Photo by Alan Lee

In the early morning hours, as the sun is rising and weather permitting, wild parrots all over the world visit clay licks on tall riverbanks to eat dirt.  This practice has long confounded bird watchers, conservationists and scientists alike, and while all of the benefits of this activity are still a mystery, more and more is being discovered and understood.

Wild parrots forage on plants, their fruits and their seeds as part of  their natural diet.  However, plants naturally produce chemicals, poisons, that protect themselves, their unripened fruits and seeds from violators.  As parrots consume these plants, they can become laden with toxins that can overwhelm their system and interfere with nutrient and mineral absorption.  They get tummy aches.  Their diet is less complete.

Photo by InkaNatura.com

Enter the clay lick.  Not only are the cliffs at the riverbank rich with the minerals that are missing from the parrot’s natural diet, but the clay content in the soil contains some of the same ingredients found in our over-the-counter stomach and digestion ailment products.  Clay coats the intestinal tract and binds to the toxins that have been eaten and passes them through the digestive system so that they are not able to be absorbed into the blood stream.

There are still many questions about the clay licks that go unanswered: for instance, it’s unknown how often a single parrot visits his local clay lick.  It isn’t understood why that, while parrots benefit from a high clay content in riverbank soil, they don’t also ingest other soils that have been tested and shown to have a higher nutritional content.

There certainly isn’t enough knowledge about this behavior for us to be adding clay to OUR parrot’s diets, although some products now include clay in their list of ingredients.  We simply don’t know how much is being safely consumed in the wild.  It makes me wonder what other resources wild parrots and animals are using for medicinal purposes and health benefits that we don’t yet know about.  We owe a huge debt to these pioneers who have taught the human race so much.

Photo by Alan Lee

Field researchers logged in about 1,000 parrots visiting the clay lick in Tambopata, Peru early one morning.  Can you imagine the noise? Most people seem to associate the macaw with clay licks, but, in actuality, there are many species that benefits from them.  Parakeets, amazons, pionus, caiques, african greys, conures, lorikeets and parrotlets are some of the others parrot species that frequent the clay licks as well as many mammals.

Clay licks have become a huge attraction for eco-tourists. There are many eco-tours that make the clay licks a focal point in the tour and lodges have been built locally to house the tourists.  This brings a lot of money into the local economy and helps to support the conservational efforts for these magnificent parrots.

There’s been a lot of confusion lately between our blue throated macaw, Jinx, and what people assume is a blue and gold macaw. So I decided I’d write this on their differences!

The above picture is of two blue throated macaws; Bonnie and Jinx. Below is a blue and gold macaw, named Jersey.

The main distinguishing marks are plumage differences as well as size differences. Some consider blue throated macaws as a type of “mini macaw” because they’re much smaller than blue and golds, and even smaller than military macaws.

A good tip to remember which is which is that a blue throated macaw has a patch of blue feathers on their throat, where a blue and gold macaw has a black splotch instead.

Blue throats ONLY have the colors yellow and blue, nothing else.

This is Jinx again (blue throat) and you can see that he has no other colors in his plumage but simply yellow and blue.

The blue and gold have white, black, blue, yellow and green feathers. Normally they have green on the tops of their heads, black on their throats, black and white around their eyes and the full blue bodies with the yellow breasts.

In this picture you can see the distinguishing marks I’m talking about on the blue and gold.

So, as your quick tips for reference:

Blue and Gold Macaw

• Larger
• Has a black/white face
• Green on top of the head
• Yellow breast
• Black throat
• Blue body

Blue Throated Macaw

• Smaller and considered a mini macaw
• Only has blue and yellow plumage
• Blue throat
• White/blue face

A few weeks ago, I was going out of town for a few days. I was very busy around the house getting things together and although I had prepared their food for the rest of the day and had their care for the rest of the week handled, I hadn’t spent my usual time with Roxanne, Charlie, and Skittle. I rushed out the door anyways, but I didn’t make it to the end of my street when I had the overwhelming desire to turn back around and spend a few more minutes with my birds before I went without them for a few days. I came back into the house and into the room where they all sat- just kinda looking at me, almost astonished to see me back so soon. I didn’t have much time to spend, but what kind of individual quality time could I possibly give 3 parrots in a 10 minute span?

Living day in and day out with these 3, it is only natural to come to know what specific things will make them the happiest. Charlie (blue and gold macaw) loves playing, chasing and even more playing with toys. I took her our put her on her playstand and proceeded to let her play to her little hearts content while I talked to her and made her feel like she was a big deal! I know for Skittle, like most conures, snuggling and being close is his favorite way to spend time with me, so out of the cage he went and he immediately started into my shirt and snuggled onto my shoulder while he contently grunted.

And then there’s Roxanne the newly adopted grey. With skittle and Charlie I am able to just walk into our bird-room and they are ready to come out and spend time together. But with Roxanne, no matter how many times I may go into the room on any given day, she still needs to see me for a few minutes and get used to me being in the room with her before she will even consider stepping up without trying to bite. So here I am with just a few minutes left to spare so what do I do? Do I approach her rushed anyways and try to spend some sort of time with her for the day even tho I know she will be scared and try to bite? No. I already know how she operates so to make our time worthwhile, I need to make her feel secure. I ended up (with Skittle still in my shirt, and Charlie on the stand) leaning over and gently speaking to Roxanne while giving her some sunflower seeds. I am currently able to have Roxanne step up, but not on an abrupt command like Charlie and Skittle- but I don’t even go there to risk jeopardizing the trust I am building with Roxanne. The clock was ticking and I needed to be on my way. Charlie and Skittle went back into their cages without a fight to stay out and I gave Roxanne one last sunflower seed.

It felt good knowing that in just a small amount of time I could spend time with my parrots. I may feel like I spent more time with Skittle and Charlie because I was able to actually handle them and love on them. But the time I spent just talking and giving seeds to Roxanne is just as good according to Roxanne because as I was walking out of the room to leave I said “Goodbye guys” only to be responded by Roxanne with “Love you more!!”

It is obviously important not to let your parrot’s nails get overgrown. If they are too long, the have a higher likelihood of getting broken and are sharper which would cause anyone holding the bird discomfort. Some people freefly their parrots or have them in particularly natural environments so they don’t cut the nails but I would say they are the exception to the rule.

Given that your parrot lives in a cage at home, it is understandable that it is not exposed to the natural claw cutting things it would encounter in the wild. Naturally the nails keep growing to compensate for the rate at which they are used. At home they are not used, so they become overgrown. Since we live in unnatural environments and use tools/helping devices for different things we have to cut our own nails and our companion parrot’s.

There are basically three ways to keep a parrot’s nails trimmed:

1) Cut them with a nail clipper

2) File them with a nail file

3) Provide filing perches

I use all three of these and highly recommend that you use all of these methods. I would like to describe the benefits of each of these.

The advantage to cutting the nails is that it is relatively quick and leaves a clean cut. The end of the nails is very blunt and it takes a longer time for the nails to grow back from this stage. The downside is that it is a dangerous/stressful process. If cut incorrectly, the bird can bleed to death so it is important that you have a vet or bird expert do this.

To prolong the benefit of the cut nails, I file my bird’s nails every few weeks. By doing this, I can stretch visits to the vet or bird store from once every two to once every three months. I would have to file the parrot’s nails every other day if I wanted to avoid having to get them cut altogether but it is difficult to find the time to do that. So instead, I just blunt out the tips every so often. By holding my bird for nail filing every so often, it makes her more used to the process and better behaved at the store when she gets trimmed.

The disadvantage to nail filing is that it is a lot of work for a little benefit. One filing session takes as long as one nail cutting session because each toenail has to be individually worked on. But unlike the cut, the amount of nail scaled back is barely noticeable. The other problem with filing is that even if the nails are kept short, they end up getting sharper and sharper. A cut every now and then helps to keep the nails blunt and not cut your hands when your bird is on them.

Finally, I provide my parrot with natural branches with bark and filing perches to keep the nails trimmed. Unfortunately, this does not seem to help that much. It does help me prolong the duration between visits to four months because filing and perches take about a month off out of every four but it is not enough by itself. Also the filing perches seem to make my bird’s nails sharper while keeping them shorter. This forces me to have to file them by hand every so often to dull the points. However, because filing only takes a little bit off at a time, it doesn’t take long for the nails to get sharp again.

Even if I cut the nails myself, I still find benefit in taking the parrot by the bird store every quarter. At the bird store I bought Kili from, the women that runs it is quite expert in birds. It is reassuring to me to have an outside expert take a look at my bird for a quick assessment. Vet checks are very expensive and in my experiences, general veterinarians aren’t very proficient with birds. An exclusively bird veterinarian is very hard to come by. But by bringing the parrot by the store every so often, I can have an unbiased glance over health inspection, nail trimming, and beak trim all in one.

So what I recommend is to have your bird’s nails cut but to use filing perches and manually file them in order to prolong the duration between required cuts. Following these steps will help ensure your own comfort and bird’s safety.

If anyone would have told me 5 years ago that today I would have amazing but totally unique companionships with 3 different birds, I would have quickly let them know that they were crazy! But the fact is, it is very true and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

So. Who am I and how did I get here? My name is Liz. I am 23 years old, living in Raleigh, NC. I am a senior in college with a job, friends, a boyfriend, and just a generally busy life. So where do my parrots fit in? Well, that’s one reason why I am here- to talk about that. I currently have a 3 ½ year old male sun conure (Skittle) , 2 ½ year old female blue and gold macaw (Charlie), and a 10 year old female congo African grey (Roxanne) that I have adopted in the past few months.

The main focus of my writing here will be about Roxanne. You see, I hand-fed and trained my conure and macaw from when both were just over 2 months old. My bonds with Skittle and Charlie are strong, they are some of my best friends! They are by no means perfect angels, but in each of those bonds I have a trust and companionship that comparably, is just non-existent with Roxanne.

When Roxanne came into my home, I realized that on rare occasions she had been outside of her cage for very short periods of time. Roxanne had rarely been handled and by her vocabulary of “OW that hurt!” or “Don’t bite me!” she had no plans of being handled either.

I found this very puzzling since Skittle and Charlie always want to be around the humans of the house playing, cuddling, just whatever to have human interaction. But Roxanne, she is content sitting on one side of her cage all day and not being bothered and is quick to those blood-drawing bites if you have anything BUT the same notion.

So. Here I am living the typical busy life meanwhile trying to maintain and keep the two birds I am bonded with content, as well as, trying to develop a relationship with a 10 year old grouchy bird! What can I do to simultaneously continue fortifying the relationship I have with my bonded birds and grow the relationship I have with Roxanne? These are just 2 of many simple things that I have noticed that help both of those needs along.

1. Give me some LOVE!

Charlie and Skittle love human interaction. First thing in the morning or whenever I get home, they are ready to jump out and into my arms. Roxanne, not so much. If the first thing I do is head straight for Roxanne, she shakes and puffs up larger than a blowfish . As soon as I open her cage door, she poses for a strike. I have found if I go onto to Skittle and Charlie first, give them both a few minutes playing and loving each within sight of Roxanne and then approach Roxanne, she is much more inclined to step-up onto my hand.

I will keep her on my hand for maybe a ¼ of the time I was with my other 2, give her a sunflower seed, and put her back into her cage to reward her for not biting me. I also don’t keep her out as long because the longer she is out, the more nervous she gets. I am definitely taking it slow with her for now.

2. Calling in back-up!

I could not imagine living in a multi-parrot home by myself. The feeding, clean-up, entertainment, and time spent is never-ending. I am sure that there are many out there that succeed quite nicely on their own, but I can admit that I don’t think I could do it right now. I have 4 other family members that I presently live with that enjoy being around the birds. Each of them have some kind of relationship with either Charlie or Skittle.

My boyfriend that does not live here happens to have a great relationship with both of them. So far Roxanne is the most responsive with me. Having others in the home that are able to give time towards Skittle and Charlie not only help them by socializing them, but help Roxanne so she can spend time with me while I earn her trust. With Roxanne seeing the others interact with Charlie and Skittle, it encourages her that us humans are not out to scare or hurt her! I strongly believe that having frequent and different human interaction is not only vital in keeping your own sanity, but it’s also good for the well-being of the bird.

I look forward to writing again and tracking Roxanne’s progress in her new home!

I am lovingly owned by four beautiful angels…a Blue and Gold Macaw named Kacey, a Moluccan Cockatoo named Chloe, an African Grey named Sophie and our recent added family member Zazu, a baby Blue and Gold Macaw.  When I say I am “lovingly owned” I can assure you that it was not always the case in the early onset of my infatuation with parrots.  At a very young age, I was actually attacked by an Umbrella Cockatoo which made me deathly afraid of birds!!  Then as an adult I had the chance to work at one of the highest rated pet stores in the US…lucky me, they put me in charge of the Bird Department!!  During that time my fear of birds subsided and I started learning their behavior and little quirks.  This was so fascinating to me I started to research on the web anything I could about parrots.  I purchased a cockatiel from the store and hand tamed it (Sydney was a parent raised wild little thing that couldn’t be touched).  After about 6 months, I started getting an itch for something bigger (maybe a conure).  Well, the call came in and I suddenly found myself driving an hour and a half to go see a Blue and Gold Macaw that I had no idea about!!

Kacey

Here is Kacey’s Story:
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