I'm going to discuss a number of different topics on this page. These are presented in no specific order, so please do not place importance on the order they are listed.
It is extremely important that you respect your parrot and that you earn his trust. Respect starts with you realizing that you are responsible for meeting all the needs of your parrot. This includes feeding, cleaning, and the physical (but non-reproductive), behavioral and emotional needs of your bird.
Never penalize your bird by hitting him or depriving him of toys, food, water or you. You are much larger and stronger than your parrot, hitting him, even if you feel you are being gentle, may do serious injury or emotional harm to him. Remember, he has that beak that can easily harm you, yet he chooses to be gentle with it most of the time. Remember, if you've done things right, you are the center of your bird's life. Penalizing your bird by placing him in his cage or on his play gym and not interacting with him for a few minutes is fine. Sticking him in the closet or basement for days or longer and isolating him from the family is not.
Allow your bird to make appropriate choices. If I open the door to Pepper's cage and ask him if he wants to come out, he usually always leaps (and I do mean leaps, if my hand didn't get there fast enough I'm sure he'd end up on the bottom of his cage) at the chance. He often doesn't even turn around and steps-up backwards onto my finger. Once in a while he doesn't step-up and I allow him this choice, I don't reach in and pick him up which I could easily do. At other times Pepper will be on his play gym or in his cage doing everything he can to get my attention and to be picked up. As long as his actions are appropriate (no loud screaming or trying to fly to me) I'll pick him up for a few minutes and play with him. Isn't that what companions are for?
By doing what is needed for your bird and being consistent in your interactions, your bird will learn to trust you. How do I know that Pepper trusts me? By the way that he'll lay on his back in my hand or on my chest, while for a couple of minutes I scratch his head, neck or throat area below his beak. When something scares Pepper, all I usually need to do to calm him down is to say "You're fine" or "Everything's OK". The way he'll preen around my ears, the top of my nose, hair, eye brows or fingers.
If you think your bird is sick, don't wait to take it to the veterinarian. Parrots don't show illness until they are very sick. If your bird is showing you that it is sick, it is a serious problem and may have only days or hours to live. Have the telephone number of your Avian Veterinarian and a second contact listed and available.
Protect your bird. Don't leave your parrot out of his cage and unattended. Trouble comes easily for these little investigators. Clip the feathers on your bird. A bird flying in the house is facing danger. Slamming into a window, door or mirror is bad, but flying out the door and not being found is worse. Many people believe that birds are meant to fly as they do in the wild, if that's your feeling, then don't support the aviculture process by buying and owning birds. No matter what you do, your companion parrot is not getting the same life experiences that it would be, living a free life in the wild. Know that many common household cleaning and cooking products are harmful to your bird and don't use them.
Birds cost money. The initial cost for Pepper, his travel cage, cage, play gym, foods, perches, toys, cage substrate, veterinarian visit and lab tests cost nearly $3,000. I average $100 every five weeks for new toys, food, cage substrate, or cleaning products. A yearly well-bird check-up at the veterinarians is $150. Add a few extra purchases here and there and it's around $1,400 a year to maintain Pepper. This cost isn't including the new vacuum I needed when my other one died after one too many daily vacuumings to pick up feathers, food, and other bird debris or the air filter listed below.
As my windows were closed in the fall, I began to experience allergy symptoms of itchy eyes and more sneezing than usual. After doing some research I purchased an avian specific air filter. The model I purchased was a JWR Exotic Bird Air System. On first inspection, this filter is more costly than other available filters. I believe in buying quality and meeting the needs for the situation. This filter has done that. This was the only filter I found that had multiple layers of filtering materials and multiple germicidal abilities. Having a filter that not only catches, but kills bacteria, fungi and viruses gives an added protection to my bird and I. The bottom line is the filter stopped my itchy eyes, sneezing, and of most importance helps keep both my bird and I healthy. I strongly recommend this filter for anyone owning birds. In the images below, see the amazing amount of material I observed that was filtered out of the air.
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Images of the JWR Exotic Bird Air System
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It's a small box that sits on the floor. |
It fits next to Pepper's cage.
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Images of the pre-filter
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Here is a new pre-filter. |
Here is a pre-filter after seven days of use. This is washable (recommended to wash daily) and reusable. |
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I've added a full-spectrum light to Pepper's cage. I decided on a FeatherBrite light and lamp. Based on the research I completed on full-spectrum lighting, I learned I needed a fluorescent bulb that would have a color temperature of 5000K or higher, a color rendering index (CRI) of 90 or higher, and produce these values 12-18" away from the bulb. The FeatherBrite bulb meets these requirements. The lamp is an easily removed or permanently mounted design that should fit on almost every cage design. It is available in different styles, shapes and colors. For your bird's safety, it has a 12" wire extender (seen below going to the left-hand side of the image) to limit the possibility of your bird reaching the electrical wire from inside his cage. Here is a link to the FeatherBrite Web Site.
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Here's the FeatherBrite Lamp on Pepper's cage.
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To allow me to better evaluate Pepper's health, I've added a digital gram scale to my expanding collection of "bird equipment". I purchased a model made by Sterling, that comes with a perch mount. I weigh Pepper each morning, after his "morning poop" and before he begins to eat or drink. I weigh him at least twice each time, to verify the accuracy of the weight and I maintain a record of his weight. I've found that Pepper's weight has ranged from a low of 134 grams to a high of 141 grams. If you obtain a scale be sure it is digital, has a safe surface or perch for your bird to be on when weighing, and measures in one gram units. Many units measure in two gram units, which on a small bird is too large of a possible margin of error.
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Here's the Sterling scale I use.
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Beware the morning poop. Nobody told me that birds are biological weapons in the morning. To avoid being detected while sleeping, birds do not release their body wastes during the night. Pepper holds this in until his cage is uncovered and he's placed on his play gym. Then usually within a minute, he lets loose his wastes. Needless to say for a bird that tends to go every 20 minutes, not going for ten or more hours overnight represents about 30 regular releases of waste. It's always more solid than liquid, so it's easily cleaned up with a folded paper towel.
When talking to others about your bird, use terms that are regularly used by birders on bird forums, to show the special relationship you have with your bird. Here is an example of what I mean:
When I first brought Pepper home, he was the most beautiful little faby (feathered baby). Since then he's developed into a neat fid (feathered kid) with a great personality. Every once in a while he can be quite a handful, I mean what a little frat (feathered brat). Hopefully, I'm being a good parront (parrot parent) and raising him well.
I don't know why, but he reacts differently to wet fingers. Every night around 7:00, I wash Pepper's water and food bowls. Then before replacing his water bowl in his cage I offer him a drink. Once this is done I take my wet fingers and wipe off Pepper's beak. He always has a different reaction to being touched with wet fingers. He doesn't go into a feeding mode, but he's not sure what to do with the wet fingers.
When Pepper is very scared he does something unique. I call them fear feathers, but one feather, near the front and from under each wing, come out and points forward and down. This feather will stay out for a couple of minutes before it gradually returns to its usual spot under his wing.
Night frights are something I've read about in Cockatiels. This is when, during the night, they thrash around banging into the sides of their cage. To avoid this possible situation, I always leave a night light on in Pepper's room and only partially cover his cage so that he can hide or be in a position to look out. On the night of July 10, 2006, Pepper had a night fright. At a little after 1:00am I was woken-up by Pepper screaming and crashing around in his cage. I ran to his room and he was in a major panic, attempting to fly from side to side in his cage crashing into the sides and bottom of his cage. I immediately opened his cage in an attempt to calm him down. I got one hand on him before he ran up my arm and jumped over my shoulder. Though his wing trim was mild enough that he could flap and glide to the ground, he crashed onto the floor. I got down on the floor and attempted to calm Pepper, but it took about a minute for me to calm him enough to stop flapping around. For a couple of minutes he was breathing so hard that I could easily hear the air going in and out of his nares. It was a hot night and all this exertion made his body temperature rise. It took nearly an hour, with me holding him in front of a low blowing fan, to cool down to his normal body temperature. During this time he continued to show some distress with his breathing and held his wings away from his body. After an hour, when I was sure Pepper was doing much better, I placed him back in his cage, then turned on another low wattage light. I spent another hour sitting in the next room, about six feet away from Pepper, making sure everything was going OK. While waiting I did some quick searching on the Internet for information on "night fright" and "senegal parrot". After this and a few other searches, I was sure I had done the right things in helping Pepper. The next day, I collected 31 flight and tail feathers (see image below) that had been lost during his night fright. I also discovered what I thought was the cause of his night fright. I found a piece of a hanging toy on the bottom of his cage, that I hadn't seen there the day before. I think it must have dropped during the night, though small, it is heavy and metal, which probably made quite a noise when it hit the grate on the bottom of his cage.
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Here's a photo of the feathers Pepper lost during his "Night Fright" on July 10, 2006. |
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After sorting these feathers, taking the photo, then disposing of the feathers, I realized that some of the feathers on the left-hand side are probably tail feathers, not wing feathers . . . sorry.
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Every once in a while Pepper makes me laugh when he turns into a vampire bird. As I've previously said, if Pepper sees something, he considers it his. Well, he has this thing about buttons. If I'm wearing a shirt with buttons, he'll casually move around until he's near the buttons at my collar, then he dives at the buttons. I know I shouldn't (the reinforcement issue), but I can't help laughing when he does this. He never bites me and always catches the button. We then spend about 20 seconds fighting over the button until he lets go.
Remember, if your normally loud bird is being quiet, there may be a problem. During the winter, I would usually get up in the morning, turn on the television (SportsCenter, of course) cover my legs with a blanket and put Pepper on the blanket. I'd usually have a couple of his foot toys there for him to play with. Well, a change of routine one day found me watching a VCR tape and I placed the remote control on the blanket before picking up Pepper. The remote control was blocked from my vision by a fold in the blanket and I forgot about it. Well, Pepper would usually be chirping and making all sorts of sounds when playing. On this day he kept ducking behind the fold in the blanket, a normal behavior for him, but he was totally quiet. After only a few minute, when I remembered the remote control it was only missing half its buttons . . . but Pepper had a happier looking face than normal, since he'd finally gotten one of my remotes.