Month: May 2019

Bleach alternatives

Bleach alternatives

For disinfecting cages and toys and other things birds use, bleach is likely the most popular choice. Bleach has a reputation for being an excellent disinfectant, and it’s very effective against both bacteria and viruses.

However, there are significant downsides to using bleach as well as equally effective alternatives.

Birds and inhaled toxins

You’ve heard of expression “canary in the coal mine”? Maybe you didn’t know it’s a real thing!

Well into the 20th century, coal miners brought canaries into coal mines as an early-warning signal for toxic gases, primarily carbon monoxide. The birds, being more sensitive, would become sick before the miners, who would then have a chance to escape or put on protective respirators.

Sentinel species—Wikipedia

There is at least one modern study that suggests the same thing.

Birds are ubiquitously distributed in essentially all of the environments inhabited by humans; thus, if we understood the effects of a broad range of inhaled environmental contaminants (gas and particulate) on a wide variety of avian species, they could serve as highly effective and sensitive monitors of air quality.

… READ THE REST
What’s it like to have a pet bird?

What’s it like to have a pet bird?

I used to breed cockatiels starting in the early 1980s, selling over a hundred birds a year. I used to advertise them in some town papers with my phone number.

When people called, I would find out whether this would be their first bird. If so, I would give them my standard speech to make sure they knew what they were getting into. Maybe 25% of the time, they would decide to think about it more before buying a bird and in some cases they would decide a bird was not for them.

Get the variety pack!

Here’s what I would tell them:

  • Birds are really messy! There’s really no getting around it. Feather dust, feathers when moulting, seed strewn everywhere, chewing on everything they can find, and they seem to find a way to poop in impossible locations.
  • With very rare exceptions, birds don’t like to be pet like dogs, cats, or rabbits.
… READ THE REST
Animal research applied to parrot psychology

Animal research applied to parrot psychology

Previously, I wrote about animal research applied to parrot diets. This insight greatly opens up the much more prevalent research on animals, including humans. We can then supplement the much sparser research on animals, especially those kept as pets.

But how about mental disorders? There is a branch of psychology that tackles this question called trans-personal psychology. It’s not as crazy as it sounds! The article below has 40 bibliographic references so it’s not exactly a fringe line of thinking.

Trans-species psychology is the field of psychology that states that humans and nonhuman animals share commonalities in cognition (thinking) and emotions (feelings).

Trans-personal psychology—Wikipedia

There strong evidence that animals suffer from mental disorders, especially in captivity. Here is a long quote on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

PTSD, a pervasive psychological disorder, common to human prisoners of war, genocide survivors, and victims of domestic violence. It is characterized by difficulties with severe mood dysregulation, impaired interpersonal functioning, loss of sense of safety and security, and disruption in the sense of self.

… READ THE REST
The mythical “all seed” diet

The mythical “all seed” diet

You know how they used to have commercials where every product was compared against how the “leading brand” performed? It’s easy to compare against something mythical isn’t it?

Well, I very frequently hear diets compared to the “all seed” diet. I hear people adopting or fostering a bird and disdainfully talking about how the bird was on an “all seed” diet and they needed to be rescued.

If you’re in the US, it’s very difficult to buy a 100% seed diet. You can either buy a wild bird mix or buy individual types of seeds yourself and mix them. The predominantly seed mixes all have other ingredients such as processed grains and are typically fortified like breakfast cereals.

Now, THAT’S an all-seed diet.

Just for fun, I entered “parrot seed” as a search term in Amazon and looked at the top 5 results. I listed a summary of the ingredients since the full lists are very, very long (typically a bad sign!):

  1. Kaytee Forti Diet Pro Health Bird Food For Parrots: Seed, processed grains, nuts, dehydrated vegetables, vitamins
  2. Wild Harvest Advanced Nutrition Parrot: Predominantly processed grains, seeds, nuts, legumes, eggs, sugar, dehydrated vegetables, vitamins
  3. Vitakraft Menu Vitamin Fortified Parrot Food: Seed, processed grains, nuts
  4. Volkman Avian Science Super African Grey and Amazon Bird Food: Seeds, processed grains, dehydrated fruit and vegetables, nuts, artificial flavors(!), vitamins
  5. Kaytee Supreme Bird Food For Parrots: Seeds, processed grains, nuts, dehydrated vegetables, vitamins

And what does processed (pelleted) food contain?… READ THE REST

Count Chocula for birds

Count Chocula for birds

[Note: These products are popular and most bird owners probably use them. Eventually, either I can convince you to stop or time will pass and the same realizations people have had about dog and cat diets will finally reach the bird community More on this later.]

I was on the website for Lafeber, one of the largest bird food companies. On this page, I find this selection of products:

Doesn’t it look like sugary breakfast cereals for birds? They are predominantly processed food and very high in carbohydrates, which I discussed in earlier posts on dietary fat:

So, I picked the most popular and looked at the ingredients.

  • Ground corn = 86% carbs
  • Canary grass seed = 49% carbs
  • Millet = 78% carbs
  • Oats = 68% carbs
  • Wheat flour = 79% carbs
  • Sugar = 100% carbs
  • For comparison, Count Chocula = 84%

All but one of those is well above the 45-65% recommended by the USDA, which has long since been debunked as well too high (see sources above).… READ THE REST