One Bird or Two? May 29, 2008

Most people, when buying their first bird, think to get a second one so the first doesn’t get lonely. But then they fall into the groove of, “My bird doesn’t want anything to do with me” and that’s because you got it a friend. This friend goes through it all with them, and he trusts his birdie companion over you.

 

If you just want your bird for looks, then yes, get it a birdie companion and keep them in an outside aviary so they can be real birds instead of look pretty inside your house and yet get nothing from you as their owner.

 

However, if you’d like a cuddly and fun companion to play with then get just one bird. Even if you have to leave on a trip, there are boarding places (often times at your vet) that can care for your bird while you’re away.

 

Two birds is the starting of a mate, and a flock. One bird relies on you and itself to get along. With one bird, you need to have the time to stimulate his mind. This means a generous amount of toys; all different types and kinds and colors, as well as shapes and sizes. Foraging toys work great for keeping your bird busy during the day when you’re not around. Edible perches are great, too. Any type or mirror toy is not! Putting a mirror in your bird’s cage is the equivalent to getting another bird.

 

Also with two birds (or a mirror) parrots will become aggressive towards you in order to protect and defend the other bird. They are standing up for their mate or small flock in which you are not part of.

 

 

It is possible to have more than one bird in a cage and have them all be hand-tamed. I have three parakeets (also referred to as budgies) who live in the same cage. I can take any one of them out (or all) and have them be happy and playful. However, the way I tamed them was I raised them all from babies (I bred their parents) and had them housed separately during the process of taming and training. Two of them are brother and sister, the other one is unrelated from a different set of parents and he joined them later. They were all housed individually first, tamed, and then properly socialized, then put together in one cage. The cage was new to every one of them so there were no territorial issues to be had and they all went in at the same time. If I noticed one toy was loved over the others, I got more.

 

For example, the boings. All 3 parakeets loved playing on a boing toy! So, I got three. It’s also important the cage space is large enough that they can get away from one another if they need to (mine were all fully flighted). If your birds’ wings are clipped, it makes it easier to pick on and harder for the bird to get away.

 

Paying attention to food bowls is important as well, to make sure everyone is getting a fair share. There is usually a more dominant bird out of the flock that will kick the other birds out of the food dishes, so make sure the food is plentiful as are the dishes.

Night Frights April 22, 2008

 

Cockatiels are probably the most commonly known for having the worst cases of night frights among parrots. Usually, night frights occur for mainly the smaller birds but I have heard of a few cases of it happening for larger birds as well; including my own.

 

I’ve had one bird fall off a perch during the night or begin having their own night terrors and spooking all the other birds (mine are all housed in one room). This type of situation usually would end with every single bird at the bottom of its cage looking up and around at me very confused and spooked.

 

My brother in law’s cockatiel, Magoo, is the one known for serious night frights. Magoo used to have such horrible night terrors that he would wake everyone up from the trashing noise and end up bloody from breaking blood feather after blood feather.

 

Parrots do not see well at night so if something spooks them and in turn, they cannot see a thing, it leads them to panic and thrashing. A bird’s natural instinct in the wild would be to fly away but since the bird is in a cage - it normally ends up trying to do this and hits everything within the cage.

 

Magoo’s night frights were cured by my brother in law leaving a night light on for him at night. He did this for a while until eventually Magoo did not need it anymore. I highly recommend leaving on a dim light for the bird to be able to see at night if he or she begins to suffer from night frights. You should also not cover your bird’s cage at night if it becomes scared of the dark, for lack of a better term. As this will definitely provoke panic in a bird who is easily spooked at night by darkness.

 

Stressed birds tend to not sleep as well so make sure your bird doesn’t have anything to be stressed out about. It needs to be getting a good amount of sleep at night (10 hours is a safe amount of sleep for your bird). Certain things like people getting up for a midnight snack or a glass of water in the middle of the night and passing by your bird’s cage could be a cause for sending it into night terrors. Try to limit how much this happens in your home and keep other animals from doing the same.

 

It’s thought that birds need absolute silence in order to sleep but in the wild, they are accustomed to a certain amount of noise from their natural environment. Complete silence actually means danger to them in the wild and they get a certain amount of light from the moon and stars at night. We can learn a lot by looking at where our birds come from.

 

I’ve never tried it before or met anyone that has but I have read that you can try playing soft music for your bird which will act as the little noise that stays in the forest as your bird sleeps. Soft rain forest sounds of some sort may be soothing to your bird.

 

It’s important to stop night frights when your bird is experiencing them. Quickly turn on the light and let them calm down. Once they have calmed back down, leave a dim light on and let them go back to sleep. Providing your bird some light is the most important thing you can do and offer your bird in order for it to get past its night frights. Eventually, it may be able to sleep in pure darkness again or for once, or maybe you bird will always prefer a dimly lit light to sleep with.