Mixing Different Species in an Aviary

I often get phone calls from people asking about having mixed flights with various different birds in there: Can I have this bird with this bird? Will they be ok?  Will this work?

There aren’t really any set rules on which species can go together, but there are guidelines that can help you in this situation.

Many years ago, when Raymond Sawyer was alive, he had aviaries around his house with all sorts of different species together, when most people would say you can’t do that as they will fight.  But he was a brilliant bird man and he knew his birds very well and he would study them.  You often find you can put different species together, especially outside of the breeding season.  The problem comes when you’ve got say a large aviary with softbills in it, with starlings, ground birds such as Plovers and Touracos and all sorts of exotic birds.  They can be fine outside of the breeding season, but as you come into the breeding season you need to make sure that there is plenty of food available, and that food is available in several different places so that the large birds and the small birds are not going to the same area to feed.  You also need to ensure that there is adequate places for all the birds to nest.  Basically what you are trying to do is to avoid confrontation between the birds.  It is very easy for one pair of birds to start claiming a territory in the aviary and this can cause problems.  So in these situations, someone like Raymond Sawyer would study these birds very closely.  If one bird or perhaps one pair of birds was disrupting the aviary, they would get moved to somewhere else and really it’s this sort of studying of the birds that makes the difference.

With other species of birds like parrots, you can have several different species in an aviary.  I can remember in the days of Birdworld we created a very large aviary and in this aviary we put species of cockatoos, macaws, amazons, african greys… all sorts of different parrots together.  When you do this, again you have to keep a very close eye on the situation.  If you’ve got breeding pairs in there they can cause problems if they mark a territory and the other birds draw close, but if there are plenty of nestboxes and plenty of feeding stations it can be ok.

It is very common in these situations for one bird, perhaps who is weaker than the other birds, to get picked on.  You have to watch the situation closely and remove any birds that may be getting picked on.  At the same time at the other end of the scale, you can have a situation where you have an extremely dominant bird or pair of birds and in order to have a mixed enclosure of parrots, these may also have to be removed.

Once you’ve kept an eye on it and you’re in the breeding season, you can be fairly sure that everything is ok.  It is always a good idea to have plenty more branches in there, especially around the feeding stations so that there is plenty for the birds to do, to land on and to chew and to keep them very, very busy all the time.

There is nothing more wonderful than having an aviary full of different birds in it.

I can remember another aviary in Birdworld in the seashore walk where there were all sorts of plovers, oyster catchers, spoonbills, night herons, and many other different birds together.  It all worked very well but occasionally in that aviary you would have a bird become very tame.  More than once we had oyster catchers, who can be fairly tame (especially when the general public are walking around all the time), become very tame – and a very tame bird sometimes can be picked on by the other birds.  Whether this is a jealousy thing, or whether they become too humanized, I’m not quite sure but it’s something else you have to be watchful for.

Also in a mixed aviary of softbills, like the seashore walk, you will need planting to provide different areas so that the birds can get away from each other. This all has to be taken into consideration.  There is a lot of experience required to produce an aviary for mixed birds.  For many years I travelled around the world, designing aviaries for this purpose.  Aviaries where you can view the birds and enjoy the magnificence of these creatures, but at the same time have an environment where the birds can breed, be happy and will not fight.  This is difficult to explain over the phone, but hopefully these guidelines will help you if you want to go down that path of having a mixed aviary because indeed a mixed aviary in your garden is much more interesting and wonderful to see than aviaries of just one species of birds.  You do have to watch how they interact but the interaction between them, if it’s not violent or a problem, can make a wonderful display and often mixed birds in an enclosure can breed very well indeed.  Perhaps it’s a more natural way of keeping birds, but the mixed aviaries that we had in Birdworld did work extremely well.

Any questions about this, please do not hesitate to contact myself, I will be glad to help.

01252 342533

rob@robharvey.com

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Basic Supplements

All birds do need some sort of supplement, a multivitamin being the basic one.  This makes up the difference in what’s missing from their diet in captivity to the one in the wild.  I get phone calls all the time from customers and people asking for advice on what to feed, and basically you need to     keep it simple.

Whether you have a budgerigar, an ostrich, or any sized bird in between, they do need a vitamin supplement.  A basic powder vitamin supplement, a good quality one, such as the Harvey’s Multivitamin 50g, is fine for all species of birds.  A pinch of this on their seed in their diet everyday is what is required.  A very small amount but they do need it every single day.

For most birds this is the main supplement that will be required.  We do do a vast range of supplements on our website from Quiko – all for slightly different purposes.

The second most common supplement would be a calcium supplement such as the Harvey’s Liquid Calcium 60ml.  During the breeding season, one or two drops of this in the water twice a week is what’s required, unless you have a bird like an African Grey where they would need this all year round as they have a higher rate of absorption.

People often what else can I feed as a supplement to my bird?  With parrot species, any fruit or vegetables, especially things like palm nuts, which are a natural foods are excellent for them.  And with this type of food, you can’t really overdo it.  What you must be careful of with parrots species, is there are so many different diets on the market that you don’t give them a bit of everything and they end up so overfed that they just pick and choose what they want and then they don’t have a balanced diet anymore.

For small species of a birds in a large aviary, sometimes it’s best to have a liquid vitamin supplement to put into the water – but do be aware that if you have water in more than one place or they eat a lot of fruit, they may not drink very much.  So although this can be done and work successfully, often it’s better to use a powder supplement which again you can put onto the seed (because with parrot species and small bird species you know they will go for the seed!).  Although some of the powder supplement is wasted, enough goes into the bird for what you require to keep them fit and healthy.

If you’re concerned your birds are lacking in anything whatsoever, please do give me (Rob Harvey) a ring on 01420 342533, I’ll be happy to advise on our vast range of other supplements and which ones may be suitable.  It is difficult on a blog to recommend them all!  I would however recommend going to the website as well.  There are various supplements, such as the Vitamin E supplement (a lot of people recommend this in the breeding season to get birds to breed), and the Spirulina, as well as many others.

It’s very confusing, but I’m happy to help!

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Companions

“I would like to find a partner for my pet parrot”.

People are often looking for another parrot to buy, to give their tame pet parrot at home some company.  There are a lot of pros and cons to remember when doing this.

African Grey parrots are the most common pet parrot. Probably 9/10 parrots kept for pets are African Greys and people will often have one bird and then buy another bird to keep the first bird company.  In the early stages this can be fine and you may never have a problem.  But do be aware that once the new parrot reaches maturity (at 3 to 4 years old), there is a possibility that the birds will pair up.  If they pair up, especially during the breeding season, it can happen that they will not be tame at all.  If they decide to breed they can be more wild and aggressive than perhaps a bird from the wild, because they have no fear of human beings and when they want to breed they prefer each others company, for want of putting it a better way, than the humans that are around them.  This has caused problems on many occasions.

 

If you have a very tame, hand reared bird at home, that is a part of the family, then this bird, because it has been hand reared, is very happy, is very friendly, and doesn’t necessarily need a companion.  

After warning you about this, there are hundreds of people who have many pet parrots in their house, of the same and different species, and haven’t had any problems.

But you do need to be aware of what can go wrong.

If you have a parrot at home that you do not spend too much time with and buy them a companion because of this, the parrots may then become more use to each other than you, because you do not have enough time, and slowly over a period of time become less tame.  So the idea of giving a companion is a good idea, but do not think that they will always stay as tame as they used to be.

If you’re going to have another parrot as company, you do need to get one of a similar size.  So if you have an African Grey you may consider another African Grey or an Amazon species or even a small Cockatoo.  I wouldn’t suggest going for something as small as a Cockatiel to go with something medium sized such as an African Grey because they are so different in size.

The other thing to remember with parrots, if you’re thinking of buying one as a companion, is that parrots are very intelligent birds and, like young children and many humans, they can become jealous.  So if you have two parrots at home, very tame, loving birds, when you play with one bird, I have had phone calls when the other bird will then attack the other parrot or even the owner, because they are so jealous that the other bird is getting the attention of the owner.  So in some cases, there are aggressive, psychological problems when you have two birds, but this isn’t always the case.  This does depend solely on the bird.

The reason why people love parrots is because they are very intelligent and very individual because of this, so you can have two, three, four parrots and have no problem with fighting, pairing up or jealousy, and everything is absolutely fine but be warned, things can go wrong in this situation.

If you are in a situation where the parrot is very happy, very friendly, and they do spend a lot of time in their cage sleeping anyway, and the bird is very used to the routine of your household, used to the people and your pets, there may be no reason whatsoever to risk anything going wrong and buying a companion.

If you have any questions on this subject whatsoever, or you’ve had problems, by all means if you’re looking for advice, please cal Rob Harvey on 01252 342533.

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