The all night flight reached Manaus in the Brazilian Amazon at 3:13 AM. My old guide, Pedro Garcia, was awaiting my exit from the airport. He would rush me to the hotel, where I would shower, rest and be ready to leave for the field at 6:00 AM. My head had barely touched the pillow when the alarmed sounded. I rushed downstairs and Pedro soon appeared. We then headed along BR174 north towards the Waimiri Atroari Indian territory, stopping only long enough to have coffee and a ‘forest’ breakfast—tapioca, which is cooked pancake-style and has a similarly in appearance (though not taste), stuffed with Brazilnuts and Tucumã Astrocaryum vulgare. The food was bland but filling and would provide nourishment until we returned from the field.

No sooner had we stumbled upon the first stand of Buriti, as the palm Mauritias flexuosa is called in Brazil, that I stumbled upon the subject of my quest: Orthopsittaca manilata, the Red-bellied Macaw. Buriti grows in areas that flood or are permanently wet and the macaw has a strong association with this palm, feeding on its fruit. Where the palm grows and the macaws are not persecuted, the two will be found to be inexorably linked.

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Buriti fruit are chestnut colored and possess scales. The inside contains a yellowish pulp that is rich in vitamins C and A, oleic acid, tocopherols and carotenoids, especially betacarotene. The fruit is not uncommonly eaten. The stone is hard and floats, permitting dispersal. The fruit is alleged to have a taste similar to apple, though in the palate it is clearly oily.Tucumã is much more flavorful.

Buriti invariably grow in stands. I have never seen a singleton growing. Often the stand contains trees that are already dead.

From the time we left Manaus until we reached the Waimiri Atroari reservation, a distance of over 200 kilometers, the macaws were sighted almost continuously. As we reached a stand of Buriti, we would stop, walk around and irrespective of the time, would hear the macaws calling if fruit that were nearly ripe were present—they seem to prefer fruit that are not completely developed but which have already acquired the distinctive chestnut color. The macaws are always seen in groups; even when they nest they do so colonially.

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(c) Tony Silva

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Red-bellied Macaws are vocal, agile flyers. They vocalize while feeding to maintain contact with other flock members; when they fly, they usually do so in pairs or family groups, which leave one after the other. When they depart an area as a flock, the pair and/or family group formation will still be evident. They then call almost continuously. Birds that are feeding tend to allow a fairly close approach, except in those cases where the palm tree stands sits in water and they must be reached by boat or canoe. The macaws then immediately fly away. When feeding in trees that can be approached on foot, they will either move slowly until they perch on a leaf, where they can be difficult to observe, or they will fly away, circling back to obtain a better look at the intruder. In an open field I have watched as they fly close to the ground from stand to stand.

The Red-bellied Macaw is very common in the wild but in captivity it proved difficult to establish, even though when traded large numbers were exported. Part of the reason for the difficulties in establishing it as an aviary bird was its delicate nature—they would often appear healthy and thiriving only to be suddenly found dead. Diet may also have played a role. The nutritional content of itsalmost solely Buriti diet was never fully realized; other macaws (e.g. Anodorhynchus) are also specialist feeders but they adapted to commercial diets—not so with the Red-bellied. Today in the US and Europe it is has become very rare. Virtually none are reared in aviculture.

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Two flying Red-bellied Macaws. (c) Dave Curtis. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic.

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I had wanted to visit Brazil to observe what several Waimiri Atroari Indians had told me about its nesting habits. The Breeding season had in theory ended. The discernible young (with their cream facial skin and white stripe down the culmen) would be visibly in the company of their parents. This part of the theory proved itself quickly. I watched as pairs fed young. What I then witnessed proved surprising—but then as more and more research is carried out, the more interesting and complex parrots are becoming.

The boat had approached a group of Buriti standing in a flooded forest. The macaws startled and flew away but I quickly noticed that the urge to return was inexorable. I instructed Pedro to use the paddle and move away enough to allow the birds to return. They quickly landed on the top of the Buriti and attempted to hide. We waited. The birds became relaxed and soon the parents began feeding their weaned young. One then flew to a tree growing amongst the Buriti and entered. It could be heard feeding young. Pedro scaled the tree and looked. It contained two very small young. The Indians had been correct in their observation—the species nested more than once and the young acted as helpers. The same observation was made twice more that day.

For decades, it was believed that parrots bred in pairs. The young would fledge and leave. The following season the process repeated itself. Findings are now suggesting that the young may remain with their parents far longer than ever expected and that they take an active role in rearing their siblings. With the Red-bellied Macaws, the observation was possible because the distinctive facial area and culmen allowed the young to be distinguished. I have seen similar ‘helper’ situations in Pyrrhura conures. It clearly has no relevancy on finding enough food for the growing young, as Buriti fruit profusely and food was readily available. It appears that the rearing of the young allows key lessons to be learned.

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Because of the scarcity of Red-bellied Macaws, I could not duplicate this experiment. I could, however, utilize some of the birds in my collection. I took two pairs of Green-cheeked Conures Pyrrhura molinae and allowed them to fledge not only their young but those of two other species—Pyrrhura perlata coerulescens and Pyrrhura picta roseifrons—that were placed in their nest. The birds were left together as a group. They roosted in the nest and fed amicably. When the pairs nested again, all of the young helped rear the new clutch. There was no aggression, even though at night everyone roosted in the same box. The young could be heard being fed by birds that were not their parents.

Parrot behavior is very complex. Field observations can clearly shed a new light and may even help in maintaining some species in captivity. The WaimiriAtroari claim that single Red-bellied Macaws perish but that if a group is reared together, they survive. Could the fact that family groups are disbanded during trapping be part of the reason why these macaws have proved so difficult to establish? The answer may never be known.

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Title photo: (c) A C Moraes. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Rio de Janeiro in Brazil is, to me, the most beautiful city in the world: the forests of Tijuca, Christ the Redeemer, the beaches, one of which one inspired Antônio Carlos Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes to pen the song “Girl from Ipanema” and the mountains, which emerge from the ground as giant cones, makes for an unbelievable sight. This stunning city was the venue for a conference sponsored by the avicultural society ACPERJ & RJ, the brainchild of aviculturist André Ismerim, who is also the publisher of the glossy magazine Pássaros Exóticos. Between 13 and 14 of March, the conference room attached to the Rio de Janeiro Zoological Gardens was the venue for breeders from throughout Brazil.

I have been visiting Brazil since I was a teenager. I have seen aviculture in the country evolve from the stamp collector mentality of the 1980s to a world perspective with the highest level of professionalism at present. The amount of data exchanged at the conference equaled that which could be shared on any major world forum and revealed what I had known: Brazil is an avicultural powerhouse.

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André Ismerim. (c) Tony Silva

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Márcia Weinzettl is a biologist with 25 years experience. She has impressed me more and more with each visit, as her understanding of parrot reproduction and husbandry is envious. This understanding is based on solid experience. As an example, just during the past 8 years, she reared 51 Hyacinth Macaws Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus, nearly 600 Golden Conures Guaruba guarouba, and almost 600 amazon parrots of three species (Amazona aestiva, Amazona vinacea and Amazona ochrocephala), amongst a long list of species that range from Ara macaws to Yellow-faced Parrots Alipiopsitta xanthops and a difficult subject—the Red-browed Amazon Amazona rhodocorytha. Readers by now will have guessed at her level of experience.

Márcia´s lecture provided several interesting charts, all reproduced here with her permission. One chart provided temperature range and a feeding timetable for chicks. This information is summarized below and will prove to be tremendously valuable to breeders of neo-tropical parrots

Stage of development                      Frequency                                    Formula consistency

The above frequency is interpreted as follows:

Feedings

Per day   Schedule (hours)

The temperature and humidity she recommends from hatching until weaning is as follows:

Age                               Temperature                        Humidity

Márcia feeds the young 12% of the body weight and expects a 20-25% weight loss at weaning; chicks typically gain excess weight during rearing and must shed this weight in order to fledge.

Other valuable advice offered by Márcia during the convention was as follows:

• Understand that disinfecting hand-feeding instruments requires that they first be washed to remove food and organic matter and then disinfected. The concept behind this process is that food and organic matter can reduce the disinfection efficacy.
• Weight loss in an incubated egg tends to be less during the first eggs of the clutch. As the hen lays more eggs, shell porosity declines and thus weight loss will increase. This is an important consideration for artificial incubation.
• When fostering young, take into consideration the natural diet of the species. A lory for example could not successfully rear a Golden Conure, whose fat requirement is very high.

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Márcia Weinzettl (c) Tony Silva

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Alvaro Blasina was the second lecturer. He is the developer of the first canary plumage mutation developed outside of Europe. He discussed why humans keep birds and identified the reasons as follows: 1) for personal pleasure, 2) for financial gain and 3) for showing. The same individual can fall under one or all three categories. Finally he discussed the importance of genetics and that the corresponding breeding program must be measurable and subjective, with each person interpreting beauty differently.

Marcelo Lago spoke on LoroParque and showed photographs of the birds and breeding center. For those that have never been to Tenerife, the images kept them captivated. He participated at the VIII International Parrot Congress and described the convention during his speech.

Andrey Naves is 19 years old and very passionate about birds. Watching him talk and then visiting a collection was a tremendous joy, for aviculture´s survival depends on getting the next generation involved.He knew the birds down to the subspecific level and could talk about any subject—geographical variation, nesting boxes, diet, etc. Andrey shared his presentation with AyrtonPacca. They discussed non Australianlories—a group that is disappearing at lightning speed from both aviculture and the wild. These birds require coordinated breeding in order to keep them from falling into the abyss of extinction.

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Andrey and Ayrton described the interest in lories in Brazil but also the peril of hybridization, fermenting food and attrition from feeding them the incorrect diet. They are working on a conservation project with lories within Brazil. They discussed how 60% of the Lorius lory in Brazil are hybrids, as birds are incorrectly paired. Their objective is to inform holders and to encourage breeding by bringing together isolated individuals of the same species to form pairs.

Several others lectured at the conference but the venue being in the Rio de Janeiro Zoological Gardens, I kept escaping to see the birds, mammals and reptiles. Two memorable birds come to mind: the Harpy Eagles and a pair of Lear´s Macaws Anodorhynchus leari on display in an enclosure that duplicates their cliff face nesting grounds.

This was the second conference. It doubled the attendance from the one held last year. The next one promises to be even larger. I hope to encourage aviculturists from around the world to attend and then to visit some of the collections in Brazil, where many incredible parrots are maintained.

So mark your calendar for March 2016 and set your sights on Brazil.

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Title photo: (c) HVL. Usipa Aviary, in Ipatinga, Minas Gerais, Brazil. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

After the essentials of proper bird care, the next biggest source of questions I receive on a daily basis involves hand-rearing. The types of queries typically suggest a misunderstanding of heat requirements, diet, hygiene and weaning. Many aviculturists also erringly believe that all species can be treated using the exact same methodology. My intention here is to significantly reduce the cases of morbidity and mortality that I hear about when someone with little experience decides to experiment with hand-rearing.

In this article, my goal is NOT to encouraging someone to take the young from their parents and experiment with hand-rearing; rather, the intention is to provide a framework for those that are intent on trying hand-rearing but may not have a full understanding of the process and requirements for success.

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A spoon with the sides bent upwards being used to feed a Senegal Parrot Poicephalus senegalus. (c) Tony Silva

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Hand-rearing was developed in the New World. The first written references to hand-rearing date back to the era of Discovery, when the conquistadores recorded that Amerindians took nestling parrots from the nest and reared them for pets, feeding them on a macerated mash from the mouth. Columbus acquired some of these birds and returned to Spain with tame Cuban Amazons Amazona leucocephala that were used in the processions that followed his first trip in 1492.

In the US, the proximity of the tropics and availability of tame young conures and Amazons from Cuba, Mexico and Central America is what I believe contributed to the refinement of this technique. Aviculturists saw that the resulting tame youngsters could become perfect pets and began to experiment. Harriett Lee, Velma Hart, Dave West, Ken Wyatt, K.C. Lint, Ferne Hubbell, Ralph Small and other early American aviculturists contributed significantly to the development of the technique and many of their principals are still in use today.

So long is the history of hand-rearing in the US that the first commercial hand-rearing formulas, brooders and gavage needles were produced and marketed by American companies. American aviculturists were already breeding from hand-reared young when European and Australian aviculturists were shunning the process, believing that the young produced would be inferior. Indeed, the ever-growing mountain of evidence suggests that when properly socialized hand-reared birds are merely tamer versions of parent reared young. As an example, hand-reared Scarlet Macaws are being used in the reintroduction program in Costa Rica, the survival rate being the same as in chicks fledged in the wild.

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Solomon Islands Eclectus. Females have a darker down and bill color, allowing the experienced breeder to sex them before the first feathers begin emerging. (c) Tony Silva

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This entrenched perception that hand-reared birds are inferior is still held by some aviculturists, particularly in central and eastern Europe—Spanish and Portuguese breeders commonly rely on hand-rearing to provide tame young for the pet trade– but even these stalwart central and western Europeans are rapidly converting to become hand-rearers as they realize that breeders from Vietnam to India, from Taiwan to South Africa, from Mexico to Brazil and from Canada to New Zealand regularly take the young from the nest for hand-rearing. During my last visit to Australia, in 2014, after a hiatus of about two decades, I found that hand-rearing was now a common practice. The same happened with New Zealand during a visit in April 2015.

Many factors can force the breeder to hand-rear: A pair that lacks experienced may not feed the young sufficiently to permit them to grow, inexperience on the part of the parents can often contribute to losses, illness on the part of the hen or young may impede success, or the clutch may be so large that the smallest are crowded out at feeding time and would perish unless removed. Some breeders do intentionally take the young. The reasons for this may range from

producing tame young for pets to the need to produce a larger number of chicks each season. With species that normally rear a single clutch per year, such as Amazons, the pair can often be induced to produce a replacement clutch if the young are removed at a young age.

Before ever attempting to hand-rear, I highly recommend spending time observing someone perform this task. So many variables can come into play that it is impossible to describe every scenario in writing. By watching the process repeatedly, the subtleties displayed between young (even of the same species) will become evident. This visual experience will allow the breeder to perceive the way chicks should be held—the head should never be restrained, or swallowing will be thwarted—and of the importance of contact points along the bill, which induce a feeding response. In neo-tropical parrots this contact point is very visual in the form of soft, bulbous pads along the commissures of the mouth. In African Grey Parrots Psittacus erithacus this is near the base of the bill.

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The next important step is to have the necessary hand-rearing equipment on hand. The list of items and some observations follow:

1)A brooder. Nearly all species of neonate parrots will require heat. As they age and they begin to feather, the chicks can thermoregulate themselves and supplementary heat will not be required.

A good brooder is a prerequisite for success. By referring to a brooder I am visualizing a professionally made piece of equipment that is calibrated, reliable and capable of maintaining a temperature as high as 37 degrees Celsius. A brooder is NOT a cardboard, wooden or Styrofoam box with an incandescent bulb for heat. Yes that bulb will generates heat, but the heat can be difficult to control and the light will keep the young permanently in a bright environment—an unnatural event for birds that naturally nest in a dark cavity or produces a nest of raddled twigs that is dark. Keep the young in a dark, warm, humid environment that is stable and does not fluctuate as a result of changes in room temperature. There are enough reliable brooders available at a reasonable price that the aviculturist should not improvise.

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Inca Lory Brooder

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2)Brooder temperature. The smaller the young, the higher the temperature requirements; the more feathered it becomes the less heat required. Behavior will be the primary gauge as to what is the ideal temperature.

My recommendation is to start newly hatched young at a temperature of 36.6 degrees C. This heat is required by most species. In newly hatched Eclectus Parrots kept at a lower temperature, the chicks become hyperactive to warm themselves, suffer bruising of the limbs and become dehydrated.

At the ideal temperature, the chicks should not pant but they should not be shivering. A classic sign of chilling is slowed digestion. When chicks are content, they sleep long periods of time. In a group they will huddle together, or stay slightly separate. As they age, the temperature can be reduced slowly. Once outside the brooder, we place them in tubs partly covered with a towel. They are then maintained at room temperature.

3)Brooder humidity. I recommend keeping the young at between 40-50% humidity. This will keep their skin supple. Humidity is an important consideration and in the wild is increased by adding fresh leaves to the nest.

If inadequate, the young can become dehydrated or their skin will begin to flake off.

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Title photo: Golden Conure Guaruba guarouba being fed from a spoon. (c) Tony Silva

Read also the first part of this article:

Tony Silva NEWS: Parrot Hand-feeding. PART I

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4)Comfort is in numbers. With very few exceptions, most parrots lay more than one egg; some produce very large clutches. Evolution has created a certain comfort in a group. We always keep more than one chick together—from birth to weaning. They will display a greater level of comfort and better weight gains than if singly kept. I do this even with species that produce a single egg clutch. The end result is a much happier young.

My goal is always to keep the same species together, but if this is not possible grouping of different genera is not a problem.

5)Nesting substrate. Except for the few species that nest in cliff faces, where sand is the most common substrate, parrots have evolved to use a wooden substrate on which to lay and rear their young. They produce this covering by chewing the slivers from the inside of the nesting cavity, or they can be seen carrying material to the nest. In the wild Galahs will add eucalyptus leaves to the nest, or in captivity pieces of willow, bamboo or palm fronts to produce a distinctive passerine-like nest. Other cockatoos will carry anything found within their enclosure into the nest. The Quaker Parakeet will carry more comfortable material into their twig nests on which they can lay and rear their young. All of this suggests that the young should be kept on an absorbent, comfortable substrate. We use a soft pine but other breeders utilize cellulose, dried crushed corn cob, tissue or towels. I prefer the pine because it is highly absorbent and keeps the young parrots, which are fed a constant dose of liquid formula and defecate continuously, dry and clean. We change the substrate multiple times daily. Irrespective of the substrate used, the key is that the young never be allowed to sit on a wet, soiled substrate.

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the author

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Over the years I have seen breeders that keep their chicks on wire mesh. The argument is often that the chicks would eat the substrate. I find this practice unnatural and prefer a softer lining. But if the young are to be kept on mesh, then it should be a soft, plastic coated mesh—never wire, which can cause bruising of the soft tissue.

As to the argument that chicks will eat any soft substrate on which they are kept and this is why the mesh needs to be employed, I must point out that in virtually every case where I have ingestion of the substrate it is a result of the chicks being hungry. Young whose appetite has been satiated will sleep long period of time; they will not be biting at each other trying to extract food from one another, or calling frantically trying to get your attention, or eating the substrate to satiate their hunger.

6)Water quality. Nestling parrots have an underdeveloped immune system. Water with a high level of pathogens will make them sick. Use bottled water or boil the water and store it in a refrigerator if your water is suspect. Wash all utensils with the same boiled or bottled water, or your efforts will be undermined.

Allow me to explain why I always stress good water quality. Earlier this year I visited a breeder that was doing everything right—except that the instruments used for feeding the young and the formula preparation bowls were being washed with tap water. The accoutrements were apparently allowed to air dry and this was believed to have a sterilizing effect. But it was not; had the utensils been exposed to the sun, perhaps then the pathogens would have died. When I recommended that the instruments be cultured, the breeder was hesitant, but at my insistence swabs were taken from inside the syringes used for feeding the young. The culture plates showed a heavy growth of coliform bacteria within the day. It was this bacteria that was the direct cause of the morbidity in the collection.

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Three day old Golden Conure. This is the same chick in the photo that shows it feathered out. The closed ear opening and bulbous pads along the rear cutting edge of the mandibles are discernible.

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7)Formula. With the ready availability of commercial formula preparations that only require the addition of water, I can never understand why some breeders still conjure up their own versions, which often display an improper vitamin, mineral and calcium ratio. The commercial formulations are balanced and have been empirically tested. For the vast majority of species reared in aviculture, they only require the addition of water.

For newly hatched young we employ a more liquid formulation, but as the young age the consistency thickens. We try to make the formula the consistency of porridge once the chicks are a few weeks old. We do augment the diet with peanut butter for macaws and Golden Conures, two species that feed their young on relatively fatty diets in the wild, but apart from water this is the only addition to the commercial preparations.

The formula brand you select should be readily available. It is not good to switch from brand to brand because the one you chose is irregularly available. Select one brand, test it and if it does not produce the desired results after the young are weaned, switch to another. Ask fellow breeders in your country about their experience with a specific brand.

The formula should be kept in a sealed container preferably in a cool, dry place. Once mixed, the excess should be discarded. It should not be reheated. If you can, do not return the feeding instrument repeatedly to the receptacle containing formula in order to continue feeding other young. Ideally you should insert the feeding instrument only once into the formula to prevent cross contamination. This can be achieved by using multiple syringes for feeding the young: fill them all at once and do not refill them before they have been thoroughly washed and disinfected.

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8)Formula temperature. We try to feed the formula at 40 deg C. At this temperature chicks readily accept the formula. Cool food will be rejected; the young will barely swallow the formulation, except when they are gavage fed, when they have little control of their intake. If it the formula is too hot, the chick´s mouth and crop will be burned. When heated in a microwave understand that hot spots will be created and that the formula temperature will continue to increase after removal from the microwave. Boiling water using a conventional pot or even the microwave, mixing the heated water with the formula and then stirring the preparation until the desired temperature and consistency has been attained is the ideal preparation mode. Also, buy a good calibrated thermometer—do not rely on you finger, palm or the back of the hand. Visit any professional cook and you will see how tolerant they can be of heat and you will understand that the finger, palm or hand are not an accurate gauge!

9)Feeding tools. Plastic pipettes and droppers with the tip cut at an angle, stainless gavage needles attached to a syringe, syringes of various types with or without a piece of catheter tube, a spoon with the sides bent upwards to form a funnel and even a ketchup bottle with a piece of catheter attached to the tip can all be used for rearing young. After having tried every imaginable tool (including a meat baster, straw and crimped can), I have settled on two: a small demitasse spoon with the sides bent upwards for newly hatched chicks, as this is natural and encourages feeding; as the sides of the spoon comes in contact with the commissures of the mouth, the chick will begin to pump. After about a week we employ a stainless steel catheter attached to a syringe. We have different gavage needles and utilize the one most suitable for the particular young.

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READ THE NEXT PART OF THIS ARTICLE ON THE NEXT WEDNESDAY!!!

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Title photo: Blue-naped Parrot (also known as the Blue-crowned Green Parrot, Luzon Parrot, and the Philippine Green Parrot). Photograph of three chick. (c) TJ Lin. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.

My daily routine is always the same: I wake up, brush my teeth, make a cup of coffee and then read emails. Each day without failure I receive at least one email asking the same question: “Sir could you provide some tips for breeding.” The questions come from India, Pakistan, Egypt, China, Taiwan, Brazil, across Europe, the US and the rest of the globe. Everyone expects a miracle formula, a simple recipe for success. My response is almost invariably the same.

Parrot breeding cannot be seen as a cooking recipe. You do not add a little of this and a little of that and expect the same outcome. Many variables come into play, including weather, humidity, diet, water quality, housing, the physical condition of the birds and much more. This is why parrots are as valuable as they are. If they bred like chickens, where the science is defined, they would be priced like chickens. They are not and this reflects the fact that breeding them is not as simple as many hope it can be.

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A breeding pair of Thick-billed Parrots sitting on the nestbox (c) just chaos. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

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When I discuss parrot breeding in a lecture, I define this as being 50% science and 50% the mental well being of the bird. You can provide a pair of birds the best diet, the ideal nest and a huge aviary but if are stressed, bored or mentally feel that conditions for success are poor and they will simply not breed. Likewise, provide a mentally challenging environment where enrichment is provided on a daily basis and there is little stress but the diet is poor or the water quality is suspect and contributions to subclinical illness and breeding will be evasive. It is the sum of the total that contributes to success. When I see a chick in a breeder´s collection I am viewing the result of that sum total.

So let me discuss the elements for success.

Healthy birds will breed; ill birds will not. It is that simple. Insuring that the flock enters the breeding season without any illness is important. I personally observe each one of my birds daily. This is the step that follows reviewing the daily influx of emails. We take random cultures of the flock and pay particular attention to hygiene and water quality. We make sure the water the birds receive is better than that normally available in a home. The bowls are scrubbed daily and cleaning in an ongoing activity. I point this out because I have often visited collections with very poor breeding results. When I forced the issue, cultures of the water and birds were taken. The results invariably showed a mass growth of gram-negative bacteria. In some of these collections results improved a thousand fold when hygiene and water quality were addressed.

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Diet is another extremely important component for success. Diet must also be seen as species specific; it is impossible to have a diet that is identically the same for every individual in a diverse collection; the diet can only be the same if all of the species bred have a similar dietary requirement, but very few collections specialize in just a few species. Diet must also be varied depending on time of year and on the location of the breeder. Allow me to explain.

In south Florida, our winters are benign. We may get a few chilly days but the sun will invariably rise and warm up the environment after a few days at most. We thus do not need to provide our birds with a fatty diet every day in order for them to produce the energy necessary for maintaining the body warm. On those few chilly days, we do provide some seeds even to species prone to obesity, including Galahs Eolophus roseicapillus and Amazons, but that is all.

A breeder in the Czech Republic on the other hand has harsh elements to cope with if the birds have access to the outdoors in winter or if the shelter is not kept warm enough on cold days. They will need to provide their birds with a diet overall much higher in fat in winter in order for the flock to cope with the elements.

In south Florida, we normally give a spartan, low fat diet to the birds in winter, except when the mercury drops. We do this for two reasons: to stop all breeding, so that we can take a break from the intensity of hand-rearing, and to prepare for a dietary change before the onset of spring. The Czech breeder cannot follow this regimen. That breeder can reduce the amount of fruits and vegetables in winter to lower the moisture content in the food during winter but he or she cannot drop the fat content intended to create a dramatic change in spring to prepare the birds for breeding.

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sunflower is very rich in fat content

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Why do I regard this fat variance important? Many years ago I collected crop contents from adults and chicks in South America to better understand elements that trigger breeding. In every case the parents nested when certain fat rich foods became available. This fatty food was fed to the chicks. Subsequent work by Donald Brightsmith and Juan Cornejo have shown identical results.

In south Florida, the winter diet we feed most of our birds maintenance pellets (which contain a lower protein and fat content), low fat seeds and whole grain bread and nuts, the latter provided to the macaws. Only the Eclectus Parrots receive a varied seed diet; we avoid feeding pellets to this group to deter toe-tapping syndrome, which arises when mineral and vitamin packed foods are fed. Species very prone to obesity receive a parakeet seed blend. We do provide at all times enrichment, which supplements the diet and mentally challenges the birds. The birds also receive some vegetables. This can include Royal Poinciana pods, palm seeds and Moringa oleifera branches, amongst other items.

Immediately after New Year´s day, the diet changes. We switch to breeder pellets, which are higher in fat and protein. We also begin to offer large amounts of vegetables, especially those rich in beta-carotenes; these include pumpkin, carrot and yellow sweet potatoes, which are steamed to break the fibers and make the nutritious elements more available. We also provide steamed broccoli, green beans, beets, cauliflower and anything else that may be available locally. Greens are also provided. We offer cooked brown rice with scrambled egg, whole grain pasta, cooked pulses (especially garbanzo beans, which the birds readily take) and fruit, especially tropical varieties including guava, mango, carambola, papaya, some varieties of banana that are not very sweet, Hog plum and other locally produced fruit. We also provide some temperate fruits like apple, grapes and peaches, though there are used only out of necessity. I invariably select the tart varieties or feed them before they are very ripe.

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In the wild parrots often consume fruits before they are fully riped. (c) Vipin Baliga. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

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My intention with fruit is to provide them before they are fully ripe, much as they would be eaten in the wild. (Wild parrots compete with mammals and other birds for fruit, so eat these before they are ripened to eliminate some of the competition. Because of this, those fruits tend to have a low sugar content and even toxic alkaloids, which the birds nullify by eating bark or other elements. Commercial fruits tend to contain very high levels of sugar to make them palatable to the human consumer and this is why we avoid all cultivars except those that are tart.)

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READ THE SECOND PART OF THIS ARTICLE ON THE NEXT THURSDAY!

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Title photo: Jardine’s Parrot (also known as the Red-fronted Parrot). Two in a cage with nestbox. (c) TJ Lin. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.

Read also the first part of this article:

Tony Silva NEWS: How to stimulate your parrots before the breeding season?

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We also provide a sprouted seed mix. This includes mung and garbanzo beans, popcorn, lentils, various types of peas, small sunflower, safflower, milo, buckwheat, wheat and anything else that may be available. You will notice that I have mentioned sunflower and safflower—two seeds that are deemed fatty. This is correct but sprouting changes the chemical composition of the seed and converts fats to much more nutritious elements.

The diet is varied depending on species. Galahs and Amazons, which tend towards obesity, receive more vegetables and sprouts and less pellets and cooked foods. The higher content in the fat I believe is sufficient to emulate the wild. The caiques receive more fruits, vegetables and cooked foods. The Eclectus receive primarily vegetables and sprouts, and the macaws and African Greys Psittacus erithacus receive many more nuts, this in order to provide the fat they require. We simply do not feed the same amounts of every element to every species but try to emulate the wild diet.

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Some breeders feed only pellets supplemented with the occasional piece of fruit. I find that this type of diet does not encourage breeding. I feel that pellets are a good addition to any diet but alone they contribute to eating apathy. Also, results of feeding trials by Daniel Gowland at Priam in Australia showed that a diet composed primarily of the best organic pellets does not contribute to the success claimed by manufacturer. On the other hand, when seeds were added to the diet results improved.

This change in diet I have described along with access to the nests is key to inducing breeding. The nests are simply not just filed with shavings. They are filled with chunks of wood, which the birds must chew into slivers or fine particles in order to nest. This activity—having to chew blocks of wood in order to access the nest—has a stimulating effect and emulates nature. In the wild all tree cavity and termite mound nesting parrots (or about 94% of all species) must spend time preparing the nest. Years ago I had pairs of Blue and Gold Macaws Ara ararauna laparascoped at the onset of the breeding and thrice duringthat same month. The result seen in pairs whose nest was filled with wood was dramatic. The gonads swelled and became much more active in pairs that had their nest filled with wood when compared to pairs who were simply given a nest filled with shavings. The time necessarily spent in the darkness of the nest invariably contributed to the gonadal development. The pairs who had to prepare their nest also produced many more fertile eggs than those pairs that were given a nest ready for egg laying.

Throughout the breeding season, we provide enrichment on a continuous basis. I do not believe, as some visitors have suggested, that keeping the birds mentally challenged has a deterring effect when it comes to breeding. On the contrary, I believe that keeping the birds mentally stimulated encourages breeding. This is why I believe that 50% of success is psychological.

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(c) TJ Lin. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.

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A breeder in the Czech Republic cannot follow the same protocol. Tropical fruits are extremely expensive or not available. Reducing the fat content in the diet in winter is not possible. Pellets there—as in the rest of Europe—are not widely used. A Czech breeder can modify the diet by incorporating weeds (including dandelion and others) that are vitamin packed and which we cannot growin subtropical Florida. Other items in this list include rosehips, hawthorn and rowanberries and many other incredible foods in spring. These along with sprouted seeds can bring a bird into breeding condition as quickly as can the regimen we employ. I know this for a fact, as part of my life was spent breeding birds in the US Midwest where the climate is cold, windy and inhospitable. There I used a long list of edible weeds, locally available berries and fruits, including crabapple and rosehips, the branches of pussy and weeping willow and anything else that during the course of daily activity I saw wild birds eat. I always felt that if the wild birds ate the items, they were also good for my cage birds. It never failed and I produced many young each year.

The single element that has never varied irrespective of where I have lived was providing wood inside the nest. I started this concept in 1988, after watching how wild amazons in Argentina spent several weeks chewing and preparing the nests. The daily activity changed from foraging to nest preparation. If this was an important element in the wild I felt it would also be in captivity. During the ensuing decades I have only affirmed this belief watching wild parrots from Australia to Zambia.

My more than 40 years as an aviculturist have highlighted the need to intensely manage the flock all year. The diet and nest are two very important elements but the psychological well being must never be overlooked. It is when the bird is mentally and physically happy that results are as expected. Good luck with this year´s breeding season to all!

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Title photo: (c) TJ Lin. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.

During the past few months, I set aside several of the questions that I received via Facebook. These were questions that were valid and of interest to avicultural in general. I believe that answering them in this public forum without mentioning the person’s name will be helpful to others that may be experiencing the same issues.

QUESTION:

My Budgerigars are getting smaller and they are now producing only one or two chicks per clutch. A followed this message with a series of questions, which allowed me to better understand the root of the problem. If the question concerns breeding, I invariably ask the person to describe housing conditions, the nest type and diet. Getting a clear answer on the latter invariably requires multiple questions. Usually the respondent will answer simply “seeds” or a “seed mix”. In most cases the birds are fed a millet, often foxtail millet and little else. This diet is skewed towards deficiencies. That the birds can breed and rear their young is a testament to their tenacity.

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Budgies flock (c) Anna Saccheri. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.

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ANSWER:

Diet is the foundation of good health. Provide the birds with a balanced, nutritious diet and they will prosper. On the other hand, feeding a diet that is composed of poor quality nutrients that are deficient in vitamins, minerals, calcium and other key elements and the result being engendered will be illness, if not death.

Budgerigars are inhabitants of the Australian hinterland, where they have evolved to survive primarily on grass seeds. They wait until rains come to breed, when there is a flush of unripened seeds, which are growing and nutritionally superior to the dry seeds. They rear their young on this bounty. If conditions are right, they will produce several clutches in rapid succession. They do not breed when food is scarce or of poor quality.

In aviculture, food (even of poor quality) is invariably available and this often triggers breeding, but the deficiencies soon reveal themselves: the hen depletes her stored calcium, dying from egg binding or producing thin-shelled eggs that break under her body weight when she incubates or the young suffer from rickets, look small, or many fail to fledge. The bird can only eat what is available in their cage; in the wild they can forage and even during the hardest of droughts can find some variety, but not so when all that is available is one type of seed.

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The foxtail millet represents mostly the base of diet for budgies. (c)Offlineinternet. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

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To produce Budgerigars is easy. To produce good quality Budgerigars (or Cockatiels or any parrots for that matter) requires a lot of work, expense and devotion.

In this modern day, aviculturists have pelleted feeds available, which are marketed as a complete feed. (I disagree and feel that the pellets or crumbles should be supplemented with greens or eggfood at the very least.) For those unable to buy this extruded food, they can supply a mixed seed diet. Various types of millets, steel cut oats, canary and other small seeds can be blended to produce a mix that is far superior to a single seed fare. This seed blend can be supplemented with greens. Spinach has oxalic acid that can interfere with calcium adsorption, but it can be fed once weekly without any detrimental effect. Endive, beet or carrot tops and many other leafy vegetables can be fed—and will be relished. Garden weeds like dandelion, sorrel and plantain are highly nutrition and will be eaten from the base to the flower head by the birds. They can be fed ad lib as long as they come from a pesticide and insecticide free source. Many Budgerigars do not readily take fruits, but many will eat a commercial eggfood preparation, or one can be made by finely grating carrot and adding to these chopped boiled egg, whole wheat breadcrumbs and fresh or drained canned corn. This softfood can be sprinkled with a vitamin supplement and calcium. Once adapted to eating this food, the birds will devour it with gusto.

Even after one clutch, the aviculturist will see a significant difference in quality in the young reared on this diet compared to those reared on a single, nutritionally poor foxtail millet.

Title photo: (c) Harsha K R. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.

QUESTION:

My macaws feed each other and mate, but they do not lay eggs. What tips can you give me to get them to breed? I usually question the writer as to how the birds are housed, what the nest dimensions are, how long have they owned the birds and what diet are they feeding the birds. In many cases, the birds were acquired only months earlier but already the potential breeder is distraught at not having had success.

ANSWER:

My response invariably contains the same starting sentence: If parrots bred like chickens, they would sell for the price of a chicken. This is the cold, hard fact. That sometimes a pair will breed soon after they are acquired is an anomaly. Most pairs require an adaptation phase, where they become accustomed to their new enclosure, new diet (as rarely do two people feed exactly the same diet in the same proportions), nesting box and their keeper. I waited 11 years before a pair of Red-fronted Macaws bred. They were wild imports that refused every nesting box that I could provide. Eventually they nested in an open-topped box on their enclosure floor. I suspect that they had become bored with my attempt to entice them into every elaborate nest imaginable, including one that consisted of three chambers connected with a small tunnel, the entire nest forming a large C.

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Red-fronted Macaw; two in a cage with a nestbox. (c) TJ Lin. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.

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The greatest virtue that a parrot breeder can have is patience. The second virtue is understanding the birds. They communicate their likes and dislikes, but we must understand their language. A pair that opens their wings, sticks their head inside their nest and screams is telling you that they are afraid to enter. They dislike their nest. It may be too light or too large or the wrong shape, or the birds may have entered and then quickly fled because of rodents.

To breed parrots, you need to have a pair. Behavior is never infallible. Two males or two females can bond, feeding each other, pretending to mate and spending long periods of time inside their nest. They should be sexed using a scientific method. Witching—suspending a ball or piece of crystal over the bird´s head, so that it gyrates or swings to determine gender—is merely a game of guessing. I have used this method on proven pairs and about 50% of the times, the pendulum swung in a manner that identified the bird´s true gender. In the other 50%, the witching proved wrong. Fifty percent is as good as guessing. Head size, coloration and behavior are NOT true guides. The pair also needs to be compatible. Two macaws that sit at opposite ends of the cage or never interact or feed together will probably never breed. They are telling you that they dislike each other. In my experience, they will rarely overcome this emotion to breed. I know of a pair of Scarlet Macaws that have been repeatedly surgically sexed to verify their gender, receive an excellent diet, live in a spacious cage and have a proper nest, but they have failed to nest in the 33 years they have been kept together. The owner is patient… but in this case patience will never yield results because the birds detest each other.

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Macaws in Balinese Safary & Marine Park

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After having a pair, diet and proper housing come into play. Each parrot species has its own dietary requirements. Macaws and African Greys require high fat diets. On the other hand, high fat diets will produce fatty lipomas (tumors) in Rose-breasted Cockatoos and cause obesity that will affect breeding in Amazon parrots. Within the macaws, different species have different fatty requirements. The Green-winged Macaw has evolved to crush hard, oil rich palm seeds. It has a high fat requirement as evinced by the diet it consumes in the wild. In contrast, the Red-fronted Macaw comes from a dry area where palms are uncommon. It feeds on pods, legumes and even shoots. They will take peanuts from farming plots but this may be a fairly recent event, as peanuts and corn were brought to the area by peasants to supplement their meager diet. These examples show that the same diet cannot be fed to all species.

Because I have described diet in the past, I will only superficially summarize that information. The diet should be varied, where possible emulate the natural diet (especially in terms of fat and protein content) and contain a broad variety of items—pellets, seeds, fruits, vegetables, healthy table food and, depending on the species, nuts.

In my opinion, vegetables should be offered in greater quantity than fruits. If you observe wild parrots, it immediately becomes apparent that they do not wait for fruit to ripen; if they waited for the fruit to ripen, they would compete with a myriad of other animals, including primates and bats. To eliminate this competition for a limited resource, the parrots eat the fruit when it is green, typically bitter or astringent and low in sugar. Besides, most cultivated fruits have been produced with an exorbitant sugar content to make them attractive to humans. Simply bite into a cultivated apple and then a crab apple and you will quickly note the difference.

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The Blue and Gold Macaw eating fruit at Loefling Zoo, Ciudad Guayana. (c) miguelmorales85. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

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Nests used by wild parrots tend to be small. There are exceptions, but these species are merely utilizing an available cavity. Tree nesting parrots utilize small, often tight fits. More than once in my wife I have found chicks in wild nests that would have been unable to fledge because they lacked the dexterity to maneuver out of a tight entrance hole. This is why offering a pair of macaws—or any species for that matter– a nesting box the size of a child´s bedroom is to discourage breeding. The smaller nest provides the feeling of security. We offer our large macaws nests 90cm (36 inches) long x 35 cm (14 inches) wide x 40-45 cm (16-18 inches) high. I have seen nests three times this size offered to a pair, who for years did as previously described: they would place their head inside the entrance and scream, or they chewed around the entrance, or in general avoided contact with the cavity. When given a smallest nest as described above, many of these pairs were inside within a day and three weeks later the females were incubating eggs.

The trend is to give pairs nests filled with shavings. I do not do this. After having observed a vast array of parrot species nesting in the wild, it has become very apparent that nest preparation is a nesting stimulus. The time spent in chewing and kicking out the excess nesting material has a stimulating effect. In my nests I place only pieces of rotted wood, which the birds must chew into slivers. They discard the excess. This activity replicates a natural behavior that induces gonadal development. In Moluccan Cockatoos I have seen a direct correlation between this behavior and fertile eggs, with previously successful pairs producing clear eggs if their nest was filled with shavings and they did not need to spend any time inside before laying.

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A Hyacinth Macaw looking out from a nestbox in a zoo in the USA. (c) Don Kasak. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.

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The nest should also be dark. I have never seen a wild parrot nest in a cavity that it brightly light. Darkness allows the incubating bird, the eggs and ultimately the chicks to remain hidden from sight. This increases the likelihood of success. In a brightly lit nest, on the other hand, predators would almost certainly predate on the incubating bird, eggs or chicks.

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Title photo:  A Blue-throated Macaw at Chester Zoo, Cheshire, England. (c) Steve Wilson. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

QUESTION:

If I rear a Sun Conure and a Green-cheeked Conure together, can I produce Sun-cheek Conures?

ANSWER:

The answer is simple: No. Having an understanding of the name given to a species can certainly help understand its background. The Catalina Macaw is a hybrid between the Scarlet and the Blue and Gold (or reverse pairing). The name Catalina Macaw is derived from the now defunct Catalina Island Bird Park, where this hybrid was first produced. Their developer, as a means of giving that form recognition, can name the hybrid or mutation anything that they deem fit.

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A lory hybrid parrot at Lowry Park Zoo, USA. (c) Marcus Quigmire. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.

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This year we inadvertently produced a very unique hybrid. In a flight cage containing Amazon parrots, I placed a male Illiger´s Macaw. This bird was accustomed to sleeping in the nest; the Amazons never sleep in a nest. The first night, the small macaw called all night, so the next day I affixed a small nest to the cage. I never worried about the birds as the Amazons were all males. The group included Yellow-crowned, Double Yellow-headed, Yellow-winged Amazons and a single Vinaceous Amazon, which I had acquired with an understanding that it was a male; the other birds had been DNA sexed by me and placed in same sex groups as I did not want any fighting. Overs months, the birds in the group separated into “pairs”. These “pairs” fed, played and roosted together. There was really never any aggression in the group.

This spring when I returned home from a prolonged European work trip, I immediately left my suitcase inside the house and went to see my birds. It was getting dark and I could not see with certainty but the Vinaceous Amazon could not be accounted for. The Illiger´s was in its cage. I had thought about getting a flashlight and looking, but that would have caused pandemonium in the birds. So I waited for daybreak. The sun had not yet emerged when I was standing in front of the cage. The Vinaceous was clearly gone; the Illiger´s was inside the nest. Something made me open the nest and to my great surprise the Vinaceous was inside resting next to the Illiger´s. The Double Yellow-headed Amazon immediately flew to the front of the cage and began to display with the Vinaceous, which had hesitatingly emerged. What the nest contained was my greatest surprise: a chick aged about a week. The bird was in fact a female and it had nested under amicable terms in the Illiger´s Macaw nest. Had that experiment been attempted it would have failed, with one bird or another being injured, but Murphy´s Law had not peered its head. The chick eventually had to be taken for hand-rearing. It was coined by a worker the Redland Amazon, this after the city in which I reside. I suppose that we could take that liberty as I have never heard of this hybrid pairing before.

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Lovebird (Agapornis sp; a hybrid cross between Agapornis personatus x Agapornis fischeri). (c) DEMOSH. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

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Now back to the Suncheek. It is not a hybrid but the pairing of a pineapple and a dilute. So rearing a Sun and a Green-cheeked Conure will not yield this coveted new form.

Over the next few months, I will continue to select a few questions and answer them in this forum as a means of sharing information.

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Title photo: (c) Derik Coetzee. This file is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.

Aviculture has evolved fairly rapidly in the past decades. This is evident everywhere I travel. The level of success in breeding parrots has also spread across the globe. As I write these words I am returning from a visit with Miguel Angel Gómez Garza of Mexico, an aviculturist who was the first to breed in the world the Blue-headed Macaw Propyrrhura couloni, the Maroon-fronted Parrot Rhynchopsitta terrisi and the distinctive Socorro Island Conure Psittacara brevipes. That three first breedings would be earned by an aviculturists outside the US or Europe would have been considered an impossibility decades erst. Not only is Miguel Angel a superior aviculturists, but he is also of the new breed: the serious breeder who studies his subjects in the wild and then applies the findings to captivity. He bred the Maroon-fronted Parrots in groups after studying the species in the wild and noticing that pairs breed colonially. He showed this to me during the visit, as we looked at a sheer cliff used by many Maroon-fronted Parrots for nesting. The birds were preparing to start breeding and could be heard calling continuously to each other.

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Three adult Thick-billed Parrots in captivity in the USA. (c) Joe Mazzola. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.

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Miguel Angel also bred Military Macaws Ara militaris and Half-moon Conures Eupsittula canicularis in colonies. Had someone told me in the 1980s or 1990s that both species, which can become can display aggressive personalities, would breed in groups I would have shook my head and stated that they were working towards a complete disaster. That point of view is much changed today, when we find that many parrots are bred best when kept in groups and that the young are often utilized as helpers the following breeding season.

My first visit to New Zealand was in 1988. The focus in the country at the time was Australian parrots, with very few foreign species. Hand-rearing was seen as some foreign practice and aviculturists focused on the local market. Earlier this year I was invited to lecture at the Parrot Society of New Zealand’s 25^th anniversary convention. What I found was a completely changed scenario. I spent time during my visit seeing the collections of Mary-Lee Sloan, Mark Davies and Davey Jones.

The best known aviculturist in New Zealand is Mary-Lee, whose specialties are lories (particularly mutations of the Swainson´s Lorikeet Trichoglossus haematodus moluccanus), Major Mitchell Cacatua leadbeateri, lutino Galahs Eolophus roseicapillus and Red-tailed Black Cockatoos Calyptorhynchus banksii. She is so successful that she exports these species worldwide. I have seen her birds in Brazil and elsewhere. In her home I watched as she hand-fed a Citron-crested Cockatoo Cacatua sulphurea citrinocristata. She, like many breeders, found that hand-reared birds can become suitable breeders if they are properly socialized when young. She understands that artificial incubation and hand-rearing can be an important tool to rapidly increase numbers when working with a rare species.

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One of Davey Jones’s Double Yellow head (c) Mark Davies

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Hand-reared macaws were seen in the collection of Mark Davies. While there, I fed his macaws the seeds of the Jelly Palm that were growing in the yard. Mark understood the importance of enrichment and provided these amongst other items to his macaws.

Breeding parrots is no longer seen as having a sexed pair, giving them a good diet and a suitable nest. The true aviculturist understands that the psychological well being of the birds is key to success and as important as a balanced diet. Enrichment is seen by many an most important psychological aspect. Breeders across the globe now provide their birds with fresh branches, pine cones, palm seeds, whole green coconuts, pods and many other items locally available that keep the birds occupied long term. These items do no detract the birds from breeding as was once believed but stimulate them even more. In my home, we recently planted a number of Foxtail Palms Wodyetia bifurcata, whose drupes the macaws relish, and also Moringa trees whose seed pods seem to be especially appreciated by the amazons. These will supplement the many items that we collect each week.

In Miguel Angel´s home, two pet Amazons have a mattress spring in their cage. This is suspended from a wire that can rotate in every direction. The spring is clamped at the end. Inside Miguel Angel places celery, whole hot peppers and carrot. The birds must work to remove the pieces from between the tiny gaps, this while the spring moves. I spent one afternoon watching and one bird spent 2 hours 13 minutes working at trying to retrieve pieces of celery from the spring. Had these items been placed in a bowl, the bird would have fed in 10 minutes. The spring required the same effort as if the parrots were in the wild, where they had to work to feed.

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The pied Red tailed Black Cockatoo. (c) Mark Davies

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The concept of social stimulation was like enrichment not considered important some decades ago.

During my tenure at LoroParque, we had an especially aggressive Yellow-faced Amazon Alipiopsitta xanthops female. She hated the male and would attack him incessantly. More than once he was brought to the clinic to have injured wing tips examined. He was the only male in the collection at the time, so he was my only hope for breeding the species.

One day, while watching a community flight I devised a plan. I placed the male in a long flight cage and once he had become comfortable in the surroundings added young Blue and Gold Macaws Ara ararauna. The macaws behaved as any juveniles of their kind: they were curious, assertive, sometimes pushy and always clumsy. The Yellow-faced male, which was always submissive, slowly became more dominant, challenging the macaws for a favorite perch or piece of food as they were introduced into his cage.

Once the male started displaying his assertiveness, the female was added to the cage. As expected she flew right at the male, calling and displaying. He did not have to back away, as a macaw intervened; he was not protecting the amazon but was curious about the new bird. Eventually the female bonded with the male because, as the last arrival, she was at the bottom of the hierarchy: she was the last to feed and was forced to roost in the least desirable perch position. The social structure of the flock was set. She could only change it by directly challenging the other aviary occupants or by bonding with the male. She did the later. The following year the pair nested and we reared a young.

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A Yellow-shouldered Amazon at Palmitos Park, Gran Canaria, Canary islands, Spain. (c) William Warby. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

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In New Zealand, Davey Jones has what I consider to be the best Yellow-headed Amazons Amazona oratrix magna I have seen. The birds display fantastic color. He keeps the pairs collaterally because the noise induces nesting. When I first started breeding Amazon parrots in the 1970s, pairs were kept away from sight and sound as this was deemed a deterrent to breeding.

MárciaWeinzettl of Brazil, a biologist who provides consulting services to some large collections in the country, also uses the concept applied by Davey Jones. During one warm afternoon in Rio de Janeiro, Márcia explained how the Blue-fronted Amazons Amazona aestiva she manages are allowed to see each other outside the breeding season, this to create a flock mentality much as would occur in the wild. As the breeding season approaches, the visual contact is blocked to prevent a male challenging a neighbor from attacking his mate out of frustration.

What I have seen and describe above shows that aviculture is receptive to change and challenge the established dogma to pursue success. I always stimulate new breeders to think outside the box and to observe their binds, stressing that the definitive word has never been written when it comes to parrot breeding.

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Title photo: Tony Silva with Miguel Angel Gomez Garza with the curator of birds at the Museo de Aves in Saltillo, Mexico

When I was a child, I was often told: You are what you eat. I hated vegetables and meat and favored, like every kid, sweets, cakes, pies and ice cream. We were always given a dessert but had to finish the food placed in front of us first.

When I started keeping birds, information on diet was very deficient. A sunflower or safflower seed based diet supplemented with a bit of apple, endive and maybe a piece of carrot was deemed adequate. Fast-forward 40 years and our understanding of diet for cage birds has evolved considerably. Today we truly understand that to own a healthy parrot the cornerstone is a good, balanced diet.

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A Rainbow lorikeet feeding on nectar. (c) Lubomir Tomiska

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For the importance of diet to be understood, we must look at parrots in the wild, where these birds feed on a vast variety of foods. In a study that I conducted in Argentina, Paraguay and southern Brazil between 1985 and 1989, I recorded over 59 items that were consumed by Maximilian Parrots Pionus maximiliani, 61 items that were eaten by Yellow-winged Amazons Amazona aestiva and 17 items eaten by Sharp-tailed Conures Thectocercus acuticaudatus, the latter only casually observed and not the focus of the research. The items selected contained the highest amount of fat when the birds were nesting, but otherwise tended to be eaten as they became available and then until the supply was exhausted, when another item was targeted. The list of foods item is not inclusive and over the years I have added many more. I have realized that bark plays an important role in detoxifying the birds, which as you will read later on feed on many items that contain toxins. If a generalization can be made in terms of diet it is that the birds never feed on just one item, but rather feed predominately on one and complemented their intake with the others. They are, if I can generalize, balancing their diet.

In my fieldwork, I have found that the parrots consume shoots, leaves, bark, buds, flowers, seedpods, fruit and seeds, occasionally a source of protein (lizards or even nestling passerine birds) and once the fresh droppings of Howler Monkeys.I have also seen parrots excavate grubs from rotting branches and feed on the carcasses of dead animals (namely penguins) and the hides of cattle sprayed over a rack for drying.

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My research in the wild has confirmed that different species feed on different items that only they target. Green-winged Macaws Ara chloropterus, for example, feed on hard palm seeds while the Scarlet Macaws Ara macao feed on the drupes of palms that are softer shelled, this because the biting strength of the Scarlet seems incapable of cracking the hardest nuts. This selection of different palm seeds allows both species to occupy the same habitat and not compete with each other for the same food resource.

In the wild, some foods may be available for much of the year but will be eaten only at a certain stage of development or at a specific time of the year, such as when the young are about to fledge, or only if other food resources become scarce.

Some of the foods eaten by parrots, when tasted, are very unpalatable. Copey Clusia sp. produces a flower that leads to a fruit, which is a favorite of many Purrhura conures and the Touit parrotlets. When I tasted it, I could not understand the fascination and attraction that parrots find in the astringent fruit. This plant is widely grown in Florida as an ornamental. Whenever my birds see me with a handful, the excitement becomes noticeable. What they find appealing is beyond my imagination. The same applies to Hog plums Spondias mombim, which the birds adore when green. During the short season it is available, I feed it to the birds. They quickly consume the bitter flesh and then spend hours manipulating the seed in their mouth. This plant is an important food resource for many wild parrots, which like my birds prefer it green and not when it is yellow or orange, flavorful, sweet and ripe.

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A Vernal hanging parrot feeding on Guava Tree. (c) Vipin Baliga. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en).

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To deter predation, plants concentrate toxic compounds in unripe seeds, fruits, flowers and pods. These alkaloids seem no obstacle to parrots, which readily eat these; the parrots cannot wait for the seeds, pods or fruits to ripen, as they then compete with monkeys, fruit eating bats and other mammals and with frugiverous birds for the same resource. The parrots nullify the toxic alkaloids by consuming clay or bark or even certain bromeliad flowers. How the parrots learned to consume these elements to bind with the toxins so they can be excreted is one of nature’s mysteries. (As anaside, the green seeds often sprout and research conducted by Pepe Tella and his group is showing that where parrots disappear, the forest diversity begins to wane.)

So interesting, complex and vast is the subject of wild parrot diets that an entire book could be devoted to the subject. For the sake of brevity, the information can be summarized as follows: parrots eat tremendous variety of foods, they are opportunistic (eating what is available) but may avoid certain foods at certain times, and the dietary needs of different species varies with the season or breeding stage, suggesting that in captivity no single diet should be used across the board for all parrots all of the time.

So how can findings from studies in the wild be extrapolated to the diet of captive parrots?

I will relate my opinion based on more than 40 years as an aviculturist and after having done considerable fieldwork in every continent where parrots are found. My information is light years away from being complete but it is providing some clarity as to the needs of parrots.

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Today pelleted or extruded diets are very popular. Many manufacturers of these composed diets suggest that their product is complete and should form as much as 90% of the diet. They suggest that if you feed other items, the nutritional balance in the compounded food will be compromised. Data suggests that the birds can survive on pellets and water. This diet is certainly far better than one composed of fatty, deficient seed mixes. But is the pelleted diet truly ideal for long term physical and mental health? Since most parrots are long lived, we simply do not know how pelleted feeds will affect their long-term health and through multiple generations.

There is also the psychological component of feeding a sole item. Watch any wild parrot and you will quickly learn that they truly explore their environment for edible foods and that they often spend considerable time extracting an edible morsel. The Glossy Cockatoo Calytorhynchus lathami uses a heavy, bulbous bill to extract diminutive seeds about the size of a pinhead from an Australian pine cone. Palm Cockatoos Probosciger aterrimus visit many Pandanus trees to feed, even though they could easily satiate their appetite in a single location.

Wild parrots spend hours looking for their meal and then feeding. Pellets can be swallowed without any manipulation. They erode a natural behavior of finding the food, exploring the food item with the tongue, rotating it in the foot and removing whatever piece can be eaten.

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Australian King Parrot feeding on the seeds of Coastal Wattle (Acacia longifolia). (c) Doug Beckers. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en).

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My second concern about an all pelleted diet is that they have almost invariably been manufactured from nutritional studies based on poultry. But parrots are very different from poultry, which have been bred for a condensed existence—a couple of months for broilers and about two years for egg layers. Parrots are longer lived, grow slower, are altricial and primarily arboreal—all the opposite of poultry.

Based on the above, I do not believe that pellets should form the sole diet, but rather comprise no more than 60% of the daily intake. The pellets should be sized for the species to avoid waste. The birds should be fed maintenance pellets which are lower in protein if they are pets; only birds in a breeding situation should be offered the higher protein pellets.

If pellets are not the optimum food, are seed diets better. The answer is also a resounding “no!”. A diet composed of sunflower, safflower, an occasional nut and apple or other fruit or one or two types of vegetables is terribly inadequate for sustaining a bird healthy long term. Some may argue that parrots have survived and been bred to multiple generations on this diet and I cannot argue with that point. During the 1800s it was believed parrots did not need water. Some survived a long period of time, but that deprivation was not healthy. I feel similarly about a diet of seeds with only an occasional piece of fruit or vegetable. This diet will eventually lead to deficiencies, malnutrition and without doubt serious illness, which may explain the reduced lifespan of parrots which have (and whose ancestors fed only) on seeds. Pellets are a better option to a predominately seed diet, but BOTH pellets and seeds require that the diet be broadened significantly.

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Mixed seed diets can overcome some of the deficiencies seen in only a single seed diet, but the problem is that many of the smaller seeds will work their way to the bottom of the food bowl, where the birds ignore them. In such cases, the birds will eat only the seeds at the top. Offering vitamin-coated seeds is in my opinion worthless, as the parrots shell the seeds; they do not eat the husk. Their mouths are dry. The vitamins thus do not get ingested.

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Title photo: Feeding parrots in Kuranda Birdworld. (c) Lubomir Tomiska

Read also the first part of this article:

Tony Silva NEWS: How should we feed our parrots? Are pellets all what they need?

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For those hobbyists that feed seed diets, my recommendation is to offer as much variety as possible and to limit the seeds to no more than 60% of the overall diet. These seeds should be offered in like-sized groups to reduce waste and selected to meet the nutritional requirements for the species being maintained, ie. lowest in fat for species prone to obesity like Amazons and cockatoos (especially the Galah (Eolophus roseicapillus) or fatty liver disease (like the Quaker Parakeet Myiopsitta monachus) and higher in fat for species like African Greys Psittacus erithacus and macaws that need more fat in their daily diet. For parrots needing fat, small sunflower, safflower, hemp and shelled peanuts can be offered one day, and assorted millets, oats, buckwheat, perilla, etc. on another day. If the birds will eat them, items like pumpkin seeds can be included.

For species prone to obesity, a few small sunflower and safflower seeds can be mixed with wheat, milo, paddy rice, popcorn, oats, buckwheat and other similar sized seeds as a treat. For both groups, I always recommend adding some pellets to the diet for variety. (For birds fed a pelleted diet, a few sunflower or safflower seeds are a great treat and should be included in the diet.) The pellets can be sized to the seed type being fed. For Budgerigars, a selection of millets (Japanese, red, white and yellow), husked oats, linseed and canary seed can be provided, the selection being varied from day to day. The intention is to offer as much variety as possible and to encourage the bird to eat everything.

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A 25-year old pet White-fronted Amazon (Amazona albifrons, named Eugy) eating red grapes in a kitchen. (c) Bobdagangster. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en). GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:GNU_Free_Documentation_License)

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For birds requiring fatty diets, some nuts should be provided. We give our macaws an assortment of nuts—walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts, almonds, macadamia and Brazilnuts. The African Greys receive cracked walnuts and hazelnuts and almonds. While on the subject of nuts, I am always concerned about aflotoxins in nuts but especially peanuts and Brazilnuts. This is why I recommend that parrots be fed shelled peanuts intended for human consumption and only the best quality Brazilnuts available. Where in doubt, have the peanuts or nuts tested by a laboratory or health food agency, or look online for methods of detecting aflotoxin contamination. (Aflotoxins cannot be viewed with the naked eye, smelled or tasted.)

The soak and cook diet used decades ago and developed by Dr Raymond Kray is still fed by some pet owners, whose birds are antediluvian. (I know of two Double Yellow-headed Amazona oratrixand one Yellow-naped Amazon Amazona auropalliata that have been fed this diet for over 40 years that look the picture of good health.) This diet consists of equal parts of cooked pinto beans, fresh or frozen corn kernels, dog food and brown rice. My concern is that the high levels of iron in the dog kibble could prove deadly to some species and contamination with pathogens is an ever-present risk. Also, spoilage is a problem with this diet if left sitting in a bowl all day.

Many readers will be thinking that my recommendations are laudable, but that their birds are addicted to seeds or pellets and eat nothing else. I get many messages with such comments each month, but I simply do not accept such arguments. When I was a kid, as I previously stated, I hated spinach and steak, but when those two items were served for dinner, I had two options: go hungry or eat them. I ate them. The difference is that parrots can be obstinate. They may reject the other foods initially, but persistence and ingenuity in presentation invariably pays dividends. In over 40 years as an aviculturist, I have yet to find one– yes ONE– parrot that could be coaxed into eating a broader diet.

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The Yellow-bibbed Lory. (c) Lubomir Tomiska

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So what foods can be used to enrich the diet? The list is very long and can incorporate items that may only be regionally available. As an example, we feed the seeds of ornamental palms to our birds as a form of enrichment and to augment the diet. All of the parrots will chew the fibrous covering and then play with the seed for many hours. But these seeds are not available everywhere. I cannot produce rose hips in the very humid south Florida where I live, but hobbyists in the northern parts of the USA, Europe and elsewhere can offer this excellent food sources to their birds.

Many weeds that are detested by gardeners can be an excellent food source. Chickweed, dandelion, plantain and many others can be offered whole, with the roots attached. (Look online for the entire list of weeds that can be fed to the birds.) The only caveat is that they come from a chemical and fertilizer free environment. I know of several hobbyists that never spray their backyards so that they can harvest the weeds for their birds.

Cultivated fruits have been selected to suit the human palette, which with each generation requires sweeter fruit. The results of this means that many cultivated varieties of apple available today have as much as 160 grams of sugar per kilogram of fruit. Just 50 years ago, the sugar content was less than half. The same can be stated for grapes, pear, peaches, oranges, etc. If you examine wild fruit eaten by parrots, few are rich in sugar and very rarely are they eaten when the sugar content is at its peak. Indeed, as previously stated, fruits are preferred when they are not ripe. As an example, in Seville, Spain, I have seen feral Ring-necked Parakeets Psittaculakramerifeed on the most bitter oranges imaginable, even though a sweet tangerine tree was growing nearby.

Cultivated fruit can be included in the diet but select varieties that are not packages of sugar. This means seeking out some of the heirloom varieties or picking types intended for cooking. Tropical fruits are excellent. Many have high sugar contents but they are nutritionally superior to temperature fruit and this in my opinion justifies their use. Mango,genip, papaya, guava, Opuntia cactus fruit, carambola, etc are all suitable. The list is long and again can vary from region to region.

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Vegetables are in my opinion an excellent supplement for caged parrots and are preferred over fruit. Hot peppers, okra, carrot, beets, greenbeans, broccoli, fresh peas, corn on the cob, pumpkin, sweet potatoes, jicama and many more should be on the menu. Greens including endive, escarole, spinach, chicory, the tops of beets and carrots, and many others should likewise be part of the menu. There are two caveats with vegetables: some greens (namely spinach, chard, beet greens and kale) contain oxalates that can affect calcium uptake and should therefore be offered in limited quantities (though never excluded) from the diet, and some vegetables are better cooked—the beta-carotene content in carrots increases in cooking and cruciferous vegetables (including broccoli, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts) loose their thyroid inhibiting qualities when heated. Steaming is the best means of cooking, but boiling can be considered as long as the vegetables are not cooked to a mush. When boiling, use the same water to cook brown rice, whole grain pasta or pulses, which the birds relish (see below).

Other food items that can be included in the parrot diet are cooked whole grain pasta, brown rice, beans (some, such as black and fava beans, spoil quicker than pinto beans or chick peas), couscous, quinoa and more. Whole grain bread, birdie bread (look online for recipes), nut butter (smeared on the whole grain bread) and even certain dry breakfast cereals can be offered to the birds; the latter should not contain sugar or hydrogenated fats and should be derived from whole grains.These items should be selected for feeding species requiring either higher or lower fatdiets.

Sprouting seed, fed when the sprout is just emerging, are packed full of good nutritious elements and are eaten by all species. The act of germination changes the nutritional composition of seeds, consuming fats packed in the seeds to start the growth process. We sprout seeds, including safflower, sunflower, various types of peas, milo, popcorn, lentils, mung beans and more for the birds and they generally eat these before other foods. When sprouting, the seeds need to be washed intensely several times daily and a bacterial growth inhibitor used to deter bacterial growth. Flowers, fresh branches, natural foods (palm seeds, pods, etc), green millet sprays and more can be added to the diet as long as they come from a pesticide and insecticide free source.

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The Vernal Hanging Parrot in ZOO Prague. (c) Lubomir Tomiska

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When feeding fruits, vegetables and cooked foods, two important points need to be borne in mind: they can spoil, so should be removed after a reasonable amount of time, and flying insects may be attracted to them. We provide seeds or pellets in the second feeding; the first feeding is invariably the long list of items mentioned above, which are offered in bowls that are removed after two hours. The exceptions are flowers, branches and natural foods, which can be left in the cage.

The daily challenge of every aviculturist is to provide variety to the birds. I normally sit with a pen and paper and plan the weekly menu, taking into account items that are grown locally and which are at their nutritional peak.

So how do you get a bird that refuses to eat anything but seeds or pellets to broaden its dietary intake? The solid food (seeds or pellets) should be removed at night and the fruits or vegetables or cooked foods offered early in the morning; cooked foods should be provided while still warm, which often increases interest and palatability. Adding items like cooked beets, which stain everything red, make the food even more attractive. This food should be left in place for two hours.

Offering new foods in the morning is important. The birds will be hungry at that time and more apt to sample new items.

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Feral Red Masked Parakeet (Aratinga erythrogenys) in San Francisco. (c) Ingrid Taylar. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en)

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The fruits and vegetables should be offered chopped. They should retain their integrity—mush if rarely eaten. I will never forget when the late John Stoodley encouraged me to feed my birds a mash of pulses, vegetables and some fruit. The birds had been accustomed to eating tremendous variety but outright refused to eat the indiscernible mash. When the integrity of the ingredients was retained, the birds ate the mix of pulses, vegetables and fruits quite well.

Bright colors attract parrots and should always be offered in the daily mélange. Orange, red and yellow are far more attractive to parrots than greens or browns. Beets and carrots are often the first items that a parrot on a will eat.

Finally there is the organic and GMO (genetically modified) issue that must be kept in mind. Where possible, I try to feed my birds organic, but not all foods are available from an organic certified source. There is also a study that showed that breeding was not improved by feeding normal versus organic foods. I am not so convinced about the use of GMO foods, though understand that in the USA these items are pervasive and try where possible to identify and exclude these from the family and animal diet. This is a personal choice and not a rule that must be adhered to.

When feeding, be creative, open-minded and go the extra effort. The result will be evident in the sheen and intensity of the plumage, the behavior of the bird and its general state of health.

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Read also the first part of this article:

Tony Silva NEWS: How should we feed our parrots? Are pellets all what they need?

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Title photo: Yellow-chevroned Parakeet (Brotogeris chiriri) feeding of fruits. (c) Jonathan Wilkins. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

It was 1976 when I first saw the species. In the quarantine of George Kroesen there were hundreds. The birds congregated in the farthest corner, each trying to hide. The facility contained more than 300 individuals. I picked two, a male and a female. The birds were easily sexed: the head of the male was larger and his eye was almost black, while the female´s head and bill was more proportionate and her eye was reddish-brown. The birds were brought home and released into a traditional flight cage containing a metal garbage can with an entrance hole cut into its side, near the top. The aviary was wooden framed; the mesh was 25 x 50 mm in size, 14 gauge. Almost immediately the birds, which had been wild caught, disappeared inside the nest. Three days later the birds had reappeared– they had chewed their way out of the cage and had reduced one of the wooden support beams to splinters. I had been introduced to the cockatoos—a species whose beak can demolish mesh and wood without any hindrance. To be more specific, the Umbrella Cockatoo Cacatua alba.

At the time, Cockatoos were the fad. A television program called Baretta featuring a cop and his pet talking, gin drinking, telephone answering Triton Cockatoo Cacatua galerita triton was airing weekly on American television. The furor resulted in huge numbers of cockatoos being imported. Breeders were suddenly introduced to species that were formerly unknown or very rare.

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After 7 years, when the Umbrellas had finally lost their fear and did not dive into the nest on seeing someone, I realized just how beautiful this species was. The male would display with the crest and wings wide open, would call while clicking his bill and would periodically bob. It was that year when they first laid. I had noticed that the droppings had gotten significantly larger—this is a sign of nesting, as the female holds defecating while inside the nest, and this along with hormones produces a larger droppings. The female also began spending longer periods of time inside the nest, so I decided to look. As I walked inside the aviary, she emerged from the nest and the two birds flew to the opposite end of the flight cage. I then looked inside the nest. There were two eggs. The next day both eggs appeared on the aviary floor broken. I had been introduced to another common cockatoo behavior: egg breakage. They clearly resented my intrusion and taught me a lesson.

About a month later, the large droppings were noted again along with the missing hen. This time I waited. Exactly 28 days later I heard a chick. A week later I decided to look inside the nest. It contained one chick, which was covered in yellowish down. The other egg had failed to hatch. The chick was taken for hand-rearing.

This early experience taught me considerable about cockatoos and sparked an interest that to this day is still strong. Cockatoos hold a special fascination.

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Two White Cockatoos (also known as Umbrella Cockatoo) at Binder Park Zoo, Battle Creek, Michigan, USA. (c) ellenm1 . This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en).

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The Umbrella Cockatoo is native to Indonesia, being found on Halmahera, Bacan, Ternate, Tidore, Kasitura and Mandioli Islands in North Maluku (Moluccas), with reports from Obi and Bisa probably being attributable to aviary escapees. The species occurs in the lowlands in primary, logged and secondary forests. I have seen them in coconut palm plantations, agricultural fields where large trees remain and in mangroves. The species is considered endangered. When I visited Halmahera I found that the population was still sizable but logging was removing most trees suitable for nesting and this I felt posed a major threat to the population. The second mitigating factor was trapping of the birds for the local trade, even though Indonesian law bans this trade. In every village I saw birds being kept as pets, some obviously freshly trapped. Most of the birds were tethered to a metal perch. I also saw how many Indonesian military offices boarded ships with one of these birds attached to the stand, presumably to sell in the next port of call.

Habitat loss and trapping are a menace to the long term survival of the Umbrella Cockatoo. The threat during the 1970s-early 1990s was from trapping for legal export from Indonesia compounded with logging of the larger trees. Post the 1990s the threat of habitat loss aggravated. Many birds (though not nearly as many as during the heyday of exports) are still collected and most of these are sold within Indonesia. Like with all K-strategist species (long lived birds), the population may seem to be large and declining slightly, but new recruits are not being added at the rate of attrition and this bodes poorly for the future survival of the species. The population is clearly aging. I have only ever seen one chick out of the hundreds of specimens kept on the islands. I suspect the harvesting of trees is playing a key role in this.

As an aviary bird, the Umbrella has as many good as bad attributes: It is imposing, hardy, long-lived, a fairly willing and prolific breeder, and widely available, but males can become aggressive, killing their females, even after having bred successfully for many years, they are destructive, can be erratic breeders, and can be noisy, calling (albeit less assiduously than Moluccan Cockatoos Cacatuamoluccensis) on full moon nights.

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As pets, Umbrellas tend to be highly affectionate when young. They crave affection and would be happy becoming permanently attached to their owner. They can also drive the household mad with their screaming, especially when left alone. This calling is intended to bring their owners back, who talks to the bird, releases it from the cage, pets it or picks it up. Very quickly these highly intelligent birds will realize that they can beckon their owner on will by calling loudly. By responding to their calling, the owner has unwittingly created a monster.

Cockatoos can become highly imprinted. On being acquired, they need to be trained to play on their own for long periods of time. I find that natural enrichment can keep them focused far longer than traditional toys, though feel that both should be offered. The bird can be shown an enrichment item or toy by its owner, who should play and manipulate them, attracting the bird, or alternately can place these items in a area where the bird can find them. I have often placed split green coconuts (the fibrous covering minus the fatty meat) inside a box. The birds often spend hours destroying the box and then the fibers of the coconut. Branches with the leaves are greatly enjoyed. Pinecones, spent paper towel holders with a seed in the middle that is kept in place by wads of newspaper, palm seeds and even flowers from the yard (if it is insecticide and pesticide free) will be greatly enjoyed. The list of play items is endless. Imagination can here play an important role.

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Title photo: Umbrella Cockatoo (also known as White Cockatoo) at Bali Bird Park. Whole bird with crest upright. (c) www.viajar24h.com. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Read also the first part of this article:

Tony Silva NEWS: Breeding of Umbrella Cockatoos. PART I

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With cockatoos, I feel that intermittent interaction with its owner is better than a set daily schedule. The reason why I never recommend playing with the bird at the same time each day is that this establishes a pattern that can be difficult to break. Also, the human schedule is prone to change. Having a bird that expects to be released at 6 PM every night can create a monster: if the bird is not let out, it may become frantic, calling or throwing things around its cage in the hopes of attracting the attention of its owner. Cockatoos many soon find can be incredible time keepers!

Rushing to the bird when it calls should be avoided, as this creates a trend that can be difficult to break. With all cockatoos, the objective should be to rear a bird that is independent, does not feel it is part of its owner´s physiognomy and that can adapt to change.

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(c) greyloch. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en).

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            Cockatoos are highly sociable creatures. The social structure of the flock dictates behavior and teaches tolerable parameters. In a flock the members can prevent inordinate aggression, rogue behavior and much more. A single pet bird cannot benefit from the rules established by a flock—foraging periods, play sessions, preening bouts and roosting. In a cage the bird may feed throughout the day, or may preen intermittently. The behavior of flying to and from foraging grounds is thwarted. As they come into breeding condition, there is no bird available for a mate, or a bird to challenge and threaten during a hormonal rage. This is where problems arise. The birds become aggressive, even vicious to their owners.

The individual will look for a dark area that they construe as a nesting site, which they can defend. Calling bouts will become longer in the hopes of attracting a mate. The bird is intent on breeding. Such aggression usually follows a period of agitation. For cockatoos that are mature, keeping any ostensible nesting sites out of reach—this means eliminating all dark areas and preventing the bird from going under the couch, behind a nightstand, inside a cardboard box and much more—and avoiding contact when the bird is visibly agitated are keys to avoid getting bit. Hormonal injections can be given by veterinarians to reduce this aggression.

I have several individuals that came to me because of their aggressive nature. I can handle all of them. I simply avoid giving them access to anything that they could perceived as a nesting site, avoid all contact when they are agitated (and this means keeping them caged during these periods), spraying with a fine mist when the birds are in a hormonal rage to distract their attention and insuring that they have plenty of enrichment to keep them occupied. When the owner is observant, even the most aggressive male can be managed and kept as a pet.

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Two Umbrella Cockatoo chicks in Tropical Birdland, Leicestershire, England. They are being hand reared for the pet trade. (c) Snowmanradio with permission from Tropical Birdland, Leicestershire, England. his file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en). Attribution: I, Snowmanradio

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Aggression in cockatoos is seen primarily in males. Typically the aggression is directed at the female, which can be maimed or killed, even in long-term proven pairs. Usually the beak is the site of trauma.

Because of the aggression, pairs of cockatoos must be seen as problematic and their management should include all of the elements to deter mate killing. These parameters include offering a long flight cage, clipping one wing on the male to prevent him from chasing the hen, offering separate feeding and watering sites, providing a nest with a double entrance so the hen can escape should he enter the nest with an intent to injure her, providing visual barriers behind which the female can hide, and, in the extreme, bisecting the lower mandible.

If aggression can be controlled, this cockatoo can breed very prolifically. They can produce many clutches during a year.

Umbrella Cockatoos produce two egg clutches. Incubation lasts approximately 28 days. The chicks are covered in yellow down and grow quickly. Cockatoos do not acquire a secondary down like neo-tropical parrots and feather out simultaneously; in many parrots the feather growth is asynchronous. Chicks spend about 8 weeks in the nest and can take as long as three months before they become independent. Sexual maturity is reached as early as three years but averages 4-5 years in most individuals.

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Cockatoos should be fed a broad variety of items, though high fat foods should be avoided, as they tend to suffer from fatty liver disease. The same applies to hand-rearing.

Cockatoos chicks are very easily hand-reared. This means that most chicks are taken from the nest and eventually sold as pets. When being hand-reared, it is best to keep more than one chick together and to encourage playing from an early age. I have always placed fresh branches, colorful palm seeds and toys in tubs containing cockatoos that are just starting to feather out. This is to teach the bird to play and to desensitize it to foreign objects (which can make a cockatoo jump out of its skin). The intention is to prepare the bird for its future home. Imprinting should be avoided especially if the bird is to become a future breeder. Future pets should also not be overly handled.

Cockatoo chicks are simply cuddly, but they mature, produce powder downs that can create an allergic reaction in many people, can be noisy and difficult to manage. Only persons who understand the responsibility of bird ownership should acquire them. The act should be seen as the same as adopting a child—but in this case the child will never mature. The responsibility is truly great and unfortunately underestimated by many. This is why cockatoos are such a common species in rescues. Acquire one only if you truly understand the commitment.

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Read also the first part of this article:

Tony Silva NEWS: Breeding of Umbrella Cockatoos. PART I

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Title photo: A White Cockatoo (also known as the Umbrella Cockatoo) at St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park, St Augustine, Florida, USA. (c) AdA Durden. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

Aviculturists that house their birds outdoors the world over face problems caused by the elements each year. In parts of Europe breeders in winter can face prolonged freeze with high winds that cause mortalities if the birds are not given adequate protection, with frostbite being a pernicious problem, followed by the inability of the bird to maintain their core body warm. The aviculturists protect the birds by covering the outside of the aviaries with plastic, offer shelters that may or may not be heated, and insure that the bird receive sufficient fat for thermoregulation. Sunflower seeds, safflower and nuts are an important dietary component in cold weather.

Once I met an aviculturist in southern Argentina who offered his Quaker Parakeets Myiopsitta monachus suet (animal fat) that had been kneaded with seeds. This fatty mass was placed in a bowl in the aviaries. The birds consumed large quantities of the suet. I asked if the high fat would not cause mortality in a species that can suffer from obesity and fatty liver and he responded in the negative, that the birds in parts of the southern extremity of the range do the same by feeding on cattle hides placed over wire to dry, the birds picking at bits of fat and flesh during the coldest days. He had never lost a bird but provided the excessively fatty suet only during the heart of winter.

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Sunflower seeds are one of the most common sources of fat used for parrots.

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Aviculturists in the tropics are not safe from inclement weather. In south Florida, the rains can wet the food, which can spoil or quickly ferment if they become wet. Every feed bowl in my collection is encased in a metal box, but occasionally the rain can be blown in a horizontal fashion and can wet the foods. The pellets within hours of becoming wet grow bacteria and the seeds become a mushy soup, which sours quickly. If the birds feed on these foods, the likelihood of bacterial infection is great.

Keeping birds housed outdoors warm is easier than keeping them cool. In winter, as described above, several measures can be implemented very easily, but the sweltering heat, constant downpours and accumulating water can bring about serious health conditions or even death from overheating.

So far this month I have received eleven messages from desperate aviculturists who have found their birds dead. In all cases heat was the cause. Keeping the birds cool is not easy but it is possible if the aviculturist plans ahead and takes the necessary steps.

Planting shade trees is the first line of defense. There are several fast growing trees that provide quick cover. We use Hog plum Spondias mombim, which drops its leaves in winter to allow the birds access to the sunshine, enters spring producing a fruit that the birds highly relish and provides cover in summer, when it is needed. The tree is also fast growing. The list of similar trees is great. Checking with a local garden supply house can lead you in the correct direction.

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Tony in his winter coat in front of the aviary in one European facility. Temperature can fall to -20°C in the coldest days there. (c) Lubomir Tomiska

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Providing the birds physical shade is also important. All of our aviaries are set amongst green foliage, which provides shade, but each aviary also contains a partial roof. This provides additional shade yet allows the birds the possibility to perch where the sun’s warming rays reflect in winter and to bathe in rain, if they wish, during a downpour.

Having proper airflow is important. This consideration must have been taken into consideration even before the first aviary was constructed. A cement structure with a wire front and roof may be perfect to exclude rats, keep birds from squabbling with adjacent neighbors and may keep wind out in winter, but it entombs the birds in a structure that precludes airflow. I would recommend that aviaries in the tropics always be constructed with as much mesh as possible to permit the air to flow in the heart of summer. Elevated structures are good because they allow the use of water in dry areas without giving access to the moist ground, which can lead to bacterial infections and aspergillus outbreaks.

Finally there are misters. Garden sprinklers can be installed over the aviaries to allow the birds to bathe and cool down during critically hot periods of the day, but the excess moisture can lead to the aforementioned problems. The best solution is thus fog misters, which generate an extremely fine mist of water that does not collect but allows the ambient to cool. Fog misters are widely employed in Europe in outdoor cafes in summer. Some are placed directly under the tables and others are attached to fans, so that the cooling mist can be circulated. The mist is turned on intermittently and allows the patrons to remain outdoors even during the warmest part of the day.

The aviculturist can employ these above the birds. They can be connected to a timer, or turned on manually. In difficult areas they can be attached to fans. Checking for fog misters on the internet will lead you to supply houses that provide these. They are favored over other systems because they provide cooling without creating a swamp that leads to bacterial and fungal infections.

The fog misters are not problem free. They can clog up and thus will require daily inspection, particularly if the water is very hard. They must be attached in such a way that the birds will not chew the rubber parts, and the water quality must be good. I state this because in many parts of the world the water can be of questionably quality. Using a storage tank attached to a UV system, or chlorinating the storage water, and then using this for misting is highly recommended, as the birds can and will drink from the mist. I recommend both UV and chlorination to provide double security. The use of an RO (reverse osmosis) system does not remove coliform bacteria as many believe. I recommend employing the same level of hygiene for the misting as the drinking water.

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Such aviary design protects birds from sun radiation. (c) Lubomir Tomiska

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Finally the monsoon can come with rains. The food will need to be kept dry, the birds will require protection from the rain, and all measures to control mosquito outbreaks must be taken. Breeders whose birds have fallen ill and display swollen eyelids that are often encrusted each year message me in a panic. This affliction is often attributed to pox, which is spread by biting insects. The best means of control is to cover the aviaries with fine mosquito netting, but preventing accumulating pools of water are important.

Some years ago I visited an aviculturist who was losing birds to pox. He repeatedly assured me that there was no stagnant water. A look at the large yard revealed otherwise. Saucers placed on the bottom of flowerpots contained water and mosquito larvae, the centers of bromeliads grown in the yard revealed many mosquito larvae, a trash pile at the rear of the property had bottles and cans that had water and mosquito larvae, and I found mosquito egg rafts in a gutter whose water flow had been blocked by dried leaves. All of this was found within a half an hour walk. He had clearly concentrated on large accumulating water receptacles, figuring that mosquito would not be produced in small volumes of water. That afternoon he learned otherwise. Clearly an ongoing campaign not only near the aviary but the entire surrounding area is important, insuring that every site be drained and kept dry.

Accumulating water is also a problem, as it allows water born diseases to spread. Make sure that there are no pools of accumulating water that mixed with fecal matter and spilled food, which attracts flies, engenders bacteria and creates stench. Remember that with parrots the first line of defense against disease is proper diet and hygiene.

So take the welfare of your birds in consideration no matter where you live and offer them the protection in summer and winter that they deserve.

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Title photo: (c) Lubomir Tomiska

Tony Silva has been cooperating with ParrotsDailyNews.com since the beginning. His articles and comments are very popular and we get positive reactions about his work from all over the world. That’s why we decided to start with “Questions & Answers series” where Tony will answer questions of our readers on every Thursday. So if you have any question you would like to ask Tony then don’t hesitate and send it by e-mail to our team:

info@parrotsdailynews.com

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You will get your answer soon!

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Tony Silva is well-known all over the world. Here is with Rafael Zamora from Loro Parque and Anil Garg, president of Aviculture Society of India.

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Bellow you can read more about Tony’s life:

Tony Silva became mesmerized with parrots when 10 years old, when he started visiting a pet store that displayed a Blue and Gold Ara ararauna and Scarlet Macaw Ara macao. The store owner claimed that macaws mated in the air and would not breed in captivity. That concept seemed incredible and sparked an interest that resulted in him acquiring his first big parrot by age 16 (in 1976). Soon the number of species and individuals grew and by 1978 Tony had achieved the first US breeding of the Slender-billed Conure Enicognathus leptorhynchus.

Tony´s curiosity, early success and interest led to more species being acquired and in travels to the Caribbean and South America to study parrots in the wild, as direct observations in the field were considered key to achieving success in captivity. Tony´s first significant field studies were conducted in Argentina during the 1980s, when weight and growth gains of hand-reared young were compared to young being reared in the wild by their parents. The next decade resulted in more species being studied and bred; to date, Tony has studied parrots in the field in Asia, Africa, all of Latin America and the Caribbean, Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific. Tony has kept and bred in his private collection or during his tenure as Curator at LoroParque 82% of all parrot species. His breeding achievements includes the Spix´s Macaw Cyanopsitta spixii, this while working with the CITES Secretariat and Maria Iolita Bampi and Celso Salatino Schenkel of the Brazilian government to establish the Spix´s Macaw Cyanopsitta spixii recovery program—a project that has helped save this species from extinction.

During an avicultural career spanning nearly four decades, Tony has had hundreds of articles published in seven languages, has lectured in all continents and has had seven books published, including the acclaimed Psittaculture, a tome that is being published in a revised and expanded edition very shortly in several languages.

Indian aviculture was seen as a blank on the world map until relatively recently. The perception amongst experienced breeders from abroad was that it was still in the Stone Age. That impression changed when in 2014 I was asked to speak at the newly formed Avian Society of India. What I saw I reported on in an article for magazine Australian AviaryLife. I described exactly was I saw: a country where aviculture had developed discreetly, was very advanced and engendered a deep passion amongst very many. I returned from India jubilant and honored. For me it was like discovering the famed El Dorado.

Aviculture in India continues to become organized. The Delhi Avian Club sponsored the most recent event on October 10. The goal behind “NIAM” (North India Avian Meet) as the event was called was to bring together like-minded individuals and novice hobbyists to discuss problems, solutions and idiosyncrasies specific to bird keeping in the country.

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(c) Mohammad Akhalak

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The one day event contained four speakers, all of whom I personally know and whose knowledge and passion for aviculture emanates from their pores. Two care for large, productive collections.

Dr Debashis Banerjee manages a large collection that has a strong focus on lories and lorikeets, macaws and Eclectus, though the collection is extensive. He is a dentist by profession and has a profound impact on every aspect related to bird keeping—from avian medicine to hand-rearing. He shared this knowledge at the event.

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(c) Mohammad Akhalak

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Dr Prasanth Narayanan spoke on lovebirds, including genetics and mutations. This softspoken individual has tremendous knowledge to impart. Earlier this year we met at the second Avian Society of India event and I listened as he discussed bird keeping with several hobbyists. He was patient and eloquent.

Sadiq Bhaimia is known to many hobbyists on Facebook and beyond, as he has a passion for helping. He provides advice to many keepers who do not have access to avian veterinarians. He has experience across many groups and understands the local factors that must be considered when breeding parrots. His experience with every aspect related to aviculture is freely shared and has made a difference for many Indian breeders facing problems.

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(c) Mohammad Akhalak

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Finally, Dr Rina Dev spoke on preventative medicine and the recognition of a sick bird. This information is vital in a huge country where aviculture is very popular and where the number of veterinarians interested in exotic birds cannot meet the needs of the population. This situation will change, but in the mean time the aviculturist must play a proactive role in preventing illness. Rina is one of the avian veterinarians in the country that is spearheading a focus on exotics. She is young, intelligent and knowledgeable, plus willing to help. These virtues will surely make her a permanent figure in the local aviary scene.

The event was well attended and left everyone euphoric. There is a follow up event for next year. It will likely bring together the best aviculturists and clinicians with the intention to again disseminate information that is accurate, important and a key to success.

Way to go India!

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Author: Tony Silva

Title photo: (c) Mohammad Akhalak

VIDEO IN – I recently requested questions from readers, so that I could respond to these in an open forum. From these questions two that would be of greatest interest to the readership were selected. The questions and answers are below:

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QUESTION: What aviary structure and components are best?

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ANSWER:

The aviary design depends on the species being maintained and local conditions.

Parrots can be maintained in many parts of the world outdoors, where they benefit from the elements. With proper protection and a shelter they can be maintained outdoors even in many northern climates (such as parts of Europe) or in desert areas. The key for parrots to survive in low temperature is to provide access to a heated shelter, natural wooden perches that are large enough so that the birds can cover their toes with their breast feathers and prevent frostbite, insure the water does not freeze and provide continuous access to food, especially seeds and nuts whose fat content helps with thermic control.

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In very warm weather, fine misters that cause a cooling effect and allow bathing and shade are important. In south Florida, where the climate is subtropical, we cover half the cage and have many trees all around to augment the shade. We also employ a misting system during very warm days.

Indoor bird rooms can work very well if hygiene is incorporated into the design and if broad-spectrum lighting that emulates the sun is employed. The lighting will have a short lifespan and will need frequent replacement. They are necessary for proper health and breeding. Adequate level of lighting is also important. A forest bird requires less intense lighting than a desert inhabitant but it will nonetheless need proper lighting. Ventilation is also important. Many parrots produce dander. When they molt, all species shed feathers, down and the waxi-like sheath that protects the incoming feathers. A filter should collect these. For many years I maintain my birds in an indoor bird room. My focus was then on adequate ventilation, proper filtration, sufficient lighting and hygiene t because a disease in an indoor environment can spread quickly.

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Suspended aviaries are typical for countries with subtropical climate. (c) Lubomir Tomiska

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When I had an indoor aviary, I used suspended cages. The droppings and waste would fall to the floor, which was finished concrete. This allowed quick cleaning. Smaller cages had trays that were lined with newspaper. Both allowed me to maintain the level of hygiene that I deemed was important.

Some parrots do best in suspended aviaries and others in the traditional walk in aviaries. In general terms, forest birds do exceptionally well in suspended cages, which allow feces and uneaten food to pass through, and terrestrial feeding parrots (mainly Australian parrots, parakeets and cockatoos) do very well in walk in aviaries. With the latter, hygiene is very important as the birds will wander the floor looking for food and then come in contact with feces and old, often spoiled food. Generally speaking birds housed in walk in aviaries will need to be prophylactically treated for internal parasites yearly.

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Some species prefer to stay in shade for the most of day. (c) Lubomir Tomiska

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Irrespective of how the birds are housed, I prefer a feeding hatch, which allows food and water (if the breeder does not have an automatic watering system) to be provided quickly. Entering the aviary can stress the birds, increases the risk of escape unless there is a double door or a passageway attached to the enclosure, and can result in a nasty bite from a hormonally active bird. I have seen more than one facial scar that resulted from an Amazon or macaw that was nesting and whose aviary was entered for servicing. Under such circumstances, always employ an open umbrella, which can be used to thwart an attack.

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Title photo: (c) Lubomir Tomiska

QUESTION: How can I detect a sick bird and what steps should I take before getting it to a veterinarian?

ANSWER: Birds are masters of disguise. An ill bird will mask its illness until its condition has deteriorated enough where it can no longer pretend to be healthy. At that point the signs become apparent. Why do birds do this? In the wild snakes, mammals and other birds often predate upon them. If they reveal that they are ill, they can become easy prey, or they can jeopardize the flock, or the flock may eschew them as they can attract the attention of a predator.

Ill birds invariably become inactive; they may be quiet and may suddenly change their behavior. An overly active bird will stay in a secure part of the aviary, usually the rear and perch quietly. As its condition worsens, it will rest on both feet; healthy birds often rest on one foot and hold the otherfoot clenched near the body. The feathers may become fluffed. Most ill birds stop feeding. They hold their breast feathers flared to disguise the weight loss. The droppings will also change during illness.

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They can become black, soup green, yellow or tar-like, or they can contain undigested seeds. To note the changes it is important to become familiar with a normal bird dropping, which consists of three parts: a fecal part (solids), urates (white) and urine (liquid). The color, amount of each and consistency can vary depending on the condition of the bird, diet and its breeding condition.

A bird that has fed on beets will produce a normal textured but reddish colored dropping, and an incubating hen will produce a more copious and liquid dropping, as she spends time in the nest and cannot evacuate her bowels as frequently as when in the aviary. On an ill macaw, the facial skin will appear emaciated. On almost all birds the feet will appear dried out. If you pinch the skin where the toes join on an ill bird the skin will pyramid. This is indicative of dehydration. In a healthy bird the skin will immediately return to its normal position.

On first detecting an ill bird, it should be removed from its cage if it lives with a mate or flock and brought into a quiet and warm area. Single pets can be left in their cage, which should be partly covered to provide tranquility. Try to keep the ill bird feeding. Any food that the bird will eat should be offered, even if it is not the healthiest. I would not feed French fries to a healthy bird but would be willing to try these if the bird was ill. Warm oatmeal or whole grain rice or pasta, whole wheat bread with peanut butter, peas and anything else that will stimulate feeding can be tried. Replace the drinking water with an electrolyte based drink. This will help reduce dehydration.

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plucked African Grey Parrot (c) Joel Zimmer. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en

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The time from the detection of outward illness to death can be very short because of the fast metabolism that birds have; it can be a couple of days on a small bird to a week in a macaw. The probability of recovery depends on how quickly the bird is examined by a veterinarian. In other words, with each passing day, the probably of saving the bird decreases exponentially.

The veterinarian will examine the bird, in all probably will run a series of tests and perform cultures and sensitivities. These will indicate what drug is most effective against fighting the cause of illness. Some veterinarians based on experience and the appearance of clinical signs will prescribe medications pending test results.

Insuring that the bird receives nutrition and fluids is important. Understanding how to tube feed and what preparation to use is very important, as ill birds will need supportive therapy. In many cases this includes giving the severely dehydrated bird fluids under the skin. This is a procedure that must be explained by a veterinarian if deemed necessary.

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Keeping the bird warm is also important before, during and after the veterinary visit. This will deter its condition from deteriorating rapidly. I would strive to keep the bird at around 33 deg C (91 deg F) while it is ill.

I understand that in many parts of the world there are no veterinarians that can see a bird. These aviculturists are often forced to experiment with locally available drugs. The problem with this is that the drug chosen may not be effective in killing the pathogen.

When there is clearly no avian veterinarian available, try to find a general veterinarian or laboratory that can perform cultures and sensitivities. This will increase the chances of success.

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Caveats when treating at home are several, as follows:

1)When treating with antibiotics, remember that orally is best. Placing an antibiotic in the water is never as effective as it relies on the bird drinking enough for it to be effective. Most antibiotics are bitter and deter drinking, which aggravates the level of dehydration. Also some antibiotics cannot be given orally and can only be injected.Irrespective of the means of administration, treatment should be for a minimum of 7 days, possibly longer, to insure that the pathogen is eliminated.

2)Holistic medicine may work, but in a truly ill bird only antibiotics will be truly effective. As an example, earlier this year we treated a mild bacterial case with an antibiotic identified through culturing and sensitivities on one of my birds. I decided to add curcumin to the formula that the bird was tube fed because a friend had recommended it as a natural bactericidal. In fact, the curcumin introduced another pathogen, which proved difficult to destroy and required even longer antibiotic therapy. (That the curcumin was contaminated with salmonella was detected through culturing of the dried powder.)

3)Tonics and many supplements that are used in some parts of the world have not been tested on birds. I have seen more damage from their use than most would suspect. These elements can contain high levels of arsenic, lead and iron, which can prove harmful to birds. Tradition may recommend their use, but be cognizant that they can aggravate the condition. As an example, last year an aviculturist in India contacted me about a bacterial problem in his lories. There was no veterinarian experienced with birds in his city, so I decided to help. He then started asking on the internet for advice and against all better judgment used a liver tonic. That tonic contained iron, which causes iron storage disease in lories. By not following the advice recommended and listening to all of the advice on the internet (much of its from people with good intentions but no experience) he ended up killing 13 birds from hemochromatosis. Then when the birds were dying he was frantically pleading for help again. It is difficult to provide help anew when the original assistance, based on experience and sound science, was ignored.

4)Viruses cannot be treated. Some can be vaccinated against but antibiotics will not cure them, nor will tonics.

5)Apple cider vinegar does not cure a disease. It works on some low grade fungal infections. An anti fungal is usually required when treating with antibiotics.

6)Understand disinfection and how to best disinfect the cage that the ill bird was housed in or alternately the sick cage. The best means is always to remove organic matter with soap and water and then to apply the disinfectant, as many lose their strength in the presence of fomites.

Finally I must stress that prevention is always easier than treating an illness. A stress free environment, balanced diet and hygiene can never replace a therapeutic course in a flock.

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Title photo: (c) Matthew Wilson. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

In aviculture, there is a tendency to utilize a single diet for all species, making slight modifications where deemed of utmost importance, such as providing nuts for the largest of the macaws. This concept of parrot feeding tends to provide diets that are either too fatty for birds that easily become obese (such as Galahs or Amazon parrots) or does not provide the high fat requirements needed by some species (namely macaws). The diet often fails to take into account the higher vitamin A and dietary fiber requirements of species like Eclectus.

This suggests that one diet—even the parrot pelleted diets so widely used in the USA and becoming more popular overseas with each passing day—cannot provide the dietary needs of all of the seed eating parrots. To achieve optimum health and breeding the aviculturist must be prepared to vary the diet amongst the species in a mixed collection or alternately to specialize in just one group, whose diet is identical.

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Noble Macaw (Diopsittaca nobilis cumanensis). (c) Lubomir Tomiska

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Amazons tend to become obese on a high fat diet. This obesity affects general health and breeding. Their diet should contain minimal amounts of fatty seeds like sunflower and safflower, no nuts, and large amounts of a variety of small seeds. I like some of the commercial cockatiel or conure diets that have minimal amounts of sunflower and safflower or pellets for this group. The seeds or pellets should ideally form no more than 80% of the diet and ideally no more than 60% if only seeds are fed. The rest of their diet should be composed of vegetables and fruits.

I always err towards the vegetables, as parrots in the wild consume fruit when it is green and thus low in sugar content. Most modern fruits are packets of sweet, which attract the human palate. This can be confirmed easily by sampling a commercial apple and their original wild ancestor, which will be bitter and astringent. Fruit should make up no more than 10% of the diet. Where available, tropical fruits like guava, mango and papaya should be used over temperate fruits, but if these are unavailable or they are prohibitively expensive then select heirloom fruits that have a lower sugar content. Avoid things like sugarcane, which is basically table sugar in its raw state.

Select vegetables that are rich in fibers and betacarotenes. These include pumpkin, sweet potatoes and carrots, which should be steamed to make the betacarotene more nutritionally available. Beets and broccoli are readily eaten but should be steamed. Hot peppers, peas, horse corn (which is not very sweet), courgettes and many other items can be added to the diet. Boiled pulses and germinating seeds are also excellent for these birds. Sunflower and safflower that are germinating convert the fat into energy and thus pose no obesity problem.

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Mix of sprouted pulses, fruits, vegetables and pasta (c) Tony Silva

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The only caution with germinating seeds is bacterial growth, which requires thorough cleaning with copious amounts of water and using either GSE (grapefruit seed extract) or apple cider vinegar to deter bacterial blooms in the sprouting grains. Weeds like dandelion and plantain from a pesticide free source are excellent. Spinach is also good but should not be fed more than thrice weekly due to the oxalic acid, which affects calcium uptake. Items like cucumber have virtually no nutrition and should not be fed.

Macaws and conures share many affinities and can be fed either a pelleted or seed diet. The large macaws especially have a higher fat requirement than the smaller species and conures. Their diet should be supplemented with nuts, possibly fresh coconut if available or small sandwiches of whole grain bread smothered in nut butter. We use the nut butter sandwiches during the time of year when nuts are more difficult to get and to vary the diet.

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Three young Red-tailed Amazons (Amazona brasiliensis) (c) Lubomir Tomiska

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Both groups should also receive vegetables and fruits as for the amazons. We also provide cooked whole grain pasta or brown rice mixed with vegetables and boiled pulses (especially garbanzo and pinto beans). This mash is readily eaten by all parrots but can contribute to obesity in amazons. We try to provide the macaws with 55% pellets, 20% seeds and nuts and the rest a mixture of vegetables, cooked foods and fruit, in that order. The conures get about 70% pellets and the rest of vegetables and fruits, with a weekly treat of processed foods. I do not believe that pellets should be fed as the sole food to any parrot.

In addition to the food, we provide copious amounts of enrichment, which includes pods, palm seeds, fresh branches and more to all of the birds. This is important psychologically, enriches the diet and permits the natural foraging behavior to continue in captivity.

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author: Tony Silva

Title photo: (c) Lubomir Tomiska