Poisonous Foods For Parrot

Do you know that there are several poisonous foods for parrot that you must avoid?

Chocolate

Chocolate is toxic to birds. It is digested differently in birds than in humans, and the resulting digested products are toxic. Bitter, brown bread and dark chocolate is more toxic than chocolate milk. Chocolate in any form should not be given to the birds. Chocolate toxicosis symptoms such as disorientation, hyperactivity, vomiting, diarrhea, irregular heartbeat, seizures, dark colored droppings and death.

Avocados

Several types of avocados are poisonous to birds. Skin, meat or the seed maybe contain toxins, so it is best to not feed avocados at all.

Caffeine

Caffeine is also are poisonous to birds. Therefore do not give products containing caffeine to birds (including coffee, tea and soft drinks).

Salt

The excessive consumption of salt (sodium chloride) can cause thirst, increased water consumption, increased urination, depression, nervous excitement, tremors, incoordination and death.

Onion

Onions can be toxic to dogs and cats, and even the onion toxicosis is not well documented in birds, probably best to avoid eating onions for birds. In mammals, the onion can cause Heinz-body hemolytic anemia, which causes red blood cells rupture. Birds red blood cells contain a nucleus, and this may provide some protection against cell rupture. But avoid giving onions in birds. A small amount of garlic used in cooking may not be harmful, but keep in mind that there may be a problem that may occur.

Alcohol

Alcoholic beverages can cause loss of control and death. Do not give products containing ethanol (alcohol) for birds.

Fruit seed

Some fruit seed can be poisonous to birds. Apple seeds contain cyanide. So, remove the seeds before giving it to your bird. Cherries, plums, apricots and peaches are safe to be given to the birds, but the seeds contain cyanogenic glycosides. Nuts should not be given to the birds, but if ingested, digestion time is faster than the digestive tract of birds and their stomachs types can protect birds from poisoning.

Hopefully this article can help you to know about some poisonous foods for parrot.

Female Eclectus Parrot, The Polyandry Bird

Eclectus parrotis known as one of the members of the parrot family that hast the most intelligent. Whether because of smart, female parrots parrot also showed unusual behavior for parrots among others. Most parrots are monogamous, but the female eclectus parrot is polyandrous.

The eclectus parrot has several other names in various regions in Indonesia. Sumba society, for example, call it by name or kaka kaka moro wandala. Buru Island resident named karea birds, while in Membramo known as sopies and in Bacan called Ubu. This parrot is also can be found in Papua New Guinea and Australia. The behavior of this parrot has several times been the object of research scientists. In addition to polyandry, the female parrot also been studied have a bad temper when in difficult conditions.

Researchers at the Australian National University  observe the behavior of the eclectus parrot in Cape York, Queensland. This study revealed that the female parent in difficult conditions could kill her male child. This mean that the female eclectus parrot will only take care of the female child only. This is the only species of parrot that kills their offspring by sex. But no one has known why the mother has a gender preference given when they had to kill their own child.

Actually, the  temperament of the female parent who like to kill the male children was caused by nest inadequacy in accommodating the children. The habit is also commonly occur in the wild, when the female parent having trouble finding the holes of trees that can be used as a nest egg-laying, incubating eggs at a time and place for their children.

Pair of eclectus parrot usually find tree holes that are about 25 feet or more from the ground. If the position of the nest is too low, it is feared will fall prey to predators such as snakes and lizards. This is where you can actually see the intelligence of this parrot. But sometimes they do not always get the location of the nest as they wish, so they forced to occupy a nest which is not ideal. This makes the female parent anxiety and worry, thus reducing the comfort in the nest.

In some cases, the stressed or anxious female parent are often break the eggs, even kill her own child, including female parrots. However, the eclectus parrot always make the male child as a victim. Usually, the mother will produce a pair of eggs, and if all of them had hatched normally with different sexes (male and female). In that study also revealed, the female child is more easily treated than the male. In addition, female child is also grow faster than male.

Therefore, it is suspected that the female parrot parent more manly sacrifice the male child, because it is more difficult to treat than the female and also grow faster. Well, this is also shows how intellegence this beautiful bird. But why the male child must be sacrificed? This have something to do with the female parent who concern to the predatory animals. If the female parrent take care of the male child for too long, she will always feel threatened. Many possibilities that make female parrot populations in the wild more than male birds.

The main food of the eclectus parrot is fruit and some kind of flowers. Their favorite fruits are pomegranate and papaya. However, if you are interested to captive this bird, you can also provide some kind of fruit such as mango, guava, banana, melon, grapes, oranges, pears and apples.

Hopefully this article can help you to know more and captivating the eclectus parrot at home.

The Unique And Endangered Ecletus Parrot

There are many kind of parrot, and one of them is the eclectus parrot (Eclectus roratus). This bird is a protected species. Is this birds could be bred and traded? It could be, as long as you get permission from the government or licensing body in certain areas. Most birds that bred is the protected bird, but had received official permission from the government or licensing body. If you are interested in breeding the eclectus parrot, then you have to know a lot about this bird first.

Eclectus parrot (Eclectus roratus) is a species of parrots that intelligent (as we know, almost all parrots are intelligent). But different from the lovebird who tend to be monogamous, the male and female eclectus parrot does not have a regular partner. Female birds, though it had a partner, it is possible to look for a new partner. Similarly, the male birds who already have a partner.

Another unique thing of this bird is that the mother often kills their male child if it appears certain conditions or trigger factors.

Eclectus parrot has nine subspecies which is scattered in lowland forests, coconut groves and savannah that are in the Moluccas, Bali, Papua, Australia, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.

Despite its status in the IUCN Red List set to the Least Concern / LC, in fact, the eclectus parrot populations in the wild are running low, mainly due to the rampant poaching and habitat destruction. Therefore, eclectus parrot is in the list of protected birds in all around the world.

Breeding the eclectus parrot is one way to prevent the extinction of this endangered species. Some people have tried to breed this bird, for example such as the Mega Bird and Orchid Farm in Indonesia, in the city of Bogor.

Hopefully this article can help you to know more about the eclectus parrot.

3 Important Factors In Training African Gray Parrot

African gray parrotis famous for its ability to speak. But you should know that there is no guarantee at all that if we buy this bird then it will be part of the family and can talk. Training a parrot to talk requires affection, patience, and consistent. The young birds are generally much easier to train than the old one.

Affection

Almost all pets require attention and affection from their owner. The affection will be rewarded by it as shown at the time the owner will go or go home. Otherwise, if the bird owner does not pay attention or show affection then they also will not care about what is desired by the owner. Thus, they require seriousness to unconditionally accept whatever the result if they will be able to talk or not. Besides smart parrots are also known to be very sensitive. It is said that they can affect you if they have known you.

Patient

As well as training a child to learn to speak, it needs patience. Exercise should be done gradually and do not make the target time will ultimately be a disappointment if the burden of expectations did not materialize. Feeling of disappointment can also override the little bird that has sensitive feelings. Who knows disobedience to orders is a reaction of disappointment on your attitude. It should be remembered however that a bird may not be equated with a child in a certain period of time was able to speak.

Consistent

Training methods should be done consistently and accompanied with sincerity. Each word or phrase that is taught should be supported by the meaning or signs that distinguish it from other words. For example, at the time the sun rises regularly and repeatedly just say "good morning" and the sunset time just say "Good night". From the differences in the morning and evening, the bird will realize the difference to the meaning of the two words. Remember, don’t make the birds confused.

Good luck in training African gray parrot at home.

Tips On Captivating Old Macaw Parrot

Captivating an old macaw parrot is something that memorable for bird enthusiasts. Moreover, if the bird is kept since it was just hatched, or ever achieve a wonderful achievement and made their owners famous, or there could be a special moment when buying or obtaining the bird.

Bird does have its own memory for those who they see every day, such as nurses, owners, and members of the family. If cared properly, correctly and consistently, the bird will continue to feel safe and comfortable look closest people, especially if it’s treated over the years.

Captivating old birds do require some special attentions. Starting from the provision of regular extra food but with smaller portions than the share of young birds to bathe needs are likely to increase (2-3 times daily). The goal is to reduce the excessive lust arise at any time, allowing the birds to be lazy sound. Not to mention the duration of drying also have to be reduced a bit, and so on.

Maintaining old bird is different from the young birds and mature birds. Because of the old age, the birds tend to be in unstable conditions lust. Old bird has a maturity of lust different from adult birds. If not managed properly, it could have led to an explosion of lust.

When the birds do not have a partner, then the lust explosion condition can cause stress to the birds, tend to be more silent, or even suddenly paralyzed. If the old birds are having a lust explosion, the best way is to give them a partner, although the goal is not to breed it.

In the nature, macaw parrot can be found in the tropical rain forest and savanna in central America and South America, especially in Mexico, Bolivia, Brazil, Panama, and Paraguay.

Hopefully this article can help you in captivating old macaw parrot at home.

The History Of African Grey Parrot

Captivating the African Grey Parrot as pets have been conducted since the early of 1800s where Dr. W.T. Greene in his book in several series including the series with title "The Grey and How to Treat it", 1885. At first, African grey parrots are often called by the name of "Jaco" because the original sounds used by Portuguese sailors in their voyages at sea.

There are several other examples of literature and records of captivating the African grey parrot as pet. The European nobles really liked this bird because of its beauty and the ability to speak. In the early of 1500s, said that England King, King Henry VII had an African Grey Parrot that stored at Hampton Court. Manuscripts by famous German naturalist, Johann Matthäus Bechstein, his classic works written in the bird cage in 1774, describing African Grey Parrots are owned by Cardinal Ascanius.

Today, the bird with latin name Psittacus Erithacus can be found in the rainforests of west and central Africa. African Grey Parrots reach the maturity at the age of 4 or 5 years and have a life span of over 50 years in captivity.

In the wild, male and female African grey parrot start looking for a mate and breed around the age of 7-8 years. It could be said that grey parrot are birds with the latest sexual maturity. But in a breeding cage, the sexual maturity can be accelerated to about 5 years.

If you want to breed this amazing bird, you must provide an ideal breeding cage first. The size of the cage can be adjusted with the available space, but it should be at least 5 meters long, 1.5 meters wide and 2 meters high. This size is not too narrow, but also not too broad, and it is believed will make the birds feel more comfortable living activities, including in terms of reproduction or breed.

Hopefully this article can help you to know more about the amazing African grey parrot.

The Curious African Grey Parrot

African grey parrotis one of the most popular pet birds because of its ability to mimic human speech. This amazing bird is not only beautiful and interesting, but it is also happy to interact and have an inquisitive nature. The personality and curious nature of this bird  will be amazing and encouraging the owners. African Grey Parrot classified in the category of a very wise animals, making them the best pet parrot for bird enthusiasts around the world.

African Grey Parrot is usually chosen as a pet bird because of the appeal and its ability to speak. In addition to speaking, it is also very easy to imitate the sounds around them. This bird can imitate human voice, the sound of other birds, the sound of ringing phones and much more. Although they are good at conversation, African Grey Parrot is not bird species that like to screaming like the other parrot family.

With all the advantages that exist on the African Grey Parrot, makes this bird very popular among bird enthusiasts all over the world, but it requires very high commitment to maintain this bird. African Grey Parrot will quickly get bored if you do not provide a lot of stimulation. It requires much interaction with their owners than the game that exist in in their cage.

Although African Grey Parrot like to be held, it still needs supervision when interacting with humans as essentially a wild animal instincts. This bird has the same ingenuity as children aged 5 years, but have emotions like a 2 years old child.

African Grey Parrots (Psittacus Erithacus) with medium size can be found in the rainforests in the west and central Africa. African grey parrot ready to reproduce at the age of 4 or 5 years and have a life span of more than 50 years in captivity.

Tips On Breeding The Moluccan Parrot

Breeding the moluccan parrot is one way to prevent the extinction of this endangered species. Some people have tried to breed this bird, for example such as the Mega Bird and Orchid Farm in Indonesia, in the city of Bogor. If you want to breed this endangered parrot, you have to know a few things.

Before you start to breed this bird, you must prepare a few things related to the breeding, breeding permit eg, cost, time, easy access to the vet, bird guards and nurses, availability of medicines, cages and special quarantine. First thing, the bird that is ready to mate must be at least 3 years old or more, but not exceeding 8 years. Although the moluccan parrot has an average age of 30 years, certainly birds that are too old not to be a good parent.

When about to start the mate, the male parrot are often frowned their feathers, spread the tail, wings open, rising the cowlick, or such as nodding or bouncing. While the female bird was initially seen to avoid or ignore. But for a few days soon after being reunited, the female will allow the male bird approached.

After they paired, they will be seen preening each other with head and tail comb partner. This shows they have no emotional attachment. After some time, male birds began to perform ritual mating and the female will lay eggs.

Similar to the sex behavior of other parrots, moluccan parrot also faithful to their spouse. If it is paired, they will be loyal until the end, unless we separate them and replace them with a new partner. But it is usually not easy to match again with another partner, because the bird is losing his soul mate long enough to experience depression.

You also have to pay attention to the breeding cage. Breeding cages must be in a quiet environment and protected from the sun heat or rain. Cage size depends on the area of land you have, the important bird can still fly stretch his wings and jumping freely.

Good luck in breeding moluccan parrot at home.

The Endangered Species Of Moluccan Parrot

Moluccan parrot (Cacatua moluccensis) is a native bird species to the island of Seram, Central Maluku. This bird is also called seram parrots. In the international bird literature, this bird is called the salmon crested cockatoo. Currently, the population of moluccan parrot continues to shrink, so that it takes two actions at once. First, stop hunting for these birds in the wild. The second, for those who have this bird are encouraged to breed it.

In the IUCN list, the moluccan parrot specified in vulnerable status. If the population continues to shrink, then the status can be more serious become endangered (threatened with extinction), or even directly to critical. Therefore, conservation efforts are absolutely necessary, and breeding could be one solution to solve this problem.

If you are interested to breed the moluccan parrot, please contact the authorized institution in your areas (Livestock Service Office, Natural Resource Conservation Center, etc.) for the permits to breed it. This method has been done by many endangered bird species breeders in all over the world.

In their natural habitat, the moluccan parrot is common in lowland forests up to 1,000 meters altitude areas above sea level. They are looking for food in the form of grains, nuts, fruits, and coconut. Beak incredible strength, can weigh 2,000 kg, so as to solve the fiber and hard coconut shell.

The main characteristic of this bird is distinctive crest, pink, and can be upheld. So, when you see the moluccan parrot uphelding its cowlick, it is better not approach it, it may be angry. When it’s angry, the risk of being bitten can happen. Hard coconut shells can be crushed easily, imagine if you got bitten. But if the cowlick is lowered, you may as well approach it, or even play with it. Therefore, this shows the friendly emotional state.

Hopefully this article can help you to know more about the endangered moluccan parrot.

Important Components In Parrot Food

You must pay attention at the parrot food problems, because most parrots have high temperament (easily angered) when faced with something unpleasant, including the food problems. To make sure your parrot stay healthy all the time, here are some tips for you:

1. Provide fresh water in the cage

To ensure the cleanliness of drinking water for your parrot, try to always replace the water container every day. You should also use the same container, but must be cleaned every time you want to fill it with water.

Parrot love to ruffle object nearby them, no exception for the drinking water in the container. In fact, some parrot like to dip grains or vegetables that is in their beak into the water, thus making the water dirty very quickly. Not just dirty, the potential for bacteria to enter the water is very high, so it can harm the health of your parrot. The cleanliness of the water container is also important. Even if you regularly change the water into the container, it become useless if the container never replaced or at least washed.

To wash the drinking container, you should start with hot water to remove all the dirt on the surface of the container. Better yet, if you use a non-detergent soap. After that, wash it again with hot water, if necessary, use a disinfectant and let the container to dry. To make it dry faster, you can use a hairdryer. You should boil the water before put it in the container to kill harmful bacteria. It is better if you use waer from a gallon of mineral water.

2. Fresh fruits and vegetables

You should provide fresh food in the cage every day, because it is the important menu that should be given to the parrot. There is no food that can guarantee the balance of nutrients such as vegetables. Fruits are also good, but a few pieces have a very high sugar content with a low nutritional value, so you must be selective in choosing the fruit. For example, grape. This fruit is very popular for parrots. Grape is very sweet and favored by most of the parrots. But the grape is less than helpful in maintaining a healthy parrot compared to other fruits.

Vegetables that good for parrots such as green vegetables (green beans, broccoli, etc.), vegetables with dark green leaf color (radish), and orange vegetables (carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes). This food should be provided every day. As an addition, you can give one or two other types of vegetables or fruits. For example, corn and peas. However, because of the high sugar content, it should not be too frequent.

3. Pellet

Considering that not all parrots have the same tastes, pellets can also given to ensure adequate nutrition. If your parrot does not like vegetables, you can give pellets. Some parrot like to eat pellet instead of fresh food. The good pellet is the one which colorless, because the color usually contain chemicals, and even sugar. Although parrot prefers food color, we can train them to consume natural colored pellets (light brown to dark brown).

4. Mixture of grains

Grains are not always served as the main food for parrots. Most of the large parrots just eat it as a snack. Even if parrots have not consume grains, you should never give it. Most of the small parrots, which naturally often consume grains, you should give it for their food.

Hopefully this article about important components in parrot food is helpful for you and can help you in captivating parrot at home.

Spider Surprise For Parrot

I am trying to be more spider-tolerant. This is not a default reaction for me, but since they are harmless, as long as they aren't on me, I try to let them live. I had a challenging encounter yesterday! After seeing this one on my wall, she found her way here:

I was so careful, going into the kitchen to brush my teeth, and trying to give her enough time to find another place to go.

And then I walked in on Beeps, right after he'd taken a bath in his water dish.  Of course, I had to rinse out and refill his water dish, so I went into the bathroom and flushed out the spider!

She was really wet, but OK.  I managed to get her outside, alive.

I'm not sure that was the right thing to do -- can house spiders survive outside?  At least it is warm out now, and hopefully if she doesn't survive, she was food for someone else.

Tips On Breeding Parrots : How To Reduce The Aggressiveness Of The Male Parrots

It is very important to maintain a comfortable atmosphere in a cage for a couple of breeding parrots, especially for the male parrots. Another thing that suspected to be the trigger of the male parrot aggressiveness is the sexual problems. When males are ready to mate, but the the female does not want to mate with the partner, it can also angered the male parrots.

So, in order to reduce the risk of damage that occurs in captivating parrots, check out some useful tips:

1. Provide a special nest box

Normally, nest boxes for parrots has one hole that is used as an entrance and exit. If you use a nest box with only one hole, then when the male parrot become aggressive, the female can be in danger because it is difficult to get out of the nest, especially if the male parrot covering the exit hole. So, the best way is to provide specially designed nest box that has two holes.

2. Giving wing clipping for the male parrots

Wing clipping is the method of clipping the main flying feather on the wings. It can be applied only for the male parrots. The goal is to slowing down the movement of birds while appearing its aggressive nature. Thus, the female parrot which did not receive wing clipping will have time to escape.

This method does not hurt the birds, because only cutting a partial wing feathers used to fly high. This method is commonly used even a parrot breeder in many countries, in order to tame or train the parrot birds like parakeets, lovebird and others.

3. Provide two feed container in the cage

You should provide more than one feed container, so that female parrot can take the food in another container in case the male parrot prevent it. In some cases, female parrots often die from dehydration and starvation due to blocked by the male parrots when it want to take food and water.

4. Optimizing the reproductive function

As we all know, the male parrots can enraged when they are ready to mate, while the females resist to mate and keep running away from the male. This is usually because the female is not in the mood. In order to make both male and female in the same lust condition, you can give some bird supplement in order to optimize the reproductive function.

In addition to optimizing the lust conditions, some supplement can increase fertility (eggs fertility), hatching rate (the percentage of eggs that hatched), and the chicks that hatch into more healthy and have grow healthfully.

5. Installing cameras in the cage

In order to monitor the behavior of your parrots in the breeding cage, you can not constantly be near the cage. Moreover, if the breeding cages are outdoors. The best solution is to install monitoring cameras to make the breeding behavior always in control. When something happens, you can directly take precautions.

6. Separating the males and females

Once you see the signs of male parrot begin to suppress the female, you must immediately separate them in for a while until the male birds back in calm condition.

7. Choosing the perfect match

Many experienced breeders believe that parrots should be allowed to find their own mate in colony cages, which is filled with some of female and male parrots. Do not match a particular male and a female parrot based on your choice, because it can trigger the aggressive character of the males.

By allowing your parrot to choose their own mate, the male is relatively calm. Pairing in a solitary cage can be done only for experienced breeders only, mainly to produce certain color mutations.

So, good luck in breeding parrots at home.