Captured or Captive Bred Birds

Because birds rarely can communicate their intelligence and feelings to humans to the extent that Alex can, they suffer terribly at the hands of humans.

Birds are meant to fly and be with others of their own kind in a natural environment. Confinement causes birds to have temper tantrums and mood swings. Birds can also be mischievous and highly destructive. They sometimes chew carpet, electrical and phone wires, and practically any other material in your home. It is not their fault that they do not make good house companions.

"Punishing" birds only increases their frustration and makes them more unruly. Anyone who already has a bird or birds must learn what birds need in order to be more calm and contented, as discussed later in this factsheet.

Breeding for Profit

Just as there are puppy mills, there are bird factories, where breeders warehouse hundreds of thousands of birds so that they can produce offspring.

As a "breeder," a bird is a commodity, placed with a "mate" to reproduce and seldom, if ever, removed from the nest box. Birds do not have to be kept in healthy, hygienic conditions or fed high-quality food to produce eggs; typically the eggs are removed and incubator-hatched and the babies hand-fed special formulas. Egg removal is a signal for the female to produce another egg, and another, and another ... eventually ruining her health.

Even in low-profit enterprises, most birds live out their lives in small cages, surrounded by the frightening sounds of many other birds unfamiliar to them. A bird who cannot choose his or her mate may become depressed, especially if separated from a previous partner. Birds in captivity are often forced to take numerous mates, and since most nest boxes offer no means of escape, females who refuse sexual advances can be injured or killed by frustrated males.

Enslaved and Stressed

There is no such animal as a "cage bird." All caged birds are either captured or captive-bred. No bird was born to be in a cage.

In the wild, these beautiful beings are never alone, and if separated even for just a moment, they call wildly to their flockmates. Flock-oriented, they preen each other, fly together, play, and share egg incubation duties. Many species of birds mate for life and share parenting tasks. Most birds will not take a second mate in the wild if their first is lost.

Hand-raised as well as wild-caught birds often become neurotic, pulling out feathers and mutilating themselves, sometimes to the point of death. When ready to breed, many species naturally pluck some feathers to prepare for nest-building and egg-sitting, but when humans interfere with their natural behavior and disrupt biological and instinctual cycles by imprisoning birds, plucking becomes a destructive compulsion.

Stress is an everyday experience for captive birds. Hand-raised birds crave affection and companionship and sometimes do not like to let their human companion out of their sight. They don't understand the separations when you go to work, or worse, on vacation—birds pine and grieve and can even die of a broken heart.

Birds imported from the wild are often frightened and high-strung. A person nipped by a bird may never want to handle him or her again and condemn the bird to live imprisoned in a cage forever.

Birds Need Other Birds

If you or people you know already have birds and are unable to provide them with companionship and space to fly, please consider the following:

• Find out if there is a bird sanctuary or large indoor-outdoor aviary (or an outdoor one in a very warm climate) to which you can release the bird. Ideally, place birds with other members of their own species. Check climate, mating, opportunities for privacy, and other key factors.
  
  
• Mating should be allowed but not breeding—eggs should be hollowed by draining them through a small hole, or there should be no nest boxes. Neither solution is ideal, but these birds are living under unnatural conditions, and it would be inhumane to allow more birds to be born into a captive environment.
  
  
• If you cannot find a reputable sanctuary, donate the bird to someone who has other birds of the same species, allows them to live in a free-flight situation, and will never separate them once they have bonded.
  
  
• If you wish to keep the bird, find a companion bird of the same species. NEVER buy from a pet shop or breeder. Frequently, people do not want to get another bird because they are afraid that the first bird won't pay enough attention to them anymore. This may be the case, but isolating a bird for this reason is extremely selfish. If the bird does pay less attention to his or her human friends, it just proves how starved for same-species attention he or she was. Do it! Check shelters, humane societies, animal rights groups, newspapers, and nursing homes—birds often outlive their human companions.
  
  
• Do not put a large bird like a macaw with a small bird like a cockatiel—this can be terrifying to the smaller bird. Also, species from different continents may never get along and can transmit diseases for which the others have no immunity.
  
  
• Before introducing a new bird to other birds, take him or her to an avian veterinarian for a checkup. If the new-comer is in good health, put his or her cage in the flight enclosure, so the birds can see each other. Watch to see how they seem to get along. If they seem friendly to each other, after two days open the door of the small cage. The newcomer will come out when he or she wants to. Leave this cage in place, door open, for as many days as the newcomer may want to use it as a safe place, until he or she totally abandons it.
  
  
• Read and learn all you can about the types of birds you have, including how they live in the wild. For example, it can frighten a tree-dweller to be placed on the floor or in a cage that's low to the ground.

Flight

• Let the birds fly free for long periods of time every day, spending as much time out of the cage as possible. Convert your balcony or porch into an aviary or build a good-weather one in your backyard if possible. Otherwise, provide a "bird-proof" room or rooms—with no ceiling fans or other bird hazards. Include a bird "gym" or tree for exercise.
  
  
• Some birds have learned to seek the security of a cage at night. Inside the aviary, provide a covered cage or similar retreat that these birds can enter and exit at will.

Poisons and Other Hazards

• Do not cut the birds' wing feathers. Instead, let them enjoy flying.
  
  
• Eliminate hazards like ceiling fans, pots of water, open toilet bowls, places where they could get stuck, sprayed vegetables, electrical wires, large glass windows and mirrors, etc.
  
  
• The fumes emitted by Teflon when it is overheated and by self-cleaning ovens are deadly to birds—never use in a home with birds.
  
  
• Peanuts can contain aflatoxin, which is also fatal to birds.
  
  
• Pencil lead can be fatal if eaten. Chocolate and avocados are poisonous to birds.
  
  
• Make sure that none of your plants is poisonous to the species of bird living in your home.
  
  
• Use ecologically safe products—no strong cleaners, aerosols, artificial air fresheners, or insecticides.
  
  
• Some apartment complexes demand that you make your apartment available to exterminators—usually you can legally refuse for "health reasons."

Food and Water

• Change the birds' water twice daily.
  
  
• Keep food and water containers above perches, high enough not to get soiled with droppings.
  
  
• Offer a variety of fruits and vegetables, along with grains, cooked beans, and seeds. Health food stores and some pet stores sell bean mixes that you can cook and freeze for future use. Never allow food to sit more than a few hours—birds are very susceptible to bacterial infections. Birds have tremendously fast metabolisms and cannot be without food very long. They also are slow to try something new; a food may have to be offered repeatedly before they try it.
  
  
• Do not buy bird food and supplies from pet shops that sell birds; you will be supporting the bird trade. Fresh foods are available in supermarkets and health food stores.
  
  
• Seed diets alone are inadequate and can lead to vitamin and mineral deficiencies.
  
  
• Ideally, buy organically grown food. Foods you see in the market in the off-season (e.g., grapes or melons) may have been shipped from other countries where pesticide use is even less regulated than in ours—or such foods could have been in storage, where they were sprayed, waxed, and fumigated with multiple chemicals to keep them from spoiling. Be sure to wash everything.
  
  
• If the food that the birds love is not available, grow it yourself. Most beans and seeds can be sprouted at home; even on a balcony, you can grow green vegetables and herbs.
  
  
• Birds need the proper combination of vitamins, minerals, and amino acids to remain healthy. This requires a good supplement.
  
  
• Produce is not adequate as a diet for many birds. Some species in the wild are grain-eaters only.

Other Needs

• Birds need a private place, like a screen to go behind, in their room or flight enclosure.
  
  
• They need "quality time" with you every day.
  
  
• Baths or mistings when the birds desire them are greatly appreciated. Provide shallow containers or a birdbath with lukewarm water. Some birds like to be sprayed with water from a spray bottle. One person installed a perch in her shower; the birds sit on the shower-curtain rod, and when the (lukewarm) shower is turned on, they can descend to the perch, if they so choose.
  
  
• Ideally, birds should get between eight and 12 hours of sleep a night, preferably from dusk on, in a draped flight enclosure or a covered cage.
  
  
• Nail trims may be necessary, but often can be avoided by providing cement swings and perches. Beak trims should not be necessary unless there is an underlying health problem. Chewing on toys is necessary and good for birds—an overgrown beak is a symptom that requires a trip to a good avian veterinarian.
  
  
• Rotate numerous bird-safe toys for chewing and playing, including wood. Make sure the wood is not poisonous. Apple-tree branches are good if they haven't been sprayed. Companion animal supply companies sell suitable wooden bird toys. Again, birds are slow to try something new, so it may take months before interest in a toy is stimulated.
  
  
• Most birds enjoy listening to classical music, especially Mozart, during the day.

Birds as Tourist "Attractions"

Please refuse to stay at resort hotels that keep birds caged as "decorations." Let your travel agent and the hotel managers know that you will not support this cruelty.

References

Dr. Lorin Lindner