The Holistic Parrot by Leslie Moran

With the holidays behind us, we turn and look towards a new year full of hope and optimistic possibilities. As you ponder any New Year’s resolutions you’ve made, would you consider starting a schedule of weekly weigh-ins for your feathered companions? This can become a fun social activity for you and your birds and may also help you recognise and stop a health concern before it costs one of your birds its life.

In the wild a necessary survival skill and natural and instinctual behaviour is for a bird to act as if they are healthy and fine, keeping up with their flock, when in reality they are very sick. My avian vet has told me he receives calls nearly every week from a concerned caretaker whose parrot had suddenly dropped dead over night. The truth of the matter is that the symptoms and signals the bird was showing were so slight, they went completely unnoticed, until the bird was found lifeless on the bottom of the enclosure.

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by Sally Blanchard

When it comes to food, some parrots such as Amazons and Eclectus eat with such gusto you would think that they hadn’t eaten for days while others, especially the small ones, are very dainty about their food consumption. This difference can be based on their species or on their early socialisation to food.

In the wild, while they are in the nest, parrot chicks are fed completely by their parents or occasionally birds that could be called nannies that are members of the family or flock. They are usually fed a sort of pablum that has been partially digested and regurgitated from the adult’s crop. As the process continues, the food may change to a less digested fare consisting of foods that will become their natural diet. When the babies fledge, they fly around with their parents and/or other members of the flock who teach them to eat the foods that are found in their environment. The vast majority of parrots are opportunistic omnivores. This means that they eat just about everything that is available.

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Personality Profile by Sally Blanchard

The Yellow-collared Macaw is also called the Golden-collared Macaw. Its range includes the Pantanal of Brazil, northern Argentina, northern Paraguay, and northern and eastern Bolivia. There is also a separate population in western and central Brazil.

It is still fairly common in all of its range so the populations of the Yellow-collared Macaw are considered to be stable. The Yellow-collared is one of the smaller macaws that are often referred to as a mini macaw and are about 15in in length. This macaw is often mentioned as being closely related to the Severe Macaw. However in her book “The Large Macaws”, Joanne Abramson states that studies of chromosomes show that the Severe Macaw is more closely related to the Blue and Gold Macaw than it is to the Yellow-collared.

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Whilst cockatoos can be a great deal of fun, there are some that can inflict serious injuries when natural instincts take over. Tony Silva, who has worked with many parrot species over the years, offers some valuable advice.

Some weeks ago, I had the honour of visiting the Bird Gardens of Naples, in Florida, which provides a home for unwanted birds. As I walked around with Keriellen Lohrman, we discussed the problem of unwanted cockatoos. Like me, she has found that males are the gender most commonly found in rescues. This is because males can become exceptionally aggressive as they reach sexual maturity, or when the unpredictable nature ingrained in their genes emerges.

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