Ask An Expert: E.B. Cravens

Answered by E.B. Cravens:

Dear ??? (you did not give your name...):
I searched my sources and the internet and could not find any reference to weight charts for fledgling DuCorps Cockatoo chicks of six months age. Therefore, as I am in no way a cockatoo expert, I will offer what I can about your new fledgling parrot.

The weight drop that you describe is less than 8%. If the cockatoo baby is the same as many I have known, then he or she will be eating very well at the home breeder aviary and will not necessarily lose the amount of weight considered normal and/or acceptable for a bird of that age and species. Much has to do with whether it is a flighted fledgling or whether the wings have been trimmed, thus keeping it rather chunky and overweight up until the time it moves to a new home and leaves behind many of its baby eating tendencies....that is when it might slim down.

The history of this cockatoo is essential to your knowing whether it weaned "fat" or weaned "lean" and active--hence the fledging routine, amount of calories it was being fed, whether it rejected the syringe hand-feeding process or was slowly moved onto a finger-food warm mush diet dispensing with the syringe entirely, and the like. If you choose to reintroduce warm soft food and you are not syringe competent, then the best way is to offer hot soaked warm wheat bread, adult avian pellets, tofu, oatmeal or the like which are all just as good as hand-feeding formula for a parrot of this age.

Be aware that some needy cockatoos are manipulative and WANT their keepers to revert to baby feeding foods, especially if unsure of new life situations..

If your veterinarian recommends that you do an x-ray to ascertain that there is no consumed foreign body in the digestive tract that could be hampering assimilation of nourishment or passage of foodstuffs--it would be foolish of you--or me with one of my birds for that matter--to opt out of such a safety precautionary and simple med procedure. This is one of the first things I like to authorize if there is confusion about what is going on inside a bird. Fledglings DO imbibe odd things from wood chips to cloth fragments to metal casings. Unless you suspect your vet of being untrustworthy, it is not
appropriate to suggest that he or she has money on the mind when proposing a diagnostic procedure...

Now, you did state that you worried about this weight loss being stress related, but I do not know what stress that would be. A new pet entering a home should have as much or more nourishment, affection, privacy, sleep time, stimuli, comfort and familiar dishes, treats, toys, etc. as it had in it's previous location. There will be many changes, to be sure, but a well-raised youngster is both ready for new adventures, and strong enough to make changes in its lifestyle without suffering malnutrition or depression....

So, as I see it, there are two options. One is to call the breeder or pet source of the fledgling bird and arrange to have it returned to that person for stabilization and observance--something we have had to do in the past with (not coincidentally) Goffin's cockatoos; so that the bird can re-adapt, begin eating well of all types of things again, and be moved into your home a bit more carefully when it is totally prepared...

The second is to realize that it is not unusual for parrots that are not adept fliers to lose 15% or more of their weight mass upon fledging and moving to new homes. Monitor the fledgling carefully; make sure that it eats well things like millet spray, cooked lentils, buckwheat, mung beans and green stems and twigs, crumbled walnuts, canary seed, and anything it really takes to as a youngster; realize that cockatoos are not such big eaters and your new pet will most likely lose some weight, then gain it back as muscle when it begins flying around its new home; and step back a little bit without worry that this bird if well brought up from a breeder that you trust, will adapt and be fine in the long run. (We all worry about our new additions to the flock, I might add!!).

Weight loss with accompanied lethargy, emotional neediness, poor digestion or suspect excrement are one thing. Just a bit of fasting and new-home weight drop are something else and can be interpreted safely by the observant owner...Good luck. I wish I had known the name of your DuCorps to refer to in this message.

With aloha, EB

Answered by E.B. Cravens:

Dear Dot,

It is not at all unusual for amazon parrots, especially if they are former wild-trapped ones, to prefer perching outside rather than being under shelter. Sheltered roofs can be a perceived "trap" for many psittacine species.

If you catch the two or four elderly ones and place them inside for the winter, they will most likely live longer. You also could give them a late afternoon seed or nut feeding inside and coax them to come in before sunset, then lock them in. If your indoor arrangement does not provide a lock, then it is time to put one on. Parrots even on the verge of dying will retain
their sleeping habits to the detriment of their well being.

I do not know why your vet has said to stop hand-feeding one bird who is getting thin, but perhaps he does not want to stress it more---sometimes it is not necessary to use a syringe and hold the bird, but instead one can just provide soaked warm sprouted wheat bread and extruded adult pellets and tofu and the like in a small cup, which the bird will then gulp like a baby would. Often a bird with a weak liver will lose weight because it is having real difficulty digesting the foods being offered. Easily digestible foods will be accepted more readily, certainly those that do not require crunching and are already in wet, warm form--a low, low fat diet is best .

I would be feeding this bird and keeping it and its mate in my house on a heating pad so that it would either recover slowly or would pass away in the most comfortable, gentle way possible. If you do hand feed it, do not use commercial baby formula as most of those are for growing birds and have far too much fat in them for a bird with liver disease. Also I would be giving that bird milk thistle extract in its water and on its wet food at least three times a week for liver health.

Good luck and my prayers are with these four old amazons. They have suffered a lot due to humans and deserve to be as comfortable as possible now.

Thank you for rescuing them.
With aloha, EB

Answered by E.B. Cravens:

Dear Jeffrey, As your budgerigars are still quite young, it should not be too difficult to accomplish their first flying training.

Once their flight feathers are all grown out, you can encourage them to begin flapping on your finger or on a stick by raising and lowering the stick to get them to begin feeling their wing downbeats supporting their body weight.

Flight training is all about landing skills, so you need to teach them to land competently. This we accomplish on the master bed where the bird can be encouraged to fly six or eight inches at first down to the soft surface--learning through repetition to brake with its wings, put out its feet and look downward to a feet-first landing. Make sure you do not allow them to over-flap and fly a long distance to crash to the floor. Such mistakes ruin their progress and make them fearful of bumps and bruises.

From there you can progress to getting them to take longer two, three, four-foot flights to build up confidence on the soft surface. Once they get that down, a folded bath towel on top of their cage or the couch back, etc. can be another landing site.

Flying to a perch can take place a bit later as it is a more precise skill and can involve a harder landing on the feet and leg muscles.

You will know when they are flying better because most parrots begin to increase their speed. Make sure they learn to fly down, turn left and right and return, and of course are able to adjust and fly after a bath when still wet. Feel free to contact me with any specific questions about your pets' fledging.
Cheers, EB

Answered by E.B. Cravens:

Dear Sara, I am by no means a palm expert!

(Perhaps if there is one who reads this site, he or she might make themselves available to be our full palm resource:):))

As I understand it both those palms and most all the true palms are safe for parrots.

You might want to use a pruning shears to keep the spines on the date palm trimmed to a non-piercing level....

Cheers, EB

Answered by E.B. Cravens:

Dear S. Mylam: What you refer to by the common name 'Sago' Palm is in fact not a true palm at all (common greenhouse names can be confusing!) but is a member of the cycad family and related to the gymnosperms like ginkgo and the pines.

You are correct that this plant is not safe for livestock, pets, or humans and should not be in your planted aviary.

Though 'sago' palms produce edible starch, their pith must be processed to remove toxins before being safe to consume.

I would recommend replacing it with a small clumping bamboo, maybe a cluster palm like 'areca', or perhaps a mulberry tree so your birds could eat the fruits.

Cheers, EB

Answered by E.B. Cravens:

Dear Debbie, Both crabapple and regular apple are safe trees. In fact, most temperate fruit tree foliage we have found are not toxic in moderate amounts, including plum, peach and cherry. A great time to feed crabapple and other trees is during and after first fruit set when tiny flowers and buds and green fruit starts make nutritious fare for psittacines.

Cleaning of foliage involves a brief visual inspection to make sure leaves are fairly free of wild bird droppings. Pluck or prune any suspect twigs or leaves. You can either hose the branch off in the yard or put it under your bath shower for a few minutes on warm. Boughs collected near considerable automobile traffic should also be rinsed for dust, etc. There is no need to bleach or sterilize tree chewing material.

Here is a picture of Chen, our hawkhead parrot, learning to eat in the apple tree!



Cheers, EB

Answered by E.B. Cravens:

Dear Kit, That is a very difficult question. Flock dynamics depend on so many things. For example, how protective of their home cage are your three male conure/quakers? These birds can be protective of their territory, especially in threes which constitutes a sort of birdie "gang."

More to the point, it is never a good idea to acquire a new parrot and then place it in a cage with bird or birds already in the home. All sorts of things can go wrong until you are sure the birds get along--bit toes, competition at the food dishes, stress. An extra cage is essential.

As to cape parrots and other birds. We have had many capes here since first getting into the species in 1994. To a bird, they do not like other parrots (sometimes even their own kind if not raised correctly). Capes are one of the most jealous psittacines we have discovered, right up there with hawkheads and some large lories. Our cape young babies get along okay with others in the house, and if raised into an environment where other birds already are living. Capes are one of the few full sized parrots we have encountered that will go after budgerigars in their cage!

Without knowing the birds and seeing your home, I would give it a 20% chance of success to bring in a cape parrot and expect it to get along in a cage with strange birds. Still, you never know if you had two cages and went very slowly. What about a trial meeting between your birds and she...?

A healthy, active cape parrot should live to be 35 or more.

I would also like to add that there is never any guarantee that any of us keepers will outlive our flock. Some sun conures can live into their 30s and human life can be frail also! There is plenty of parrot love in this world to take care of pets that are left behind if any of us die. It only takes planning ahead and getting the right people or organization in your will so that you need not worry yourself about such time frames.

With aloha, EB

Answered by E.B. Cravens:

Kim, For a cockatoo you need to get very strong caging wire. Twelve or ten gauge twilweld from England is one of the best. Smaller the opening like half inch by three means less likelihood of rodents passing in and out. We normally do not put an extra safety space on the door area of smaller cages, since it takes up what the cockatoo would have as play space. They need the ground of course and lots of plants in pots or planted in the ground or cut branches hung from the ceiling. I would say it should be at least eght to ten feet high--at least on one end so the bird can experience perching up above human heads. Partially roofed for shade and open for sun and rain on the other side. A big food and water station, toys and logs and stuff to chew on, swinging ropes perhaps, or log on a chain. Some privacy boards in one corner for a place to hide out and nap if wished. Natural wood perches. Maybe a misting system for hot days.

Good luck, EB