-wire cloth for the walls and roof. The wire spacing and gauge parameters depend on what size birds you are housing. “Finch aviaries would need small spacing between the wire, and a thinner gauge wire would be adequate,” McCawley said. “However, an aviary for a hyacinth macaw would require very heavy gage wire with larger spacing between the wire, so they do not get toes or beaks caught in a restrictive space.”

Choose a wire that’s a heavy enough gauge that the bird can’t break it apart. For large hookbills such as macaws and cockatoos, Moore recommends using 10-gauge wire or heavier. Medium-size parrots, such as Amazons and African greys, should have at least 121?2-gauge wire. For smaller birds, such as cockatiels and budgies, you can probably get by with 16-gauge wire.

“I wouldn’t recommend going any thinner than 16 gauge,” Moore said. “If you go any thinner than that, you might have a problem where a branch falls out of a tree and hits the cage, and that can actually bend a wire and open up a seam on the cage and allow the birds to escape.”

Another important detail is the entrance to your aviary. You may want to use a pre-made, ready-to-hang door from a building supply store (even a shower door will do), or make your own. In most cases, double doors are recommended to prevent escapes.

Also make provisions for a shelter. Even if you put your birds outside on a nice day, weather conditions can change abruptly, in which case your birds may need protection from gusts of wind, rains or excessive heat. Make the last half or third of the flight enclosed. Do this by attaching solid hardwood, Plexiglas, shade cloth, or Filon corrugated plastic panels to the roof and two or three sides.

If you live in the northern half of the country and the birds will be in the aviary year-round, you need more than just a simple shelter such as an indoor-outdoor aviary. This is a screened-in flight completely closed-off during the winter months with an indoor part — an actual building — that has insulation in the walls and a heat lamp or other source of warmth.

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