Congo African Grey

Q: I know we are supposed feed our birds fruits and vegetables, but which is better for them?
 - Elena B., Modesto, CA

A: The most important things to understand about your parrot’s diet are the needs for variety and moderation in  EVERYTHING you feed them. Let me explain why…

Fruits and vegetables each have different nutritional values. They are all great in their own way, but they all have something unique to offer the overall diet.  When compared, two veggies might both be high in vitamins C and A, which are essential to good health. However, one might be higher in calcium, the other higher in potassium  – which is why it is important to include both in the diet.  It is the variety in what you serve – day to day, week to week, that assures us that they get the proper balance of ALL the necessary vitamins and minerals.

Varying the diet also prevents us from providng too much or too little in any particular area of need. As strange as it sounds, the diet can be too heavy in certain nutrients and, in some cases, it can be as detrimental to good health as a deficiency.You should always look to avoid extremes and lean towards the moderation of foods with your parrot. If you are doing things the right way, you are offering a little bit of everything from the important food groups.

You asked which should be served with more regularity. The answer is vegetables – hands down.  It isn’t that fruits are bad, they have wonderfully healthy ingredients, but they contain a lot water and sugars. Water doesn’t benefit your bird nutritionally. It doesn’t make sense to let your bird fill up on something without value. Fruits also contain a great deal of sugar, which, in excess, can cause health and weight issues.

Vegetables offer more complete and varied nutrition without those detrimental side issues. Taking all things into consideration, vegetables benefit your bird in more ways than fruits.

I don’t want anyone to think I am suggesting that you eliminate fruit from the diet. That is absolutely not what you should do. Instead, limit it. I offer fruits to my birds as treats (it is sweet, after all), or in feedings later in the day once they have eaten their veggies from their morning meal.

TEN FUN FRUIT AND VEGGIE FACTS!

1. Fruits with a lot of vitamin C, like oranges, will help your cuts heal faster.
2. Olive trees can live for more than 1,500 years
3. Pineapples are berries, just like strawberries and blueberries.
4. Strawberries are a member of the rose family and all it’s seeds are on the outside.
5. There are over 7,000 different types of apples in the world.
6. Yams and sweet potatoes are not the same thing.
7. Lettuce is a member of the sunflower family.
8. Pumpkins are 90% water.
9. Eating an apple is equivalent to drinking a cup of coffee. Although apples do not have caffeine, the processing of apple carbohydrates gives the body a boost more powerful than caffeine.
10. California oranges contain more natural sugar than Florida oranges.

There are a lot of big hearted people out there who are just naturally inclined to try to save those in need. I feel similarly. I find it difficult to look away from need even when I know that involvement will make life more complicated for me. I try to do what I can. It’s who I am, and I’m proud of it.

Someone from Austin, the city I lived in before I moved here to Florida, contacted me and asked me if I would speak with a neighbor of his who was having problems with a newly acquired “rescue” bird. I asked the nature of the problems and was told about the biting issues with her new quaker, but more concerning was that the new owner was uncertain if the bird was eating. Birds don’t last long without food, so I agreed to be in touch with her right away.

After a few minutes of discussion, I felt satisfied that her bird was, in fact, eating and we moved on to the other problems.The first behavior related question I asked was regarding the circumstances of the “rescue” because it would likely play a big part in understanding the overall behavior of this bird. As we talked, I learned that the bird had not been “rescued”, but “rehomed”.

White bellied caique

There is a considerable difference in the terms rehomed and rescued where is relates to behavioral matters.

The quaker mentioned above came from the household of a friend who simply no longer had the time or interest in seeing to the needs of her bird. This meant that the quaker needed a new home where the environment was enriching and stimulating and it would be a cherished member of the family, not a burden to be tolerated.

In the case of a rescue bird, the word itself speaks clearly. This bird might be in dire and immediate need. It might be in a situtation where it is not being fed, is living in unsafe or unsanitary conditions, or is currently in danger from its environment and perhaps suffering from illness as a result of its hard life.

blue and gold macaw

It’s easy to imagine that the problems that might remain with a rescued bird following placement into a new home could be considerable, and more difficult to assess and manage. The circumstances of your birds arrival into your home must be taken into account when trying to assess a behavioral problem. It is important to establish whether a bird has been rehomed or rescued.

While time might be more essence in the case of a rescue, it is important to add that the bird in need of rehoming should not be considered of less importance. BOTH birds need new homes and the rehomer is doing as big a service to the well-being of their bird as is the rescuer. You should be feel proud of your contribution in helping a bird in need in either case.

Congo african grey

Outdoor aviaries have become all the rage in the avian community. It’s a great thing. There are untold benefits from getting our birds into just a few minutes of moderate, natural sunlight daily:

• Sunlight interacts with the oils from our parrot’s uropygial gland (which are spread throughout the feathers during preening) and converts to vitamin D3 in the body. Vitamin D3 has a large role in the body’s ability to maintain normal calcium levels in the blood and to absorb calcium, which in turn determines our bird’s bone, feather and beak health.
• Sunlight supports the immune system and greatly reduces the chances of developing cancer. It helps overall organ function.
• Sunlight has sterilizing qualities and kills bacterias on feathers, toys and cages.
• Sunlight wards off depression and fatigue – in all creatures.

We bird lovers are all over this and are looking at safe ways to take advantage of that big yellow thing that rises into the sky every day offering all of these glorious benefits – and for FREE! Not to mention the fresh air!

Hyacinth macaw

As a result, many people are looking at ways to build their own aviaries. There are some serious safety issues that need to be addressed, though,  before you try this. We want your birds healthy, but we also want them safe from injury, toxicity and predator attack.

It takes a lot of careful, thoughtful planning to build an aviary. Most that are not designed commercially are works in progress. Just about everyone I know who has built their own has discovered flaws in their planning and has had to rebuild or modify their aviary.

There are three main areas where these flaws are discovered:

Construction:
Plans that look good on paper do not always worked out well in construction. The places where the sides meet each other and the top of the aviary are one of the places where injury occurs. If they are not spaced properly or are unsteady they become areas where toes, beaks and wings can become caught. A gust of wind shaking the sides of one person’s aviary resulted in the loss of an entire foot of their bird.

Design:
Most of us are not engineers. However, most of us are talented enough to erect an enclosure that is cube-shaped. It seems logical that this would be sufficient for an aviary. Unfortunately, this design is responsible for the escape of many parrots as we enter the aviary. Commercial designs include an small area outside of the actual aviary (called a catch-hold) that you enter first and close off from the outside before opening the door to the aviary. Also, aviaries that are set directly on the ground might leave birds vulnerable to animals that can burrow underneath it to get in. Most people wouldn’t think to consider that fact.

Materials:
This might be the most important consideration in your planning. Almost all materials standardly used in construction of outdoor structures are made of things that are TOXIC TO BIRDS. Chain link? Toxic! Galvanized hardware? Toxic!  Pressure treated woods? Toxic!  NONE of these can be used around birds. Birds are chewers and they explore with their mouths. No one can say with certainty that their bird will not investigate a particular thing in their environment. Your “never-gets-into-anything” bird might shock you with what he does get into when you aren’t looking.

Rosebreasted cockatoos, african grey

The unfortunate truth is that to build a an aviary that meets all the necessary construction, design and materials safety standards, it won’t cost you a whole lot less than most commercial aviaries.This is mainly due to the right materials being unavailable at reasonable costs because of lack of demand.

As I explore the internet looking for products to recommend to people who want to make their own aviaries, I have come up with very little that is affordable. Zoo mesh is probably the most reliably safe product to use in a homemade aviary, but it costs between $30-40 per meter, which is just smaller than a yard, and is sold in minimum 100 meter quantities. That’s $3-4,000 for the fencing alone. (I don’t suppose a bunch of you would be interested in going in on some together??)

I also found this company, based in the UK, that has a reasonably priced product. They sell powder coated panels to your specification that are bolted together. The total cost of an 8X8′ aviary would be about $1100 – before shipping. Unfortunately, this does not include a catch-hold, but one could be added.

Military macaw

This post isn’t meant to scare you away from building your own aviary, but rather to encourage you to be extra careful in your planning of one if you do. I have mentioned above a few of the things that can go wrong in aviary planning, but there are certainly more to consider. It would be very sad to learn that someone who cared so much about their bird that they took the time to build an outdoor aviary had a death or injury as the result of their good intentions.

Camelot macaws allopreening

The winter months are some of the driest months of the year. Not only are the natural humidity levels typically down during these months, but heating systems further deplete the air of moisture. The result can be dry, itchy skin for everyone – humans and parrots alike.
Typically, when our skin gets dry, we grab some hand or body lotion. But when our parrot’s skin gets dry, they might scratch with their feet or make a fuss to let us know that they are uncomfortable. Some might begin to preen…and preen…and preen.  Some might cross the line into plucking to alleviate the itchiness.

Rosebreasted cockatoo

There are three courses of action we can take:

Bath your parrot more frequently. Somehow, bird owners have gotten the notion that it is unsafe to bathe parrots in the cold weather.This is simply untrue. For all the reasons listed above, it might be MORE important to get them nice and wet at least a couple of times a week during the winter. It is a necessary grooming procedure and your bird’s feather and skin health will suffer if it is overlooked.

If your house is cold and drafty, bathe your bird earlier on so it can dry off during the warmest time of the day and be completely dry for bedtime.This is more for comfort than safety.Your bird is not going to “catch it’s death of cold” from being wet in the winter any more than you will. Being cold AND wet temporarily lowers the body’s immune system. It makes one more susceptible to disease but does not CAUSE illness. Don’t let this misinformation cause you to avoid baths in the winter.

Buy a humidifier. Here is a post that outlines the different types available and which ones are safest for use with parrots.

Use bath sprays.There are several brands available on the market today. When it comes to selecting these products (or any type of product) for your parrots, go for the ones with the fewest ingredients. They are typically the safest and most natural. I have gone through the ingredients in the some of the more popular bath sprays and these are my findings:

• Avix Rain – This product uses ingredients that can be irritants to eyes and skin. It also appears that the more natural ingredients they use are of low quality.
  
• Avix Soother Plus – This product is frequently recommended, but it is an analgesic with medicinal purposes and is not all natural. I don’t recommend this product for aiding dry skin at all.
  
• Mango Parrot Bath Spray – Not even going to go here. These morons sell this SHAMPOO(??) stating this in their product description: ” Caution: Parrot Shampoo is extremely mild but keep away from eyes, ears, nostrils and mouth.” Run away. Run far away.
  
• THE WINNER:  George’s Aloe – Its ingredients are 100% Aloe Barbadensis Miller, a species of Aloe native to northern Africa. It can be purchased in gallon jugs making it by far the cheapest choice. You simply dilute it and put it in a spray bottle. Aloe, as it has multiple uses, is something we should all have on hand in our first aid kits for the treatment of cuts and burns.

Indian ringneck

Whichever product you decide on, spray some on your hand before you spray it on your bird so that you can feel the texture and consistency. You should not be able to actually feel any of the ingredients. There should only be the feeling of soothing moisture. If  it feels oily to you, it will to your bird. It is in a bird’s nature to remove anything foreign from the feathers and your bird will set out to remove the what doesn’t belong. Even the oils secreted from their own preen glands are barely detectable. Never use more than what is recommended with the idea that you are making your bird even more comfortable. You will in fact be causing him distress and givng him a reason to over preen.

Photo of african grey by parrotsancturay.co.cc

Just like people, parrots sometimes find themselves in a place in life where they have a hard time getting around. This might be the result of a deformity, an injury or the struggles of old age. And, just like people, parrots learn to adapt to their circumstances with a little help from those around them.

To most people it makes sense that a parrot hatched with a deformity would be better able to learn to get by. After all, it has never known any other way. But how could a parrot that lost a foot in an injury learn to adapt when everything a parrot does involves its feet? How could a blind parrot learn to navigate it’s cage without hands to guide him in the darkness?

The answer to these questions is quite simple: a parrot makes the difficult adjustment because it must in order to survive. And frankly, it is a lot easier for a parrot to adapt because they don’t suffer from bouts of self pity the way humans do. They don’t waste time or energy thinking “Why me?”, or considering “If only…” They see a task ahead of them and they get to it. The footless parrot plots out another means of getting from point A to B. The blind parrot learns to rely more heavily on its other senses.

This is not to say that we shouldn’t do everything we can to make the cage more practical for our special needs parrots. Our highest priority should be in the matter of safety. Until which time the bird recovers or has adapted to its infirmity, we must be certain they are not in danger when perching or moving around the cage.

Footless african grey photo by Anna Sloan

A few years ago, a friend took in two handicapped african greys. Shortly after hatching, their parents bit off their feet, for reasons no one will ever know. If I remember correctly, the breeder’s solution to the problem was a river and a bag of rocks, but fortunately someone stepped in and they wound up in the care of my friend. Each bird had a different degree of “disability”. One had remnants of feet, one had only stumps. They both needed special considerations for their care.

Obviously, the biggest obstacle was finding a way to offer comfort and stability in perching. Below is a photo of a starter cage that my friend modified to suit the needs of one of the birds. The cage is large enough to encourage active play, but small enough to prevent injury during a fall from any real height. Everything is padded for comfort, while offering help with balance. The climbing ramp is wound with rope to add traction for footless-ness.

Aside from the obvious special caging and perching needs of the greys, some unanticipated problems arose, such as how to confidently step up a footless bird. It is difficult for a human to be a stable perch for a bird with no toes to grasp fingers or wrists. This resulted in some trust issues as the birds struggled to feel secure when being held by humans, but it was sorted out with patience and diligence. There is more to tending to special needs than meets the eye but the birds did remarkably well and have since gone on to new homes.

Photo and cage modification by Anna Sloan

Recently, someone contacted me because her bird was going blind. She was very upset, but I explained to her that this was not the end of the world – for her or her bird. She sent me some video footage of her bird’s cage and in the end we decided to change nothing. Her bird had been in that cage for its entire life and was quite aware of where the food bowls were and how the perching was laid out. As its vision declined, the bird was showing that it was quite capable of navigating the cage without any problems.

I think one of the biggest challenges with having a special needs parrot comes from within ourselves. Very often, their physical shortcomings are a bigger deal to us than it is to them.  Birds are very reactive to the stress levels of their people, and wouldn’t it be ironic that while we fret over making their lives livable in the face of their handicap, that we are actually making it more tense with our own stress?

Photo of handicapped budgie by avianweb.com

Once we have tended to their health issues and to their safety, we really must learn to back away and let the bird take it from there. Their perseverence will astound you. It’s important that we don’t over-assist our birds. In doing so, we might take away opportunities for exercise, which might be somewhat limited anyways. Once your bird has adjusted to his new way of life, be sure to allow him opportunities to explore and play like any other bird. We want to help make life do-able without crossing the line to where it is sedentary or boring.

Photo by Jamieleigh
Location: RV
Shown: Galah “Bondi” wrapped in towel ready to receive medication

If you missed the entry on our first vet visit, read about it here.

And if you live near Roanoke, Virginia and are in need of a fantastic avian vet, exotic vet, or just regular cat/dog type vet, please look up Dr. Paul Stewart. He is amazing, dependable, and affordable and way over qualified for anything you might need.

A couple days before Dave and I would be driving up to Virginia from Florida, I talked with Dr. Stewart and asked which birds needed to be brought back and the verdict was all of them except Jinx. Jinx, our blue throated macaw, was thought to have a tiny piece of metal in his stomach from the looks of his x-ray  but when it was thoroughly tested we found it was nothing at all and it had been the only concern with Jinx so he got to stay home on this trip.

We’ve had a stroke of bad luck with our main truck lately, it actually broke down 3 times in the last month and a half so we decided it was no longer dependable. It’s the truck that pulls our bird trailer, and we just couldn’t risk getting stranded in the cold with our birds so we traded it in for a new truck but the new one isn’t quite equipped with all the towing stuff we need it to be for the size of our bird trailer and how much it weighs on its own… so long story short, we took our 10 foot trailer instead for our trip.

Photo by Jamieleigh
Location: Orlando, FL
Shown: Camelot macaws “Comet” & “Tusa”

It’s not as comfy for the birds, and we haven’t used it in years so it went into quick drop off repairs before our trip. We packed food, water, toys, travel cages and one larger white cage that we keep in that trailer anyway for our two macaws. We secured it down to the trailer and used bungees and clamps for the other travel cage that held our three medium sized parrots.

Our first day we took off around 7am from Florida and made it to our friends’ place in Virginia by 11pm. We stopped to conduct a freeflight call with our latest Freestyle Flyer Student (our freeflight course) making us a little later in the day.

When we arrived in Virginia we moved all the birds into the house in a separate room and they were fed and watered a few gas stations prior. We took them all out, watered them again and everyone went straight to sleep. 7am the next morning rolled around very early. Our birds were used to much more sleep, and I knew they’d be testy once we got to the vet’s office which was a 1.5 hour drive for me that morning.

I dropped everyone off at the vet’s office at 8:30am, and came back for them a little before 2pm with tons of great news from the vet.

Photo by Jamieleigh
Location: Orlando, FL
In travel cages: Congo african grey “Cressi”, Galahs “Bandit” & “Bondi”, Camelot macaw “Comet”

First thing was, everyone looked in optimal health since being home for 30 days (off the road) and the vet told me whatever I was doing with their diet to keep on it. Cressi (our african grey) showed no signs of any trouble with her kidneys while Rocko showed the same signs and looked great. We had his blood drawn for iron levels as toucans often die from too much iron and it’s good to have a baseline on your birds of where there levels are when they’re healthy.

Photo by Jamieleigh
Location: Orlando, FL
Ready for travel: Camelot macaws “Comet” & “Tusa”

Both Comet and Tusa had what our vet called “White Coat Syndrome” which just made me laugh… especially since this vet clinic has everyone wearing blue coats! Basically, white coat syndrome means your bird gets stressed and uneasy at the sight of a “white coat” or “vet”. And immediately their levels sky-rocket. Our macaws had very high white level counts which means they could be hiding illness which is what we wanted to be sure of. Tusa had been on the changes of a booster and Rain which had done wonders during his molt making his feathers come in beautifully, especially on his head where he practically looked bald before. All the levels were normal this time around, and the vet had waited a couple hours of the birds being there and hanging out before he tested them to make sure their emotional states were not heightened.

It worked! And the boys checked out beautifully.

Bandit’s levels were tested as he had shown very small beginning signs of fatty liver as a possibility so with the change of diet for the last 30 days we wanted to see the difference it all made. (We’ll hear more on any test results, and later for ones that were sent out, likely 10-14 days).

Bondi’s legs had approved as far as her picking at them, but under her wings had gotten worse at home. It seemed to calm down once her yeast went away (which the vet also confirmed, that the yeast infections in both our girls Bondi and Cressi was gone) but then her picking under the wings got worse after a couple days of the yeast medication being done. Because of this, the vet took 8 skin biopsies. He took 3-4 from places she was picking, and 3-4 from places that she was not and could not possibly reach to test her skin and see if anything might be irritating her and causing itchiness. The couple days before we left for the appointment he suggested using the Rain on her picked areas to see if that would help. We had only had the chance to use it once before we left, but definitely plan to implement it more for all our birds around 3 times per week.

Photo by Jamieleigh
Location: Waynesboro, VA
Pictured: Biopsy spot on galah “Bondi”

The size of the biopsies was about the size of the “pore” so to speak of the feather. The size of a feather coming in is what was taken. Usually when birds have this done they have to wear a neck thingy that is a sponge-y foam type thing. Luckily, Bondi didn’t bother with her biopsy spots and didn’t need to wear it, though Dr. Stewart did send us home with it just in case she began to for any reason.

We were very thrilled at all the positive feedback from the vet – the days at home seemed to do wonders for the birds’ health, especially in our ability to optimize their diet. We have to give a great deal of credit to that to Patty for researching what’s perfect for kidneys and livers and exactly what the birds would be needing. We cut back on giving fruit a ton to our birds, and stuffed them with colorful veggies. We bought wheatgrass by the bagful at Whole Foods and cooked beans for the weeks to come and mixed it with tons of  healthy stuff. We ended up writing tons of our own recipes and were very excited about all of it. We didn’t feed a single nut or seed to any of our birds, just really focusing on the healthy foods they needed.

Photo by Jamieleigh
Location: Waynesboro, VA
Shown: Galah “Bondi”

With Rocko we also optimized his diet as he showed beginning signs of something being wrong with his kidneys. While traveling we could always get watermelon and blueberries and blackberries, but he wasn’t liking the store-bought blackberries after having them fresh from Chet’s house. He also needed better foods like banana, sweet potato, papaya and mango… which were foods we had a hard time coming by in our travels.

Back at home we were able to get him everything he needed and he was loving the different methods we would experiment with when it came to feeding time.

Needless to say, we are ALL benefiting from being off the road for a while. And we’ll be putting together our original recipes for all of you to benefit from too. We always include original recipes in our promos (so far Halloween and Christmas) so be on the look out for those because right now it’s the only place to get them! Today I talked to the vet about any results that already came back, and every single bird of ours is back to normal and optimal health all around. We were able to take Bondi off every single medication except her anti-biotic which is just for 4 days to make sure no infections happen to her biopsy spots, and then she stays on her supplements like sunshine factor and her booster. Other than that, her liver shows great now and we are very excited about it. We’re waiting to hear about what the biopsy results are but until then, everyone seems in optimal health and life off the road is fan-freaking-tastic as far as our birds are concerned!