Complete Psittacine by Eb Cravens
It has been over three decades since it first occurred to me that psittacine pets and breeder birds thrive so much better in cages designed as mini-habitats rather than as mere wire enclosures. For some reason it made most sense that if I truly wanted my parrots to be happy and healthy and the pairs to want to produce young, then I must attempt to mimic a natural environment as much as possible with each and every one of my birds.
In those days I could only dream and plan for when I could start to build larger, walk-in flights designed around trees and living greenery. I counted pennies and in 1989 began construction of the first 25ft x 25ft aviary in my planned colony complex. It was magical. There were 10ft trees and bushes and grass and hollow logs and herbs and flowers and swinging perches on chains, all planted and put together months ahead of time in preparation for the day I could finally wire it all in.
How wonderful it was to sit in the middle on one of the pathways and watch the Amboina Kings, Princess Parakeets, my pet Sun Conure and Yellow-fronted Amazons venture out of their smaller side cages (originally laid out to connect) into the new flight. In one fell swoop, I had quintupled the continuous turn-around flight distance of my parrots’ living space.