Free Range Parrots – How captive birds can have freedom

Thoughts on mixed-species aviaries

2020-02-12

The consensus about mixed species aviaries includes one or more of the following:

Don’t ever do it under any circumstances
Don’t mix species unless they are of similar size
Don’t mix species from different continents
Don’t mix softbills in with parrots

I’ve done the first three and have no experience with the last but it seems reasonable.

My species

At the height of my mixed species aviary, I had the following birds:

Red-rumped parrots
Cockatiels
Turquoise parrots (neophema)
Elegant parrots (neophema)
Splendid parrots (neophema)
Rosellas
Budgies
Bourke’s Parrots
Canary-winged parakeet (South American)
Rainbow Lory

So, that’s 9 species from 7 genuses, with all but one from Australia. So, almost all from one continent. It wasn’t all roses.

The Rosella liked to chase the grass parrots around, but gave up quickly and didn’t show outright aggressiveness. The red-rumped parrots were VERY territorial, but not aggressive.

Space

I’ll start by saying that much of this isn’t new, but some of it is, and some of it I proved with my own setup.… READ THE REST

Weighing many birds with the help of a camera

2020-02-05

I’m a big proponent of using cameras with birds to solve practical problems.

Weighing birds is a great way to keep tabs on their health and spot potential issues. It’s also another excellent example of employing cameras.

Many birds don’t like to be weighed and if you have multiple birds, it can be tedious and time-consuming to get them to cooperate. I prefer positive reinforcement methods rather than catching a bird and forcing it to stand on a scale.

So, here’s what you need:

A scale large enough to accommodate a food bowl
Some uncooperative birds
Treats

Other than making it easier to record weights, a camera can solve the problem of fluctuating weight readings as birds move around.

For the purposes of making this short, I used three plush toys as stand-ins for birds and a bowl of wooden blocks to simulate the eating of treats while on the bowl.… READ THE REST

What about L-Theanine

2020-01-26

L-Theanine is touted as a calming substance for parrots. Like a lot of things you read on the internet, no evidence is given to support any claims. So, let’s change that.

The products

First off, there are a number of products that contain L-Theanine, including one called UnruffledRx Parrot Calming Formula. It’s important to have a long name!

The claim they make is:

UnRuffledRx Parrot Calming Formula,with the active ingredient, L-Theanine, a Green Tea derivative, enhances alpha waves in the brain to produce a calming, yet non-sedating effect. L-Theanine has been found to improve alertness and disposition.

So, let’s take a look at these.

Theanine is found primarily in plant and fungal species. It was discovered as a constituent of tea (Camellia sinensis) in 1949 and in 1950, a laboratory in Kyoto successfully isolated it from gyokuro leaf, which has high theanine content. Theanine is substantially present in black, green, and white teas from Camellia sinensis in quantities of about 1% of the dry weight.

… READ THE REST

My life with parrots

2020-01-24

I published an article on my personal blog called My Life With Parrots that I thought might be interesting here.

Note that this references my previous life as a breeder and doesn’t demonize breeders, so take that into account before deciding whether to read it. 🙂

… READ THE REST

What do my birds eat and drink?

2020-01-13

Knowing that I don’t believe in processed (pelleted) diets, people ask me what I feed my birds. So I thought I’d share. It’s very elaborate but maybe you’ll find in it two interesting things to try.

First, note that I have a mixed flock 21 of the following bird species:

Cockatiel
Rosella
Red-rumped parrot
Elegant parrot
Bourke’s parrot
Budgie

Since many live in an aviary, separate mixes are not particularly practical. However, my mix percentages remain the same but I may use only budgie mix for a cage only containing budgies, but a mix containing cockatiel and budgie mix for an aviary.

Fresh food

Everyone gets fresh food every morning. Only a few birds are fruit eaters, but everyone gets veggies.

Fruit

Apples, pineapple guava, grapes. And sometimes things we buy for ourselves.

Vegetables

Fresh or frozen corn, sweet potato, celery, kale, dill, dandelion, mustard, parsley, basil, collards, cilantro, thyme, watercress, beans, chard, beet greens.… READ THE REST

Little Dinosaur

2020-01-07

I’ve had this idea for a long time to start a non-profit to promote bird keeping as a way to raise awareness about the plight of birds in the wild. Here is my business plan. I’m half hoping someone will just take it and run with it as it would be a huge undertaking.

I wrote a manifesto about it.

… READ THE REST

When to euthanize

2019-12-19

I wrote a previous post expressing my feelings about euthanasia. Even if you believe in it, it’s a vague decision. You can’t run a test on a bird and determine that the time has come.

Someone retold to me the criteria used by Brian Speer DVM of the Medical Center for birds. It still has subjectivity, but it’s still very useful and simple.

You start by thinking about the 5 things your bird enjoys most, or enjoyed if they are already in bad shape. If the bird can do at least a part of 3 out of five of the list, then the assumption is that they are still getting enjoyment out of life. Anything below that is time for euthanasia.

A friend of mine shared the 5 things for one of her birds dying of cancer:

Flying
Bossing other birds around
Eating
Preening
Hanging out with her mate and being affectionate

She’s still alive and doing all 5, but they are all diminishing.… READ THE REST

How cold is too cold?

2019-12-04

There is a complete lack of research on the cold tolerance of parrots, so I have to rely on the thoughts of vets and aviculturists. I’m trying to choose people that are respected in the bird community.

The predominant opinion is that parrots should be kept in a strict climate-controlled range. However, this opinion comes from hundreds of individual people and just saying something is true doesn’t make it true.

I found one of the more amusing opinion pieces on this.

For birds living in our homes, temperatures typically fluctuate very little from one season to the next as we humans like to maintain a relatively constant indoor temperature of 65-72 °F year round.
If your bird gets chilled, warm it on a heating pad, massage its feet to aid circulation and/or put small birds under your clothing to warm them with your body heat.
Avian Enrichment: Temperature

Humans don’t even have feathers and we could withstand that in shorts and a T-shirt.… READ THE REST

The truth about full spectrum lights

2019-11-04

I touched briefly on full-spectrum lights in my article on UV light myths.

So what does full spectrum mean? Well, it means something different when it comes to light and to light bulbs.

For light:

Full-spectrum light is light that covers the electromagnetic spectrum from infrared to near-ultraviolet
Full-spectrum light—Wikipedia

For light bulbs:

“Full-spectrum” is not a technical term when applied to an electrical light bulb. Rather, it implies that the product emulates some important quality of natural light.
Full-spectrum light—Wikipedia

There is no agreement and there are no standards for what constitutes a full-spectrum bulb. This may come as a shock if you’ve bought bulbs labelled as full spectrum, which typically are priced higher.

It’s not to say that every manufacturer is lying, but rather than trust the labeling, it’s better to understand the qualities of natural light and try to buy bulbs that have many of those qualities. There is no such thing as a bulb that perfectly emulates natural light.… READ THE REST

Essential oils: Do they work?

2019-10-30

There are a lot of alternative remedies out there and a lot of claims are made about whether they work or not. Usually, they claim that everything works. What’s missing from nearly all these articles is:

PROOF

The main thrust of this blog is to present ideas and back them up with science. Reading an article that says “diatomaceous earth kills parasites” without proof is not useful at all.

However, I’ve shown research to back up claims that diatomaceous earth helps with parasites and mites, among other things.

Today I move on to another alternative therapy that is touted, but rarely backed up with research: essential oils.

Now I’ve already presented evidence that thyme oil is a very effective disinfectant and a great alternative to bleach. In researching this, I came across some incredible research about the many ways essential oils can be used. The research comes primarily from poultry but pathogens are pathogens so the research should be taken seriously.… READ THE REST