Scientific study of parrot diets falls flat

Scientific study of parrot diets falls flat

While wild bird (including chickens) have a lot of published studies on their diets, there are virtually no studies of parrot diets in captivity. This is unfortunate because we know that birds don’t live as long in captivity. Could it be diet? Wouldn’t it be great to know?

In 2012, a study was published called “Nutritional Levels of Diets Fed to Captive Amazon Parrots: Does Mixing Seed, Produce, and Pellets Provide a Healthy Diet?“—you can download the PDF here.

I was pretty excited to finally see a research paper studying captive bird diets. This study is the one study that vets point to when they tell you what to feed your bird. If they reference it, they usually call it the “Amazon study” as a shortcut.

This site strives to rely on scientific research for its conclusions, but it’s important not to just accept something because it’s published in a scientific journal.… READ THE REST

What if you can’t find a credible source?

What if you can’t find a credible source?

In a previous article, I talked about how to find credible sources of information. Sometimes you may have questions and simply cannot find any source you can trust.

Caveats for forums

I can provide some caveats for when you resort to visiting forums or blogs that have uncited information.

  • People are far more likely to visit forums to report problems than successes with their birds. If one person reports a problem, it’s possible that many others did the same thing and didn’t have a problem.
  • When someone asks “should I let my bird do xyz” on a forum, the answer you will likely get is no. People default to no because it’s a safer answer. But in the desire to provide rich lives for our birds, we owe it to them to not be reactionary.

Finding the good in forums

So, I’ve basically trashed forums, but they are sometimes the only place where certain topics are mentioned.… READ THE REST

Leveraging time lapse photography

Leveraging time lapse photography

I’ve written previously about the benefits you can gain from using remote cameras with your birds. Most smart phones can also do time lapse photography.

While videos can capture useful information about your birds, sometimes you want to monitor behaviors that happen rarely or you want to see how often they happen over time.

Some examples of behaviors might be:

  • How often and for how long are my birds eating?
  • Are my birds eating specific foods I’m putting out for them?
  • How active are my birds?
  • What toys and perches are my birds favoring?
  • Are my birds fighting?
  • Are my birds engaging in mating behavior?
  • What toys are my birds playing with?

Sure, a video would capture these, but this is a significant time commitment to review these videos.

Tripod

Before I get started, I wanted to recommend a tripod I like. Since you could take a time lapse that could last hours, you want a way to hold your phone in position.… READ THE REST

Add a shelf to your rolling bird cage

Add a shelf to your rolling bird cage

As I mentioned in my review of bird cage brands, some rolling bird cages have a convenient storage shelf at the bottom. Here are two, for comparison.

  • No shelf at the bottom
  • Shelf at the bottom

Personally, I find it an invaluable place to store food, toys, cleaning supplies, and other items. When you’re pressed for time and want to swap out a toy, this makes it super easy. Also, if you want to move the cage, the floor around the cage isn’t cluttered with items.

But I have a bunch of cages that don’t have this nice shelf. I thought of just cutting a piece of plywood, but I have roaming birds that become hormonal when they find dark places. Plus, plywood isn’t particularly attractive.

Custom plastics

You may not know it, but you probably have a custom plastics shop where you live. They will take plastic sheets, film, tubes or anything else and create whatever you can dream up.… READ THE REST

Simple foraging bowl

Simple foraging bowl

Foraging has been a hot topic in the bird community in recent years. Many people are aware of the concept, but few employ it because it often seems like a lot of extra work.

Quite simply, foraging means “searching for food” – something all wild animals do. Captive animals, on the other hand, typically have food appear in a bowl in front of them.

Research has shown that birds benefit from foraging for their food and even prefer it!

In its natural environment, a bird is surrounded by a multitude of unpredictable stimuli to which it is adapted to respond (Van Rooijen 1991) and therefore it is able to exert control over certain environmental stimuli. However, within a cage often there is little unpredictability.

[…]

Thus, the animal has little control over any aspects of its environment, a situation to which it is not well adapted (see Hughes & Duncan 1988).

… READ THE REST
Pellets are processed food

Pellets are processed food

Standard disclaimer: I’ve never advocated a 100% seed diet for birds. I do believe they can part of a healthy “real food” diet for birds that can contain vegetables, fruits, insects, nuts, and other wild foods.

Whether intentional marketing or not, the pet food industry has always used words like “kibble” for processed dog and cat food and “pellets” for processed bird food.

First off, let’s look at one of the most comprehensive studies on processed food consumption from the British Medical Journal. This article defines what it calls “ultra-processed food” and documents the downsides.

Ultra-processed foods are industrial formulations made mostly or entirely from substances derived from foods and additives, with little, if any, intact food. [Editor note: Pellets are powdered food and additives, which are then extruded]

Participants in the highest quarter of ultra-processed food consumption had a 62% relatively higher hazard of all cause mortality compared with those in the lowest quarter.

… READ THE REST
Aviary 2.0

Aviary 2.0

NOTE: This is not an endorsement of any particular style of building an aviary. I present this as a design I found compelling enough to use and the things I learned over time.

Two years ago, I built an aviary in the backyard. Just last month, with the help of a carpenter this time, I finished a significant renovation and expansion. I incorporated a large number of changes based on my first design. For those not interested in my detailed description of the new aviary, here is a photo gallery.

  • Bourke’s parrots enjoying the new perches.
  • Newly designed perching stations.
  • View from above.
  • View from the new front door.
  • The new “wing”
  • Red-rumped parrots in upgraded part of aviary.
  • New herb munching station.
  • New shelter with 5 compartments and open front.

The original aviary was approximately 128 square feet, while the new one totals around 192 square feet. But because of the layout, there is a much longer flight path the birds can take so it seems much more enjoyable to them.… READ THE REST

Weighing risk of disease

Weighing risk of disease

This article was motivated by interactions with my local bird rescue. Using three examples, I attempt to illustrate the importance of weighing the risk of disease with the likliehood of it happening. The goal would be maximizing the happiness of as many birds as possible, perhaps finding ways to mitigate risk rather than just refusing to take it on, losing benefits to birds in need.

If fostering and adopting birds feels like walking through a minefield, people will be less likely to become involved. We need to present people with risks that that have some probability of actually happening. Think of all the possible ways a child could get injured. Do we want to make sure a child is never exposed to any situation where they might become injured? What kind of life is that?

Newcastle disease

In 2019, Virulent Newcastle Disease made a comeback. In Northern California, a single case was reported on March 15 in a backyard chicken.… READ THE REST

Diatomaceous earth and parrots

Diatomaceous earth and parrots

What is diatomaceous earth?

For this article, I’m leaning heavily on a very concise and clearly worded fact sheet from the National Pesticide Information Center (NPIC). This organization is a collaboration between the Environmental Protection Agency and Oregon State University and receives funding from no other sources.

Rather than describe what diatomaceous earth is, I’ll defer to NPIC.

Diatomaceous earth is made from the fossilized remains of tiny, aquatic organisms called diatoms. Their skeletons are made of a natural substance called silica. Over a long period of time, diatoms accumulated in the sediment of rivers, streams, lakes, and oceans. Today, silica deposits are mined from these areas.

Diatomaceous earth is not poisonous; it does not have to be eaten in order to be effective. Diatomaceous earth causes insects to dry out and die by absorbing the oils and fats from the cuticle of the insect’s exoskeleton. Its sharp edges are abrasive, speeding up the process.

… READ THE REST
Are seeds high in fat?

Are seeds high in fat?

It seems almost universally believed that seeds are high in fat. I’ve talked about seeds and fat in a previous article but wanted to address this myth specifically.

First, I took a look at a wide variety of seed mixes and came up with 8 seeds that appear to be most commonly used:

  • Millet
  • Oats
  • Canary grass
  • Sunflower
  • Safflower
  • Hemp
  • Nyger
  • Pumpkin

So, let’s look at their fat percentages:

Sources:

As I mentioned in my other article, recommended fat percentages for humans fall in the 20-40% range, so 44% is definitely on the high side.

Seeds also definitely fall into very low fat and high fat categories.

  • Very Low fat: Millet, canary grass, oats
  • High fat: Sunflower, safflower, hemp, nyger, pumpkin

The budgie diet I used in that article contained 66% millet, 17% oats, and 8% canary grass seed (total of 97% of the seed content).… READ THE REST