Parrot Care and Enrichment

One of the reasons I love working at Wingham Wildlife Park is because over the years we have done a lot of rehoming and rescue work, including many of the parrots on my section. Sometimes, when someone has purchased a parrot, they quickly realise that they can be an extremely challenging pet. Whilst upsetting, it does mean that many parrots end up being rehomed in these types of situations. We receive calls almost daily it seems throughout the year asking if we can rehome pet parrots, but of course we only have so much room in our aviaries. If you’re thinking about inviting a parrot into your life, please do lots of research, and better yet, perhaps consider a parrot that needs rehoming.

Blue and gold macaws look adorable but can be a challenging pet. They can bite hard enough to break your finger.

Parrots are an extremely sociable species. Many of the parrots that have been rehomed here became aggressive as they matured. Baby parrots are adorable, but sometimes when someone has just one parrot, the bird often fiercely bonds to just one member of the family. Stroking, especially on the wings and under the tail might further encourage bonded birds like this to pair up with their owner. Unfortunately, this can also mean that they can be aggressive to other members of the household when they become sexually mature.

Imagine a toddler having a tantrum with a pair of sharp secateurs on their face to express how they feel, that’s a parrot! And this is one of the most common reasons a parrot may need to be rehomed as they often give very painful bites. It is also difficult (and expensive) to find a vet that specialises in the care of birds. On top of this they are also extremely noisy, screeching anywhere from 65 decibels for a small bird like a budgie to 135 decibels for a bigger species such as a Moluccan Cockatoo. For context, a jet engine can produce a peak noise level of around 140 to 150 decibels. Parrots generally live a long time so caring for them is also a big commitment… up to a 75 year one for some species like a Scarlet Macaw!

You may have noticed on your visit that some of our ex-pet parrots are missing feathers. Parrots can start plucking their feathers for a variety of different reasons, and once they start this behaviour it is very difficult to reverse… a bit like me trying to stop biting my nails!

Here at the park we feed most of our parrots on a pellet diet because this food contains all of the nutrients and vitamins a bird needs. We supplement this with a little fruit and veg every day and pulses on occasion. However, this specialised food is quite expensive so many choose to feed their parrots a mainly seed diet instead. Here at the park, high fat foods like seeds and nuts are given to our parrots as an occasional treat only as too much of this type of food can lead to obesity. An insufficient diet can also be a reason why a parrot may start feather plucking.

Parrots as a whole are very intelligent creatures. Most likely a big reason for feather plucking to start is through boredom. Parrots need to be kept busy all the time and they don’t flourish when left on their own for long periods of time. A big chunk of our day-to-day work on the bird section is coming up with enrichment ideas for our parrots!

All of our animals at the Park have a regular programme of enrichment. This is the term we use to describe a set of activities or practices that stimulate our animals and encourage natural behaviour. Sometimes enrichment can be really obvious, you may have seen our animals playing with toys or our keepers hard at work building new platforms and swings and things. But sometimes enrichment can be less obvious such as keepers leaving interesting smells hidden about or a change up an enclosure’s plants or layout.

Hyacinth macaws helping the keepers clear up.

I often get asked what enrichment people can do for their own birds, so I’d love to share with you guys some of our Parrot’s favourite enrichment! The best form of enrichment for our parrots is each other! They adore company and our birds spend most of their day interacting with each other.

Parrots of any size can be very destructive as they love to chew wood, so the enrichment that keeps them occupied for the longest time is giving them something to chew! You’ll see lots of log toys in our parrot aviaries and we give them fresh branches to shred every few days or so. Be careful though as some trees can be poisonous to birds!  There is a handy book called “BIRD BROWSE & FLOWER BOOKLET” which is our bible to what we can feed out to the parrots and how often. Some species of tree can cause problems if it is fed too frequently, and some trees only the leaves, bark or flowers are suitable. Eucalyptus is a great staple as it an evergreen species so we can use it throughout the winter too!

When giving animals enrichment we like to encourage natural behaviours such as foraging. We achieve this by hiding their food around and by putting their food into puzzle feeders, to be honest we are always trying to come up with ideas to outsmart our parrots. They are so quick at solving a puzzle when food is involved, and this problem solving would be a vital skill to survive in the wild.

Moluccan cockatoo using a puzzle wheel feeder.

Another great way to get our parrots brains working hard is to encourage them to do training. As a bird that can inflict injury to keepers, it’s really helpful for us to be able to monitor them without catching them up. One of the easiest ways to check our birds condition is to weigh them frequently. You can see our parrots get very excited when they see the scales as they associate them with a tasty treat! Teaching them to drink from a syringe is also something we work on in case anyone needs to have any medicine in the future.

Many species of parrots live in tropical rain forests and will make full use of those frequent downpours to wash their feathers. The same can be said for the parrots at the park, and when we have periods without rain we can help the birds out by offering them a shower from a spray bottle. Our parrots absolutely love a shower when it’s a nice day. I think the keepers get just as much enjoyment out of this as the parrots, and sometimes just as soaked!

As well as wood to chew, we often make the parrots toys out of paper and card to mix things up a bit. We avoid using long thin rope or string as these can entangle birds if left unsupervised. There really is an endless possibility of toys we can make, and so it’s a great challenge for us to get creative. Check out my previous blog here (link: https://winghamwildlifepark.co.uk/the-versatility-of-card-tubes/) to see some of the toys we make with card tubes. We’ve found the parrots really love shedding and opening these types of toys when we put their food in them. Since many of the keepers spend the Christmas holidays looking after the animals at the park, you can be sure our parrots will enjoy ripping open their presents on Christmas Day as well!

Scarlet macaw enjoying a present on Christmas day.

This Major Mitchell’s cockatoo even enjoyed helping us clear up the mess on Boxing Day.

By Becky, Head of Birds Section