1. GET TO KNOW ABOUT PARROTS BEFORE YOU BRING ME HOME - I am not a domesticated pet like a dog or cat. I still have the spirit of the jungle in me. I have special needs, which you may find hard to fill. Please don’t learn these too late for my well-being. And please don’t acquire one of my cousins wild from the jungle – it will jeopardize his survival and well-being, and that won’t be a party for you either!

2. GIVE ME THE LARGEST HOME POSSIBLE - I am used to flying through rainforests or savannas. I have given up this great gift for your pleasure. At the very least, give me enough room to flap my wings and exercise. And I need toys for my amusement and wood to chew – otherwise, I might confuse your Home with the forest and its trees.

3. GIVE ME A NUTRITIOUS DIET – I need a wide variety of fresh and nutritious foods, even if they take time to prepare. I cannot survive on seeds alone. Take time to learn what my needs, and preferences are.

4. LET ME HAVE A ‘SOCIAL LIFE’ – I am a gregarious flock animal – but I am not one of you. I need lots of socialization to learn how to act with you, and with my siblings. I also need to have adequate quality time with you every day – no matter what your schedule or other needs are. I am a living, feeling creature. Above all, I need to be able to have complete trust in you, and count on your predictability in looking after me – every day.

5. LET ME BE CLEAN – I may like to drop food or even throw it, but I need meticulous cleanliness to be healthy. My skin itches without frequent showers, the barbs of my feathers won’t seal if they become oily and, worst of all, I may become ill if my food or water is not always sanitary.

6. I NEED MY OWN DOCTOR – You may not understand my physiology and therefore you may not recognize it early on when I get sick. And it may be too late when you do, because I hide my illnesses (remember what I said about my being an animal of the jungle, where there are lots of predators). And I need an avian vet – a specialist (no HMOs for me please). If you can’t afford one, perhaps you shouldn’t have taken me home.

7. PLEASE DON’T PUNISH ME – Just as I don’t always understand your peculiarities, you may not understand mine. I don’t TRY to get in trouble – remember, a house is not the jungle. If I do screw up, don’t yell at me and never hit me. I have sensitive ears and I may never trust you again if you strike me. Hands are sometimes scary things to us (why in the world would you not be zygodactylous like us?). Even more importantly, we don’t learn by punishment. We are gentle creatures who only strike back to protect ourselves; we learn through patience and love.

8. SPEAK MY ‘LANGUAGE’ – I know you get upset with me when I knock over my water bowl, throw food, scream or pluck my feathers. I don’t do these to annoy you – I am probably trying to tell you something (perhaps that I am hurting, lonely, or sad.). Learn to speak MY (body) language. Remember that I, alone of all creatures on this planet, learn to speak yours!

9. SEE ME AS AN INDIVIDUAL – I am a unique and feeling being. No two of us are alike. Please don’t be disappointed in me if I don’t talk like you wanted, or can’t do the tricks that your friend’s parrot can do. But if you pay close attention to me (and I always empathize with you, whether you know it or not), I will show you a unique being who will give you so much more than talking and playing. Give me a chance to show you who I am; I think you’ll find the effort worth it. And remember – I am not an ornament; I do not enhance ANY living room décor. And I am not a status symbol – if you use me as such, I might nip at your up-turned nose!

10. SHARE YOUR LOVE WITH ME – Above all, please remember that you are my Special Person. I put all my trust and faith in you. We parrots are used to being monogamous (no bar-hopping for us!). So please don’t go away for long periods or give me away – that would be a sadness from which I may never recover. If that seems to be asking a lot, remember – you could have learned about my needs before bringing me home. Even having a baby or taking a new job isn’t a fair reason – you made a commitment to me FIRST. And if you think that you must leave me because you might die, provide for me forever after you leave. I may live to a ripe old age but I can’t provide for myself. Remember I’m in a small cage amongst people who are not of my blood.

11. YOUR RIGHTS – You have lots of rights, but I can only assure one. And that is, if you treat me the way I described above, I will reward you with unwavering love, humor, knowledge, beauty, dedication – and a sense of wonder and awe you haven’t felt since you were a child. When you took me home, you became my Flock Leader, indeed, my entire universe – for life. I would hang the moon and stars for you if I could. We are one in Heart and Soul.

Source: http://www.cleos-corner.com/Rights.html

Steve Dale writes :-

“I know a parrot in New York called N’kisi (a Congo African Gray parrot) who knows 971 words. He isn’t counted as having a new word until he’s used it at least five times in a proper context. In other words, if he just repeats a word, that doesn’t count. Before I met N’kisi, his owner, Aimee, was showing him pictures of me and chimps. When I walked into the room, he asked, ‘Got a chimp?’ Aimee broke a necklace, and he said, ‘What a pity. You broke your new, nice necklace.’ He uses grammar and initiates conversation (all skills once reserved for people). This bird even has a Web site [sheldrake.org/nkisi]. I don’t think he’s an exceptionally brilliant parrot; I do think we’re only starting to understand how smart they are.”

To read the full article, go here – http://www.websitetoolbox.com/tool/post/nicko62/vpost?id=2575336

Click here to view the embedded video.

hey I have another question?. is it true even though I bought my bird
from a pet store and they told me the breeder they get there birds from is
very good as out of the 15 years of dealing threw him they said they have
never had any birds that were sick. so if I have a very health bird can I
catch bird disease from her even though she is my pet. And yes she comes
outside with me everyday, she is walking around the grass most of the day
and likes to sit up on the wild bird feeding bowl I have outside for wild
birds. is that ok for her too eat from the wild birds bowl too, or is that
how she can catch bird disease.
Kim. Mosbey

***ANSWER***

You can never been guaranteed that you couldn’t catch something from if your pet bird if it was to exposed or carried a disease that people could catch.

Many diseases are air borne and you could catch it from just going to the grocery store from someone who owns an infected bird. I am more worried about catching something from the local pet store and bring it back and infecting my birds.

Allowing the pet bird to walk around outside will greater the chance of catching something that wild birds carry. One of the most common wild bird disease that people can get is called Histoplasmosis here is a link about the disease - http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dbmd/diseaseinfo/histoplasmosis_g.htm

I have another link I give to my clients who are concerned about catching something from their pet birds. http://www.mybirdpix.com/disease_facts.php

Due to the fact I have been hospitalized for histoplasmosis it went undiagnosed by my Doctor for almost a week That disease will only respond to one type of antibiotic, and it could be fatal to humans if not treated correctly.

 ”Intruders smashed the front window of Pet Palace in Leominster, about 45 miles west of Boston, and as they entered the store the bird began to shout, said store manager Lori Oltman on Thursday.”

Get the full scoop here -

http://www.thenewsvault.com/cgi/xtra.pl?go=120029462920

Here we have an indian ringneck parrot performing some cool tricks-

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here we have an african grey bird talking up a storm -

Click here to view the embedded video.

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Wow, what a disappointment! This thing is the complete opposite. This whole thing is being coordinated by the API and AWC, both of which are PETA wanna-be’s trying to end the entire bird pet trade! By carefully disguising this celebration as some sort of education packed date, it’s nothing but a recruitment drive to get members to join their group.

WHO ARE THESE GUYS?

The Animal Protection Institute (API), and the Avian Welfare Coalition (AWC) have only one agenda. Their goal is to completely stop the breeding and sale of pet birds, and thereby preventing you from owning one. They are totally against the sale, trade, or use of birds as pets.

To accomplish this, they hide behind the arguments that pet stores abuse birds and do not know how to care for them. They point out mass bird farms designed to breed birds for the purpose of pet store chains. They point out the poor conditions these birds live in.

But while they cast out this huge net, they are also punishing bird breeders who love their hobby and their birds. They also penalize the pet owner, accusing them of being barbarians, for the “displacement and suffering of captive birds” by keeping them in cages throughout their lives, and “not contributing to the viable preservation of the species”.

They are labeling me, a bird breeder, and everyone like me as evil! This is nothing but nonsense!

THE FACTS

I think that the National Bird Day needs to be taken away from these activists. For starters, there already is a “Bird Day” celebration that has been held every year since 1894, which happens every May 4^th. But since this day was designed to “recognize, appreciate, and enjoy birds”, it does not fit into their militant agenda. Therefore, they set January 5^th for their day of protest.

I think it’s very important that you, the bird hobbyist, the bird owner, the bird breeder, and BIRD LOVER need to also get your voice heard.

How many endangered species of birds have been brought back from near-extinction due to the efforts of bird breeders? How many birds have been saved by the efforts of bird lovers who oversee even the wild bird population?

Is it fair to you, the bird owner, to be lumped in with a very small group of irresponsible bird breeders and subsequently be punished by having your bird taken away from you? That is, after all, the goal of these two groups.

Therefore, everyone needs to join Sapphyre and I in celebrating National Bird Day on January 5^th….but for the RIGHT reasons, by educate people about pet birds and how to care for them.

We certainly do not condone the way some breeders raise their birds. But to allow these two groups to pass laws similar to those that were passed in California, which virtually prevents the breeding of birds altogether, is simply wrong. We need to speak up and use our influence to change the agenda of these two groups. Or at the very least, let people know these groups do NOT speak for the vast majority of bird owners in this country.

You don’t solve the problem by destroying an entire pet trade! Do you seriously think that will stop the abuse? Has any of the thousands of laws pass in this country prevented the abuse of dogs and cats? Wouldn’t taking all of this time, money, and energy and using it to educate bird owners be a better way to go?

So go ahead and celebrate National Bird day…but do it for the right reasons. If bird owners do not take a stand now, you will certainly pay for it in the future.

GUARD PARROT

A postal carrier is working on a new beat. He comes to a garden gate marked BEWARE OF THE PARROT! He looks down the garden and, sure enough, there’s a parrot sitting on its perch. He has a little chuckle to himself at the sign and the parrot there on its perch. The mailman opens the gate and walks into the garden. He gets as far as the parrot’s perch, when suddenly, it calls out: “REX, ATTACK!”

MAGICIAN AND THE PARROT

There was once a magician on a cruise ship who performed mainly sleight of hand tricks. He had a regular spot on the ship’s cabaret evening entertainment. He was actually quite a good magician, but his routines were regularly ruined by the onboard parrot who would fly around squawking out and giving away his secrets like:

“IT’S UP HIS SLEEVE, IT’S UP HIS SLEEVE!”or

“IT’S IN HIS POCKET, IT’S IN HIS POCKET!”or

“IT’S IN HIS MOUTH, IT’S IN HIS MOUTH!”

The magician was getting pretty sick of this and threatened to kill the parrot if it ruined his act one more time. That evening right at the climax of his act, just as he was about to disappear in a puff of smoke, the ship hit an iceberg and sank in seconds.

Amazingly, the magician and the parrot were the only two survivors. The magician was lying on a piece of driftwood in a daze. As he opened his eyes he could see the parrot staring at him out of its beady little eye.

The parrot sat there for hours just staring at him and eventually said, “OK, I give up, what did you do with the ship?”

There are many more good ones. Head over to Sunday Morning Pet Humor

[tags]parrot jokes, funny parrot[/tags]

Prior to this, all of our birds were kept in our laundry room and scattered around our home. Adding a huge number of large cases was going to be impossible, so we needed to build a separate aviary. We didn’t have anyone to consult, so we just tossed it together as best we could. We decided to build another building on our property to house our aviary.

We made serious mistakes, and spent the next several years constantly upgrading our building to correct these errors. Once it was finished, we have a very efficient and easy to maintain setup.

So what follows is a VERY general idea of what you need to do if you want to put together a large, indoor bird aviary. I can’t possibly cover every situation in this short of space, but I will certainly give you important points that must be included into your designs. If you have any questions please post them in the comments section below.

LAYOUT

You are going to find that you just can’t toss in a bunch of assorted birds into a single room and expect them to get along. Our first mistake was discovering that some birds don’t get along at all with other breeds, and unless you can put them into separate rooms you need to partition them off.

In one case, we had two pairs of Macaws in cages next to each other. The problem was the female in one cage was more interested in the Male of the other, and we couldn’t get them to breed. We had to move them far apart, causing us to redesign our whole aviary layout.

Later, we discovered that Electus Parrots do not breed well when there are Conures around. And we had a bunch of them! So more modifications were required to our floor plan.

Lesson learned: Know the different issues with your birds, and how other birds can effect their breeding habits.

NOISE

Having a building filled with large parrots generates a lot of noise. If you live in a residential neighborhood be prepared to get a couple of complaints. Yes, we did get a few. But we had a lot more people who loved the jungle atmosphere we generated.

CAGE LAYOUT

We put a lot of careful thought into this. We had a lot of smaller birds that required cages with breeder boxes attached to the side. The layout was not space efficient. So we built some custom breeding boxes that stacked on top of each other. The top box would be for the left side cage, the bottom box for the right side cage. This reduced the space needed and gave us room for another row of cages. It worked out great, and the birds did perfectly will in this setup.

But our Macaws were a different story! Breeding Macaws need a huge cage. We decided not to even use a cage, but built our breeding pairs their own room. It was closet sized (4’x6’x8’) and had a large breeding box inside, with lots of perches scattered around. The box was built for easy access so we could monitor them.

Some birds do not do well if they are close to the floor, and prefer as high up as possible. Other birds are social and don’t really care who their neighbors are…others are just plain picky! Constant experimentation was needed to resolve all these issues, but we finally have everyone situated and happy.

LIGHTING

It is extremely important to monitor the lighting in the room. If your aviary is in an area with no windows, you need to supply them with artificial sunlight (full spectrum lighting). Our aviary had a few windows, so we supplemented with a lot of fluorescent fixtures, and in some cases cage-top fixtures. In an ideal situation, you would want them connected to timers to ensure about 12 hours of light a day. Too short of a period and the bird’s breeding instincts will shut down.

Regular lighting does not supply the birds with enough UV light, which is not healthy for breeding birds. Do not overlook this issue!

CLEANING

Keeping your aviary clean is a never ending chore. Every cage is cleaned daily. Every surface is cleaned and disinfected weekly. Failure to practice good cleaning could cost you the lost of your whole aviary if a disease infects your building. If you plan correctly, you can make this chore very simple.

Moving cages is dangerous for birds sitting on eggs, and any disturbances could end up with lost babies. But you need to be able to clean in and around the cage. We solved this by using a few different methods.

When possible, we used cage stands equipped with wheels. We could then move the stand away from walls for cleaning, and for sweeping underneath. If a single case was not filled with breeding birds, we could remove the cage for additional cleaning.

Many of our cages were on wire shelves. You can get these at most hardware stores. They come in lengths up to 12 feet, and are 20 inches wide. They are not expensive at all! By removing the cages from the shelf, you can clean the shelf and wall very easily. And since the bottom row is several inches above the floor, you can easily sweep and mop without disturbing them.

Speaking of walls…bird poop and wall paint do not like each other! Look for wall coverings that will be easy to clean and disinfect. Yes, it’s going to cost you more, but the convenience will be worth it.

SINKS

Get a couple of laundry sinks installed (if possible). In our aviary, we also equipped it with a long hose that could be used for filling up bird baths and dishes. The sinks were large, making it very easy to clean cages up to 24” in size.

Without a sink, you will find it very difficult to keep your aviary clean.

AIR FILTERS

Keeping the air clean of dander is probably our biggest oversight. And it nearly cost us our birds. One cold winter the furnace shut off. Fortunately, we had equipped our aviary with burglar alarms and a temperature alarm to warn us if the temperature got too high or low. We got a call from the alarm company about the temperature, and discovered our furnace had shut down. It was due to the filter being totally clogged with dander!

After some thought, we put together a home made filter that consisted of an old furnace fan, a wood box, and several air filters. The fan simply pulled air into the box, through the filters and then out of the bottom to be reticulated through the aviary. Their worked, but we supplemented it by taking an inexpensive box fan and attaching a filter to the back. This helped to circulate the air plus filter it at the same time (for summer months). We used a cleanable filter and vacuumed it out twice a week, as it would become totally clogged in a short time.

INSECT/RODENT CONTROL

It is a sad fact that when you have animals in a building with open food and water containers, you will also attract unwanted guests. Mice is a common problem, so you must make some preparations for this.

If you have a lot of seed in our aviary, you will develop bug problems. Seed is not cleaned very well, and the eggs and larva will develop and infest your aviary. Develop a storage system for all of your food. We were fortunate enough to find a huge source of 5 gallon pails with lids, and we kept most of our food sealed inside. In cold months the larva would be killed off, but in warm months we had to pay very close attention, and not have too large of a food supply on hand.

WORK AREA

This area included a counter for working on our birds, such as giving medical attention, clipping wings and toes, or hand feeding babies. It housed our brooders and hospitalization units, and our supplies. We also had a hand cart that we loaded with all of different types of foods and supplies we would need for our daily feedings. Each bird had different diets. Some on pellets, others seeds. We needed to have containers of fruits and vegi’s to pass out, cuttlebones, vitamins and other assorted treats. Having everything on one care proved to be very convenient.

WHISTLES AND BELLS

We also equipped our aviary with a television (mounted on a shelf high in a corner), and stereo with surround speakers. Then we got high-tech and added wireless headphones (so we could actually hear the radio in a room full of very noisy parrots!). It was just one more oversight that we didn’t think about while putting together our aviary.

I had wiring installed that would allow us to put in closed circuit cameras, so we could monitor our birds from inside the house…but we never got that far. I also had an idea of a Web-Cam being installed to share our experiences with the rest of the world. That was another idea that never got off the ground. But at least the wiring was there just in case!

At the time we built our aviary, we didn’t have the money for a skylight. On retrospect, we wish we had done that. The additional lighting would have been great, and it would have helped with some of our utility bills.

No, we didn’t forget our birds either. There was a location for a small popcorn machine (one of those small air-popper types). We would make a pail of popcorn to pass around to the birds (who loved it).

HOME MADE CAGES

During this time, we experimented with a number of home made cage and stand ideas. It started out using PVC pipes and wire fabric. The advantage was they were lightweight and easy to move around. They were inexpensive to make, as PVC pipes are cheap to buy. But we had difficulty finding a good source for half inch fabric, as most fencing stores and hardware stores do not carry it unless the wire gauge is very small (not good for medium size birds). This style of case proved to be a little difficult to clean.

We were then told about a company that sold plastic inserts so you could use square aluminum poles, similar to those used in construction porch awnings. This worked very well but got to be very costly.

We finally just decided to get commercial cages and developed a wire shelf system. It was much easier to clean, not too expensive, and easy to customize for our aviary.

CONCLUSION

By now you can plainly see that we are not the normal bird owners…we are very dedicated to our birds and our hobby. But we were also very successful breeders, and by putting the time, money, and effort into our aviary it made our work very enjoyable, and our birds very safe and healthy. I hope I gave you some ideas on building your own aviary.

[tags]home aviary, build an aviary[/tags]