Archive for December, 2009
Parrot Types
Actually, there are more than 350 parrot types when you consider every species and sub-species in the group. Many of the most common parrot types are from Australasia and the tropics.
Parrot Families
All parrots, of whatever parrot types or breeds they are, belong to the scientific order Psittaciformes. That scientific order is further broken down into two different parrot families: Cacatuidae and Psittacidae.
The Cacatuidae family includes only the Cockatoo, a bird that is native to Australia and islands near that continent.
The second parrot family, the Psittacidae, includes all of the true parrot types.
Cockatoos
To most people, the cockatoo is a large white parrot with a feathered head crest that it can lift high in regal splendor. That is, however, only one of the parrot types in this family. There are 21 different cockatoos, and not every one is white.
1. The palm cockatoo is mostly dark gray, with red cheek patches below the eyes – cheek patches that change to a deeper red when the bird becomes excited or alarmed.
2. The male gang-gang cockatoo is dark gray with a cherry red head and red crest. This parrot type is often called the red-headed cockatoo.
3. The Major Mitchell’s cockatoo is often called a pink cockatoo due to its soft pastel pink shade.
4. The cockatiel’s plumage is mid-grey on top, lighter grey underneath. It has an orange cheek patch, and a prominent white blaze on its wings. It has a much longer tail than the other cockatoos have.
So Cockatoos are not always a white parrot type, and not all cockatoos are the same in build.
True Parrots
This family includes all of the other commonly-known parrot types. The list that follows is not intended to be exhaustive, but in this family, you will find parrot types such as these:
1. African Greys: This is said to be the most intelligent of all the parrot types. A large gray parrot with a red tail, some of these bird have vocabularies approaching 1,000 words or more.
2. Amazons: This popular parrot type includes about 27 sub-types. Most are large, affectionate, and predominantly green.
3. Budgies: Officially known as a parakeet or budgerigar, this parrot type is small and colorful. It is one of the most popular parrot pets.
4. Conures: This parrot type seems to be a group of large parakeets. With long tails and strong beaks, these “clowns” come in a variety of colors.
5. Eclectus: Eclectus Parrots are unusual in their coloring. On the one hand, males are bright green, with beaks like bright candy corn, tails and wings of blue or red. Females, on the other hand, have red heads, blue breasts, and the same red or blue wings and tails. In place of the candy corn look, they have black beaks.
6. Lovebirds: Lovebirds are a small, stocky parrot type – among the smallest in the world. Many are green, sometimes with red faces or eye rings.
7. Macaws: Native to South America, this is the largest parrot type in wingspan and length. The blue and gold macaw is especially beautiful.
8. Parrotlets: These may look like parakeets at first glance, but this small parrot type has a broader body and tail than the parakeet.
9. Pionus: There are many parrot types under the name Pionus parrot, and this larger, quieter parrot comes in many varieties of color.
10. Quakers: This parrot type is often called a Monk Parrot or Grey-breasted Parakeet. It is a name that comes from facial feathering that resembles an old-fashioned Quaker costume.
There are many more parrot types than this article can list or discuss, even in a surface manner. You will find muc more information in your library or bookstore.
Best Parrot Types for Children’s Pets
A final question is this: “What types of parrots are there that would make good children’s pets?”
Many children are drawn to large parrots because of their colors or their reputation for talking well, but the large parrot types are not good pets for children. They require firm handling and training, and do well as pets only when the owner has had experience first with smaller parrots.
The best parrot type for a child’s pet is the Budgerigar, aka budgie or parakeet. The small Budgerigar requires the least amount of care, and is easily trained to talk and do tricks. Budgies that are young, or those that have no cage mate, will learn most readily.
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Sick Parrots – Steps to Help Them
It is very important to watch your bird every day and already have a well established relationship with an avian vet. A slight change to you in your birds behavior can be a drastic change to them. Should you notice such a change it is very important to seek veterinarian help immediately.
Sometimes though, you may not be able to get to a vet immediately. In this case here are some things you can do while you wait.
Most important is keep the bird warm. One of the first things to go is the ability to keep itself warm. Make sure there are no drafts or air vents pointing on your bird. If you cannot get the room temperature up, buy a night heat lamp from any pet store. The red glow is not detected by birds and will help calm them. If there is no way to get a red light, any incandescent bulb will be better than nothing. Make sure when positioning the lamp that the bird cannot come in contact with it.
If the bird is having a hard time perching by itself, it is best to move it to a hospital cage. This can be a smaller cage with little in it except a perch, and water and food bowls. A glass aquarium works well as it gives them something solid to sit on and helps retain the heat. Make sure you are only heating one end so if the bird gets to hot it can go to the other end to cool off.
Next is strength. Birds quickly loose strength and become dehydrated when sick and it is very important to try to keep that up as much as possible. A pediatlite solution will help. Try to use an eye dropper and see if he will take some. Be very careful not to force the mouth open and squirt it in there. The opening to the nares (nostrils) and trachea opening are at the top and bottom of the throat. Should you have some hand feeding formula available try and see if he will take it. This may be a very slow process. Even if he will just take very small amounts at a time, it will add up and will help.
If your bird is bleeding, the first step is to locate the source. Typically when you see blood it is going to come from the beak, nails, or feathers. If it is just a nail chipped off, put some styptic powder on the broken area and hold it there for a moment. This can be tricky if you bird will not help still for you. A stressed bird that is trying to fight you will be harder to clot as his blood pressure is higher. Sometimes they split the nail in half and will need stitches. If this is the case, a dap of superglue can help until you can get to a vet. Normal feathers do not have blood in them. When a bird molts and grows new feathers, there is a blood vein that runs through them. These are called blood feathers. In the event that a bird breaks a blood feather, it is almost impossible to get it to stop. The only method is to pull the entire feather out at the base of the bone. It is advisable to wrap a towel around your bird to do this. Firmly grab the base of the feather and pull it out quickly. DO NOT slowly tug at the feather waiting for it to budge as this will hurt your bird and may cause more damage. The feather will come out. You may want to put a little styptic power in the area where the feather was, but it should clot pretty quickly.
The key to keeping your bird healthy is to always monitor them. Watch their daily behaviors as this will help you detect anything out of the ordinary. Establish a good relationship with your avian vet when you purchase the bird and take them for regular checkups. Never be afraid to take him to the vet if you notice something wrong. Better safe then sorry.
Parrot Cages – Where To Place Them?
Although this seems like a trivial matter, where you place your Parrot Cage is very important. There are a lot of things to consider about the placement of your Parrot cage. You should not place a parrot cage anywhere near source of radiant heat or draft. This at first may seem obvious but some heat sources are anything but. Heating and cooling ducts can be a problem. In the summer that constant warm air flow may be too much for your bird to handle. While in the wintertime, you will get the exact opposite, and it may be too cold for your parrot.
Even everyday appliances can generate a significant amount of heat. The likes of your stoves and refrigerators, clothes dryers and freezers can generate vast amounts of heat that over a prolonged period of time can be detrimental to the health of your parrot.
One of the least obvious, but more common sources of heat that many bird owners tend to provide is the natural sun. Many bird owners place their parrot and direct line of the sun, which provides a lot of heat. But in a lot of cases, this can be too much for the bird to endure. One should never leave the parrot in a position where they cannot get some shade from the sun if they need to. You should only place you approved by the window if there is an overhang or awning above deck and provide some form of shelter from the intense rays of the sun.
A lot of bird owners had also suffered due to the fact they placed their parrot cage near a source of noise. One of the worst place is that you could put your parrot cage is close to a television. All groups are vocal creatures in addition to being social animals that love to be heard. Your parrot’s first instinct will be to be more obnoxious or louder than anything in the near vicinity , so it can get your attention. This means that it will gladly compete against your TV, stereo, radio, and even your vacuum cleaner. Now, while in the short term, this can be quite entertaining, try sitting down to watch or favourite movie. When you have your parrot squawking about trying to get your attention. This will be not only irritating for you, but could affect the health of your parrot, as they crave social tension, and if they do not receive it will often turn against themselves.
So when you are considering where to put your Parrot cage just take a little more time to think it out so you can make sure that it’s going to be beneficial not only to your bird, but to you also.
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Bird Cage Hygiene is Important
Since the bird cage tray is kept a few inches below the wire bottom of the cage, the bird does not come into direct contact with it. Still, keeping the tray clean is important for the health of the bird. To facilitate cleaning, the cage tray should be kept lined all the time. The lining is necessary not just to provide for easy cleaning, but also to enable the bird owner to examine the birds fecal matters. Any change in color or texture of bird droppings can be indicative of the birds ill health that the owner should immediately attend to. For this, the tray lining should also be changed daily so that fresh droppings and the previous days dropping do not get mixed up.
Old newspaper is the best tray liner for a bird cage. The lining newspaper should be cut correctly to size to cover the tray fully, touching all corners and boundary. Cutting several sheets to size and stacking them in the tray at the bottom of the cage will make the cleaning process easier. You can remove two or three top layers of the lining with the poop every day and once the stacked stuff is exhausted, the tray itself should be pulled out and given a thorough soap and water rinse.
Using newspaper to line a bird cage is practical and economical. Those who feel that printed newspaper does not provide a background for thorough examination of the fecal matter, can go in for unprinted newspaper, or paper towels, or plain brown paper, on which the droppings will show off better. Even those who use old newspaper to line their bird cage should not use glossy pages with brightly colored ads. Examination of droppings could be difficult in a colored background. Further, colored ink that newspapers use might contain chemicals that are harmful to birds.
Different types of bird cage liners like pine shaving, cedar shavings, aspen shavings, kitty litter, ground walnut shells, wheat grass, and corncobs are available in the market. Of these, from the toxicity point of view, pine shavings and aspen shavings are comparatively harmless. Aspen shavings contain no aromatic oils, while pine shavings contain only a limited amount of it. If the tray is lined with these shavings, the top layer should be removed daily.
Many people prefer paper linings for their bird cage tray as top layer removal is easier with paper than with shavings. Many bird owners are also of the opinion that the use of corncobs, walnut shells, kitty litter, cedar shavings etc. is not conducive to keeping the bird healthy. Those, who feel that newspaper is not aesthetically satisfying in complementing the birds beauty, can use plain, lightly colored papers in their bird cage.
Are 304-Grade Stainless Steel Bird Cages Safe For Birds?
With the growing amount of powder-coated brand names being found to have toxic levels of harmful components in them, the safest bet is to get a 304-grade stainless steel cage. Aside from powder-coated and stainless steel, the only other choice that I know of is bamboo or wood, and that makes me nervous to even think about putting my bird in a cage made of wood. Whenever I even think about cages made of wood I get concerned about my bird getting slivers, or even worse finding some sort of bacteria within the wood that could get him sick.
The only word of warning I would give about the safety of a 304-grade stainless bird cage, is to make sure you are buying a stainless steel cage that is constructed of genuine, authentic 304-grade stainless steel. If you buy a low price, generic stainless steel cage, that’s supposedly made of 304-grade stainless steel, you never know whether or not it is genuine or not.
It’s impossible to say whether a non-authentic 304-grade stainless steel cage is non-toxic to your bird without having it analyzed by a professional lab. In order to do so, you would have to send a lab a chunk of your cage, and this damaging the cage to have it analyzed. There’s always the possibility that in order to save money the factory put filler components into the steelmixture to replace the expensive components of the genuine 304-grade mixture, and there’s a good chance those replacement components are toxic to birds. Your best bet is to make sure you’re buying from a reputable cage manufacturer that you can trust.
So that brings up the question; “is buying a stainless steel cage even worth it?” The answer to that question is; “without a doubt.” If you look at the benefits of ownership between a stainless steel cage and a powder-coated cage, the better choice is obvious. Stainless steel cages are much easier to keep clean and sanitary. You can pressure-wash them without making the powder-coating fall off, and you can also scrub them down with a vinegar/water mixture to quickly and easily get them totally clean. The process is as simple as coating the surface of the cage with the mixture, waiting 5 minutes, and then scrubbing it down or hosing it off. Then just dry the cage with a dry towel if you don’t want any water spots.
Even though the ease of ownership is a great benefit, the greatest benefit is the lifespan of stainless steel cages. If you get a truly authentic 304-grade stainless steel cage that is well constructed, that cage could very well last a millennium if properly cared for. On the other hand, you could buy a top brand name powder-coated cage, and take good care of it, and you’ll be lucky if it makes it beyond a decade before it’s completely rusted out and becoming unsuitable for your feathered friend. I highly recommend stainless steel for all of these reasons, and if you can afford to get one you wont be sorry that you did.
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