Boss Bird’s First Steps

“Knowing that parrots are intensely hierarchical, I asserted myself as their singular alpha,” says Christopher. Translation: He was now the “bird in charge.” He enforced that by being the only person who went in their cages, being the person who fed them, and being present and in charge when there were visitors to the aviary. He took up as many duties of alpha bird as he could conceive of. That went a long way toward easing the parrots’ anxiety. Feather plucking and fighting decreased. Christopher presented a stable and dependable routine, the birds did not have to deal with a steady stream of different people.

Feeding the Flock

Using a mix of nuts, seeds, fresh fruits and vegetables, Christopher tries to tailor each bird’s diet to its particular preference; all 36 of them. He carefully watches what each bird leaves behind in their food bowls, to see what they are not eating. “I try to explore what they like,” he says.

The birds eat nuts that are still in the shell. Christopher tried t

hem on shelled nuts and they had zero interest. He is not sure whether that is because they like to play a little and to crack open the nut with their beaks, or whether there is a deep-seated instinct that says a nut in the shell is good; no bugs have gotten in it. His Macaws would eat just nuts all day if he let them. The problem is that a diet of all nuts is an incomplete diet. He moderates the amount of nuts they get, and makes sure they eat other things such as sunflower and safflower seeds, as well as the other nutritious things that come in their seed mix.

Some of the smaller birds would prefer to just eat one type of seed only out of the mix. So he does not load up their bowls with that mix, requiring them to eat other things. He monitors closely the fresh produce he offers them, making sure not to put out something that they have no interest in eating. In the past, some volunteers would bring string beans for the birds. He said they had no interest in string beans. However, snap peas in the pod are one of their favorites. Yummy!

Another item that the parrots love is hot peppers; the hotter the better! The capsicum oil that makes hot peppers hot, does not bother the birds’ dry mouth in the least. They eat them up like they were strawberries. Cantaloupe is another big favorite. A common theme is seeds. Parrots in the wild are drawn to fruit for the seeds. Seeds are a cache of nutrition for them.

While the birds are out in the flight cage playing, Christopher is inside preparing their food. “Being the alpha, I am the one taking them outside and bringing them back in; kind of like leading them from one place to the next.” Sometimes Christopher will hide nuts in the birds’ cages. They will then have to forage in the pieces of tree trunks resembling fallen trees he has placed at the bottom of the cage. This is somewhat like what they do in the wild. Parrots also like to chew things. He can put a piece of tree trunk in a Cockatoo’s cage, and within a week they will have stripped off all the outer bark leaving only the hardwood part.

After the birds have eaten, Christopher spends time going through the seed bowls and sorting out what was eaten and what was not. Christopher says, “Because their diet is not cheap, and being a non-profit organization operating during a recession, we have to maximize every single dollar.”  To find out more about parrots or to make a donation, please visit the Garuda Aviary website.