Caged Bird and Parrot Thread!!!!

[Sydney65]

-Hello, I have many rescue parrots including 2 Quakers. They all have individual personalities and food preferences. My Quakers will nibble on some greens and fruit, but my cockatoos refuse to eat any vegetable matter. Just offer and see what they like.

Always have food available, free feed the basic pellets. This should never be withheld as birds have very high metabolic rates. This will cause more stress. We feed all our birds Roudybush crumble (budgies all the way to my umbrella cockatoo). For birds that don’t like other foods, this is nutritionally complete and we have not had any issues with our birds due to deficiencies over years of using this.

Treats only should be used for training purposes or reinforcing good behavior. For our smaller birds (including the Quakers) I give them millet spray balls every time they go back inside their cages when asked…they know “Inside”.

Our cockatoos love sunflower seeds so this is only given as a training treat. Except when my husband gives them some anyway when I’m at work ‘cuz he’s a big softie.

I have found parrot books to be…well they are in the garbage now. Read and glean useful points but there is not only one right way. One author kept all her birds with clipped wings and insisted this is the only way. Nonsense.

Currently, all our birds are flighted. I did clip their wings when first adopted to avoid panic crashes into walls, windows and prevent injury. It also helped with training. Once their wing primaries grew out they were familiar with the surroundings, could fly safely, and return to the cage or hand for a treat.

One of our Quakers is very cage aggressive and I did clip her wings to prevent her from flying and attacking me last year. They have since grown out again and she is calmer when out of the cage (for now).

Quakers are extremely social and intelligent birds. Unless they are with you all day, they do better with companions. Initially both our Quakers had separate cages and they eventually decided to move in together on their own. Stress from boredom or loneliness will lead to feather barbering and plucking. Offer a bath (shallow large bowl or pie plate) and water spritzes often.

Quakers needs a very enriched environment with lots of toys (as do all parrots). They are the only parrot species that build nests and mine LOVE building. I have used wood coffee stirrers and most recently some natural vine.

Hope this helps and feel free to ask me any questions!

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Thank you! I'll check out Roudybush.
I've got the stirrers, the most she does with sticks is twirl them like batons until she gets bored and throws them down.

She came to us clipped. As long as I continue feeling it's safe/safer for her, I'm going to let them grow out. I did take her in when she started attempting flight, vet said no, they're too short & she's SUPPOSED to fly a little. I contd reading, and I'd rather she be able to fly than be hurt falling. So we practice flapping her wings & "eagle" to build up those muscles.

Her room is her playroom. She comes out the top of her cage in the morning, marches down the seagrass path to the first play area, which is a converted laundry drying rack in front of the window. I wrapped the bars with hemp twine and vet tape. She can look out the window, yell at the neighbor, the birds in the garden (lol-duck when she sees them fly over) & do her morning preening. Her foraging box is on top, various climbing apparatuses to lower levels with hanging toys, another "shelf" area with her puzzles.

From there she can step over to her pvc playground that I frequently rebuild to challenge her, & change her cage set up once a month.

She likes showers, and gets them often.

Now that I've reverted back to how I was doing things and free feeding, she's resumed training as before, but she doesn't seem interested in treats,she tosses them. Has no interest in millet. She does like sunflower seeds, they were in that 50/50 mix she came with that I pitched; the vet said no seeds as part of feed.

Though I've seen that she does like them, I have a fear of giving her sunflower seeds for training, I learned abt sunflower seed & fatty liver disease in fowl forums here & saw what it does to a 2 or 3 pound bird.

Only conjecture on my part, but I know that with guinea fowl, they develop their "likes" at a young age, & it's difficult, if not impossible, to get them to try new things when they're older. So if pellets and seed were all she got after weaning, and I've taken away the seed --? Maybe comparing apples to oranges (neither of which she' ll eat, or grapes, or...).

I didn't yet know tomatoes could be too acidic for them & supposedly peppers are good for them. The one thing she showed an interest in was mild salsa I was eating once so I gave her a taste. Boy did she chew me out for that, rubbing her beak on the twine. I guess she liked the color.

 

[PeaShack]

Thank you! I'll check out Roudybush.
I've got the stirrers, the most she does with sticks is twirl them like batons until she gets bored and throws them down.

She came to us clipped. As long as I continue feeling it's safe/safer for her, I'm going to let them grow out. I did take her in when she started attempting flight, vet said no, they're too short & she's SUPPOSED to fly a little. I contd reading, and I'd rather she be able to fly than be hurt falling. So we practice flapping her wings & "eagle" to build up those muscles.

Her room is her playroom. She comes out the top of her cage in the morning, marches down the seagrass path to the first play area, which is a converted laundry drying rack in front of the window. I wrapped the bars with hemp twine and vet tape. She can look out the window, yell at the neighbor, the birds in the garden (lol-duck when she sees them fly over) & do her morning preening. Her foraging box is on top, various climbing apparatuses to lower levels with hanging toys, another "shelf" area with her puzzles.

From there she can step over to her pvc playground that I frequently rebuild to challenge her, & change her cage set up once a month.

She likes showers, and gets them often.

Now that I've reverted back to how I was doing things and free feeding, she's resumed training as before, but she doesn't seem interested in treats,she tosses them. Has no interest in millet. She does like sunflower seeds, they were in that 50/50 mix she came with that I pitched; the vet said no seeds as part of feed.

Though I've seen that she does like them, I have a fear of giving her sunflower seeds for training, I learned abt sunflower seed & fatty liver disease in fowl forums here & saw what it does to a 2 or 3 pound bird.

Only conjecture on my part, but I know that with guinea fowl, they develop their "likes" at a young age, & it's difficult, if not impossible, to get them to try new things when they're older. So if pellets and seed were all she got after weaning, and I've taken away the seed --? Maybe comparing apples to oranges (neither of which she' ll eat, or grapes, or...).

I didn't yet know tomatoes could be too acidic for them & supposedly peppers are good for them. The one thing she showed an interest in was mild salsa I was eating once so I gave her a taste. Boy did she chew me out for that, rubbing her beak on the twine. I guess she liked the color.

If she likes sunflower seeds a few a day will do no harm, especially if she is well exercised and sounds like she has lots of out-of-cage time! We only dive a few a day with our cockatoos to reinforce flying back to us on request.

The problem is with people who do all seed diets. They pick out their favorite seeds and eat nothing else. Our umbrella cockatoo “outlived” her elderly first parents and at the end the widower was 94 years old, has dementia, and was only feeding sunflower seeds. She had vitamin A deficiency when we got her a few years ago, now all better. They burn a lot of calories with flying so a few sunflower seeds per day gets burned off quickly. Moderation in all things!

You are doing a GREAT job with her!