Traditions VS. Modern: The Changes We Have Made in Avian Care
In the past 20 years, the ways that humans have changed caring for parrots is significant. We have learned more about parrot diet, husbandry, and behavior, as well as ethics. Science is studying birds more and more, which brings new discoveries to the table to implement in our everyday care. I know for me personally; I have been caring for birds for 17 years. When I started, my birds were in very small cages, fed an all-seed diet with peanuts, and I clipped their wings because that is what all the books said to do and what I was always told to do. Now, my birds are in large flight cages, on a fresh food diet, flying, and thriving. Although I am ashamed that I was caring for my beloved animals in a less than desirable way, when I learned, I instantly did better and changed their life. The goal for this is to encourage you to also do the same if you find you are stuck in the past.
Tiny Cages
Birds used to be treated similar to ornaments in a room. The birds would be placed in very cramped cages that they did technically fit in, but does not allow them to stretch their wings out and do a full flapping motion. Usually fixtured with one wooden dowel perch that was the same diameter across the whole cage, two bowls for seed and water, and that’s it. No enrichment or mental stimulation, and not able to meet the birds’ physical needs. Birds would become atrophied, develop bumble foot and other foot problems, and be shut down and have abnormal repetitive behaviors. Birds were also more likely to be kept in isolation because of a topic we will talk about later on.
One of our resident parrots Merlin, a 36-year-old blue and gold macaw, came from these circumstances. His cage was a 2 foot by 1.5 foot by 4ish foot high with a single perch and a single wood toy he barely used. He was fed an inexpensive colored pellet and seeds. He was extremely atrophied in his chest. He could barely balance off of his one perch because his feet would not bend past a certain point. He also could barely balance on a human because we are not still and he was not used to any motion of his perches. He was primarily kept in his cage in the main living area as the only bird. He also developed an abnormal repetitive behavior to self-sooth and entertain himself of mutilating his wings, bringing them forward in an unnatural position (because he could not spread them out normally) and taps his beak on the tip of his wing. He has done this so much he has damaged his bone in his wing and created arthritis due to the unnatural movements. He has greatly improved since being one year in a proper environment, but he will never be perfect.
To change this, you’ll likely need to get a size appropriate cage for your parrot. The majority of cages I see parrots in are simply too small for the, even the ones sold by cage companies marketed to be for a specific species. The general rule I tell clients is the minimum size for cage for their parrot, is at least:
Length: Double the birds open wing span
Width: the birds entire open wing span
Height: Double the bird’s entire length, including tail
Of course, that is a generalized statement. Some species prefer to have more horizontal room than vertical, all need bigger than these recommendations. But this is a pretty easy idea of the minimum size for each bird. I always say meet the minimum requirements and then go as big as you can afford with the idea that you will always be looking to make it larger as time goes on.
There should be a variety of perches available for your bird to utilize. It is in good practice to have at least 5 different perches that are different textures, diameters, and at different heights in the cage. Sandpaper perches are not recommended, as well as extremely textured concrete ones. This can cause damage to your birds’ feet. There should be ample enrichment available for your bird to utilize. Fluff and Feathers has their own toy line found here, and we also offer and enrichment class online found here. There should be at least 5 bird toys in your parrot’s cage as well.
Pair Bonding: NEVER Get Two Parrots
Another concerning mindset when having parrots from traditional mindsets is to “not get two birds because they will not love you.” I read this time and time again in books back in the day and never let my birds socialize because I wanted relationships with them. It was not until I got my first paid job at a rescue that believed in flocking parrots that I saw differently and the truth. Parrots are flock animals, living in flocks of about 30 parrots or more in the wild. They get strength and protection in numbers. They are a flocking species. They are highly social creatures, needing almost constant companionship. It has been scientifically proven that parrots do better in captivity with a companion parrot. Keeping them isolated can lead to damaging results, especially for the reason of “I want my bird to have a relationship with me.”
Pair bonding can be a tricky relationship to understand depending on the pair. Some parrots may be less social with us because they have the companionship, they truly desire, another parrot. But that is not always the case, and there is training to help decrease it. Referencing my own flock, I have had many pairs and odd relationships. My Sun Conure, Maui, is gal pals with my Pineapple Cinnamon Green Cheek Conure, Rosie. I can handle both independently and together. There were no behavioral differences except they do not want to be out of eye sight of each other and generally just follow each other around. Before Maui and Rosie was Rosie and my Maroon Bellied Conure Gus, who was a male and he sadly has passed. They also were the same as Maui and Rosie’s relationship with me. My other bonded pair, Yellow Nape Amazon JoJo and Orange Wing Amazon Ringo are a bit more complicated. JoJo never changed behaviors; Ringo went from my pet following me around to biting me. Once I understood pair bonding behaviors, and started working on training and building trust in the relationship, I now know that I pick JoJo up first, and Ringo happily follows with no bites. He also no longer launches at me.
Not every bird is a candidate for companionship. Because of current breeding practices, parrots do not learn how to socialize and communicate effectively with birds. Any socialization they get as a young age, if they get any with other birds, is only with baby birds… who also do not know how to socialize. Breeders put emphasis on the bird and human relationship. So, this is not e saying go out and get a bird, they will be better off. I know that every bird that I have seen paired have been happier and did better in captive care. This section was to put to rest the myth that your bird will not be able to form a relationship with you; not having a relationship comes from being uneducated on pair bonding behaviors, techniques of handling, and not having an effective training plan.
Dominance
This could be a topic in itself. “You must dominate the bird,” “the bird cannot be on your shoulder because its head is higher than yours which shows dominance.” Believe me, I have heard all the claims about bird dominance, and I am here to say it is untrue. The scientist that came up with dominance in behavior actually redacted their findings and claims once further research was founded. But it already caught on because it was marketable in the training industry for all the wrong reasons. It was fueled by money-hungry trainers and companies that created courses, coercive tools and practices, and easily marketable propaganda to continue the mindset; it is sadly still pretty prevalent today.
Having the dominance mindset means that you are more likely to use force, coercion, and positive punishers (learn more about them here). This allows little choice for the animal. Any behavioral modification shown using these methods is learned helplessness, escape/avoidance behaviors, and withdrawal.
Why does a bird bite more on the shoulder? I have never seen science proving that it does. Usually why it is most notable is because the bird has more access to very sensitive parts of our body on our shoulder. Our neck, ears, eyes, nose, mouth, cheeks, so on and so forth. Getting bit in these areas compared to your arm would be much more memorable and serious medically, resulting in more attention being brought to it. There are a lot of reasonable explanations to this. Did the bird loose grip and tried to hold on and save itself using say your ear? Was the bird uncomfortable with something and you were unable to see its subtle body language so it communicated with its beak on say your cheek? Misplaced aggression? Was the bird under stimulated? Those are all much more reasonable reasons as to why you got a bite from your bird while on your shoulder. I let my birds on my shoulders, the ones I feel comfortable with. I base who gets on my shoulder by the bird’s behavior. Are the predictable? Are they fearful? Are they more likely to bite (fight) or flight? What environment am I in, and who is around?
Improper Diet
The famous all seed diet and peanuts. We do not know a lot about parrot diet in regard to what the bird needs nutritionally and the percentages like we understand ours. What we do know is too much of any one thing is not healthy for them, and it will cause nutritional deficiencies. We know seeds are extremely high in fats, which birds need to burn off in the wild by flying over 20 miles a day and regulating temperature. But in captivity, they do not need so many fats, but still need some. Feeding all seeds is feeding too much fats. Peanuts are toxic to parrots as well. They grow underground unlike tree nuts. Microscopic mold can grow on the peanuts from growing conditions, even human grade, that will affect parrots unlike humans. It causes most notably aspergillosis in parrots. A high fat and sugar diet has been linked to fatty liver disease, congenital heart failure, obesity which can then cause an increase in pressure sores and bumble foot, and much more.
Instead, your parrot should be eating primarily fresh vegetables, supplemented with a high quality, all-natural pellet, herbs, spices, fruits, tree nuts, and some seeds. I recommend that seeds and nuts be used in foraging in the cage’s enrichment and not in the bird’s bowls.
Clipping Wings
This is not to go over the debate of clipping VS not. That is again a whole other topic in itself. I will note that not clipping wings can decrease the chance of your bird becoming atrophied and increases confidence, coordination, balance, and behavior, which is all scientifically backed. What I want to walk about with this is clipping wings for behavioral change. It was known to clip a bird’s wings when it became aggressive to stop it from being aggressive. What was usually done is the birds wings were clipped heavily and when the bird would bite, you would shake the bird off of your hand onto the floor and then “rescue” it, resulting in a step up and decreased biting. This has been proven to be ineffective, damaging, dangerous, and forceful.
By clipping the birds’ wings, you deny them the choice of flight; to remove themselves from a situation. It also does affect balance, which can increase biting. When they do bite, the method is to earthquake, or shake your hand to get the bird off balance. All it teaches is that you are not a reliable perch for the bird, and it will affect your birds desire to step up on you in the future. Now that the bird is on the ground, which clipping wings can make that fall life threatening if they are unable to land properly, resulting in broken bones (usually legs and the keel), or death from a broken neck or spine, you go and pick the bird up. The bird cannot get off the ground knowing it cannot fly anymore, there are giant humans towering over them and all the furniture is big, and instinctually the bird is more comfortable up high than down low. So, the bird steps up to get out of the situation, not because it is learning (escape behaviors). The bird may stop biting doing this strictly because of the use of a positive punisher (earthquaking) and the “progress” is just learned helplessness. It does not teach your bird nothing except to escape and avoid the consequence, and then the bird learns it has no choice and withdraws.
Instead, if you are seeing aggression, work behind protective contact and in small approximations. Lots of aggression comes from fear, you can learn more about that here. Contacting a professional trainer to help you if you are not sure where to start or how to do this is better than permanently damaging the relationship with your parrot by using forceful methods involving positive punishers. Fluff and Feathers has in-person and online behavior consultations and training available, and we show you exactly how to achieve your goals. All you have to do is contact us.
To summarize, there are a lot of traditional methods of parrot ownership that have been proven to be damaging to our parrot’s welfare. I am even guilty of using traditional methods back in the day when I did not know better. The good thing is it is never too late to change! You can teach an old bird new trick, just like as we age, we are still able to learn too! If you are looking for mentorship through this transition of parrot care, and for someone to point out where some new care techniques need to be supplemented, feel free to contact us! Doing these methods to this current day does not mean you do not love your bird any less, it just means you do not know any better! There are no excuses now; it’s time to change for your beloved bird!