Ask An Expert: E.B. Cravens

Answered by E.B. Cravens:

Ranjan, Normally an Indian parakeet will moult out its primary wing feathers once a year--if it is in good health. That means the promptness of your parrot growing in new feathers depends upon when they were trimmed by the previous owners. Look for the new flight primaries to begin erupting shortly after you see old large feathers being dropped by the bird. When the new feathers are growing, the shafts will be full of blood, so be careful your parrot does not crash land too hard when it is exercising in its short flights.

Answered by E.B. Cravens:

Hi Phoebe, Answering flock behavioral questions is, as always from afar, a bit touchy. It sounds like you have a somewhat stable situation with the seven birds in your bird room; and given the supervision they all get, it is working adequately.

More to the point, how would I set parameters to provide the hawk-head with unlimited time out of it's cage? Frankly, I see no way....

If my years with hawk-headed parrots taught me one thing, it was that these birds are extremely unpredictable. You have the good fortune to be keeping a single female instead of a male, which alleviates some of the aggression, but, basically once a hawk-head of either gender becomes mature, he or she becomes the most dominant psittacine in any room full of similar sized birds. Our former pets and breeders (we no longer keep hawk-headed parrots) were high strung and unsettling to our other parrots. They would attack and bite on slight provocation any intruder they perceived as a threat or rival--dogs, cats, humans included. A case in point was our male hand-fed, Chen, who would take a nut from April's hand, then a minute later, attack her hair and viciously bite the back of her neck if she was not wary.

Add to this the fact that you have an unwell parrot in the room with Hawkeye and it becomes doubly dangerous. Certain aggressive hookbills are agitated and prone to attack birds that are behaving erratically as stroke victims, begging hens of parakeet species, wet birds after a bath, etc.

I would surmise that Hawkeye grew up as a baby handfed with some of the birds in the birdroom already in your home, and that helps the environment by eliminating the "new intruder" concept, but nevertheless, I would hardly risk it to leave Hawkeye out unsupervised---to my way of thinking, it is a bit like keeping a pet chihuahua who has always been "good around the birds."

Besides, hawk-heads are most predictable around other hawk-heads and the way that they have been observed in the wilds suggests they are not at all the social type of pet most parrot lovers envision when they see the helpless little fledgling at the pet store. Hawkeye might be happiest getting "away" from the bird room for out-of-cage stimulation in an outdoor flight or garden greenhouse--that also might give the other six parrots a break too, as living with a hawkhead a few feet away can truly up the tension level in any mixed flock.

Good luck and keep up the great work
EB

Answered by E.B. Cravens:

Cindi, It appears that your friend has installed safety precautions and that the fireplace is bird safe. But there are other considerations about putting parrots "where the action is" as you state it....

Will they be able to sleep comfortably and in quiet once the sun goes down and their natural day is ended, or will they be kept up by noise and humans and television, etc.?

A vented fireplace is usually free of toxic fumes, but that does not mean the air in the living room is always perfect for small psittacine lungs. Fires burn oxygen and unless there is a fresh air window open and proper ventilation, carbon dioxide can rise indoors in the winter. While humans would perhaps not notice such stale air, over several months it could be more troublesome for birds.

It might be a good idea to keep the parrots' sleeping and feeding cages in the guest room, but to provide play stands and areas in the living room where they can frequent and visit and interact with their humans. This also has the advantage of changing the monotony of always keeping the birds in the same cage spaces, expanding their lifestyle if you will.

As an aside, another need for our pet birds in the winter is to have at least two hour three hours of direct sunlight each week. This means sun through a screen but not a window glass since that blocks some of the beneficial rays. Sunny afternoons can be used in small carry cages where parrot are given some shade with a towel or such on their cage while being able to move out into direct sun for health reasons. By and large, the brighter the room, the better for the birds in the winter as long as it does not overheat or make them feel unprotected.

Good luck,

EB

Answered by E.B. Cravens:

Dear Dot,

Not only is this a complex question, but 'tis one which I find quite difficult to answer from afar. Predators and rodent infestations in an outdoor aviary usually are best solved in situ where one can observe and deduce properly.

That said I have several conclusions about your state.

Normally it is best to have a post mortem on parrot mortalities where one is unsure if the bird was injured/killled by another occupant in the aviary. This is not always conclusive but may shed light on whether the psittacine died and then was chewed and mutilated by other avian occupants of the cage. Cause of death is why we call in an avian vet...

I have spent two plus decades of avicultural work with differing African species and never received input to the supposition that two male grey parrots in a large enclosure would fight to the death over one issue or another (no female being involved). I think you can rule that out...

The circumstances you describe indicate to me that Sid was obviously partially eaten by a carnivore/omnivore. The eating of the brain cavity is consistent with killing animals that are not overtly hungry but choose the gourmet portion of the animal they killed or they found freshly dead. Certainly weasels and stoats and mongoose and mink and such all fit into this category. Well fed varmints I suggest....

The rodent problem you acknowledge is probably not limited to mice. Large mice make their way into an aviary, and are followed in scent and tunnel by small rats which are in turn followed by larger rats that expand entrances minimally to allow passage. Furthermore, the photos you provided WPT about your aviary show that some wire walls are of hardware chicken wire and other openings have been stretched and expaned by beaks--even the smallest of these openings in the wire are sufficient to allow a rat entrance to the flight. Anywhere a rat can insert its head when hungry, it can enter by squeezing its body----one inch round wire openings are excellent for entrance.

Now I have not known rats to eat the brain of a victim. The ones I have experienced were more likely to chew the toes and eyes and extremeties of a bird. But overnight who knows what might happen if rats entered your flight where a grey parrot had died.

A flighted Grey parrot attacked by a predator such as a stoat or a weasel will usually put up a brief fight.. That means clumps of feathers and evidence of plumage disarray on the ground the next day or in the nestbox at night. The same with rats.

You did not say what kinds of parakeets so I am assuming Budgerigars. They are unlikely to chew a brain or windpipe. You also did not say whether the amazon parrots in the flight ever tried to usurp the nestbox. Keeping box sleeping species in an aviary along with the box---with Amazons or other nesting parrots when the days begin to lengthen and rains commence towards breeding is not a good idea.

On the other hand, normally rats in and around a flight will at least sample baits put out for control, so that indicates a larger predator.

Rats leave droppings which can be smelled and can be located around food areas. A rat does not kill a Grey; it may bite and bleed them, but it cannot take them down one on one unless the bird is weak and dying.

As for recommendations. I would say it is time to upgrade the wire and structure of your adoption facility. I personally doubt that a Timneh killed a weak Alexandrine unless there were a nestbox or a food station involved, but that and this recent death should be indicators of something amiss at the site. Having a chicken coop in a parrot aviary is old fashioned and inappropriate...it also leads to pests.

The statement "Sid was ailing" leaves a lot to be interpreted. Perhaps he should have been in special care or at least isolated during the "ailing."

I am sorry for your loss and your consternation. April and I shall light a candle this week in memory.

Aloha, EB and April

Answered by E.B. Cravens:

I assume when you say parakeet, you mean the Indian Ringnecked Parakeet of the Psittacula genus. Males and females look very much the same, so without an expert to view the bird close up, and unless your parakeet decides to scrabble around in a dark corner and lay an egg, it would take laboratory testing to find out what gender you have been given.

All parakeets do not talk and normally the males are more vocal and better mimics; all you can do is try to repeat words and see what the outcome is. It may take months.

As adult ringnecks usually prefer not to be touched on the head or body, your best bet for training is to coax it onto a hand-held stick and later to your finger or arm with treats. This may take some weeks depending on the parakeet's previous home and how it was treated.

Birds like this seldom overeat. If it is appearing very hungry, it could be in need of the nutrients in the pods and fresh seeds you are giving it....continue to feed it fresh foods like that but add more food and different types of food like nutmeats, dried and cooked grains, cooked dosa, perhaps a bit of cooked egg or a bit of cheese once in a while, chili peppers, fruit like mango, and papaya with seeds, fig, etc. (NO avocado!!). Protein sources may be harder to find. As it was likely a wild bird at one time, you may trust it's tastes and feed it things that it likes, stopping the things it rejects. Not a lot of sugar of course.

You can go online and google search for "Feeding Ringneck Parakeet" and learn much information about food and water and training for your bird.
[Editor - you can also view more information and identify the species at the WPT Encyclopedia of Parrots found at http://www.parrots.org/index.php/allaboutparrots/ ]

Good luck, and best to avoid being bitten as that can turn into a habit for the pet.

Answered by E.B. Cravens:

Dorothy, acorns are a safe food for psittacines. There are many instances of wild parrots and feral parrots eating acorns, i.e. Thickbilled Parrots, Quakers, Amazons.

T'would not be unusual for your cockatoo to prefer to eat the acorns right off the limb--foraging is an instintive and fun pastime for captive hookbills. Besides, if you watch her carefully, she may in fact also be eating the attachment nodes on the acorn stems, a nutritious and preferred part of some fruit and nut clusters. We have had lorileets that did not like certain berries when they were placed in a food bowl, but the pets would gorge on the same berries if they were on the bush.

In addition, those acorns that drop on the ground are perhaps not at the best ripeness for your cockatoo's taste and trace mineral needs. He may be choosing younger nuts that are still attached because of their tannin level, much as our amazon flock will like semi-ripe fruit or seeds instead of the fully mature ones.

Encourage Perdy, I do not think an adult savvy cockatoo can eat too much of a certain food item as long as it is getting a fully rounded and complete diet (including occasional mineral grit) from which to choose. Besides, wild-crafted foods are one of the optimum offerings we can give our birds. Try picking some branches with lots of little accorn buds and early-set nuts, and offering them to your smaller psittacines. You may be surprised at the reception!

Answered by E.B. Cravens:

This is a controversial question to answer. for so man years, certain veterinarians and pet bird keepers have continued to preach that captive parrots can overdose on grit and become crop-impacted as a result.....truth is, field studies have shown that psittacines of all kinds do go to the ground and ingest grit for many reasons--they even feed it to the chicks in the nest. My breeder parrots, all of which have access to the ground, will begin to ingest soil and sand and crunchy substrate one to two weeks before the laying stage and continue to eat grit well through the first weeks of chick feeding. I first observed this in my older experienced and imported pairs of parrots and so I began to take notice!

The key for the pet owner is what species you are keeping---certain parrots like cockatiels, lovebirds, princess and other ground foraging species (including cockatoos) will take more grit that eclectus, capes, lorikeets and the like. Soft food eaters need less grit than do seed eaters such as budgerigars. Sometimes the soft food lovers will choose less course grit to satisfy their needs---things like clay and very fine soil. These are perhaps less gritty and do not precipitate the same digestive activity--instead acting as soil type filler and mineral supplement for the birds. Study your species...it will tell you much about a need for ground minerals...

Finally, it must be emphasized that the addition of grit to the domestic parrot diet can be done very safely if one gives small salt and pepper amounts of clean bird grit to the diet once every two or three weeks. For example, I add two tablespoons of oyster shell/sand/mineral grit to my flocks wet foods once every two to four weeks (more often during breeding season). This amount is for 24 full sized parrots, grey to macaw size. With aloha, EB