Fern, a wild caught Alexandrine hen, came to us as a rehome from an ex-Army sergeant. Having spent 4 years in a tiny cage she could no longer fly. However once released into my large mixed aviary, her flight skills returned and she became the leading parakeet in the mixed flock. Fern laid infertile eggs so I advertised in The Parrot Society magazine for an Alexandrine cock. Two breeders replied and we arranged to visit one.
His collection of parakeets were housed in several flights in a large three-sided shed with a clear roof. Each 2-metre flight had concrete floors, a couple of nest boxes and one single perch. Each flight contained between 2 and 6 birds. They clung to the wire nearest the daylight. Their noise was infernal. The breeder showed them off and was clearly proud of their interesting colour mutations. My husband, Wal, (not a parrot person) exited the bird room in a hurry. Later he said: “I couldn’t bear that place – just like a prison.”
The experienced breeder had kept birds for 30 years. “How long have you kept birds?” he asked me. “Only ten years.” And then I added, “Wouldn’t the birds like some branches in their flights?” “Waste of time,” he replied, “They’d just chew them to bits.” “They might enjoy a swing?” “Possibly - but I don't have the time. I only have weekends. It’s different for you.”
I dropped the subject for we’d never agree. His healthy birds were mostly in good feather, a few plucked. Their dull lives were puny in comparison to their wild cousins even though they most probably lived longer. I appreciated that this breeder works elsewhere every day but it doesn’t take much time or money to provide swings from broom handles or old inner tubes, activities for those active minds and bodies. I brought the Alexandrine cock back to my aviary. Within a couple of months, thin, timid Fred had filled out and was enjoying swinging and chewing with the other parakeets.
Some breeders allow even less space. I went last month with a friend to collect a young Grey he had just bought. In the bird room, ten pairs were kept in one metre square cages stacked upon one another and spend their whole lives like that. This breeder achieves reasonable results so considers that his birds are happy enough. Can it be ethical to keep an intelligent species like African Greys in such dismal conditions?
Breeding hasn’t always been cramped and orientated towards profit. In her fascinating and comprehensive account of 20th century aviculture, Rosemary Low points out that large aviaries were once the norm: “In that era,” Rosemary refers to the earlier part of the 20th century, “some aviaries were so large that the owner was unaware that a pair had nested until three birds were sitting on the perch.”
Commercial breeding had not yet become big business. Writing of the late 19th and early 20th century aviculturists Rosemary remarks, “Financial reward played no part in their desire to encourage their birds to breed.”
In the last forty years, improvements in veterinary knowledge and avian nutrition has meant that breeding and incubating psittacines has become easier. And hand feeding every species has become possible. What a doubtful blessing! Hand reared pet birds, especially cockatoos, can develop emotional problems because they don’t realize that they are birds, not quasi-humans. I also believe that animals as emotional as parrots suffer greatly from the continual robbing of their nests.
Fortunately not all breeders neglect other aspects of their charges’ lives apart from their breeding potential. Gregoire Dorget, south east of Paris, is one such enlightened breeder. He keeps 120 pairs. His birds live in similar species flocks in good-sized aviaries during autumn and winter; the pairs remove to smaller, individual flights when breeding begins. When a pair goes to nest in a small aviary, access to the big one is closed off. No other bird will disturb them. The big common aviaries are 20 m- 25m long, and the small ones are 3 m. x 2.5 m. (for macaws) and 2 m. x 1 m. for smaller species. Gregoire told me, “For enrichment the birds get a lot of branches. It’s the minimum we can give them to avoid boredom and let them use their beak. I love them all.”
When they are finished with breeding, Greg re-opens the door, and the pair can rejoin their flock, socialize and become fit. Colony breeding like this is suitable for nearly all species of parrot. Birds bred like this will make better pets and more content breeding birds.
Could pet owners use their buying power to improve the lives of breeding birds? Yes, if we only bought birds from conscientious breeders who are prepared to offer the breeding pairs and their offspring a satisfactory quality of life.
Resources
Website Gregoire Dorget www.colony.fr
A Century of Parrots - Rosemary Low Insignis publications 2006