Melbourne Companion Parrot Workshop

It's been a couple of weeks since we conducted our first Companion Parrot Workshop in Melbourne, Victoria and I still have a `buzz' from the very cool experience working with some fantastic parrot owners on that day. The participants gained a massive amount of information over the 8 hours (we just kept going after the `official' full-time!) and it was so pleasing to see the networking and story sharing going on throughout the day. One of the most rewarding aspects of conducting these days is seeing parrot owners make new and like-minded friends and build their support network - which can be so essential when we encounter challenges and difficulties with our birds.

A remarkable aspect of the demographic in attendance at the workshop was that around 75% of them were Eclectus Parrot owners! What is it about the Eclectus Parrot that often generates a set of real, and sometimes unique, challenges for their owners? In my experience, as both someone who has worked with them in my own collection over the years and also as a consultant called on to support owners managing their behaviour, enrichment, and training over the past 10 years, the Eclectus is very much a bird that we seriously need to spend more time learning about their long-term care needs in captive environments. For me, they are the classic example of how we often get it wrong when we apply the one approach fits all methodology to parrot keeping.

One element that really seems to be feeding (pardon the pun) into the behavioural equation with our Eclectus parrots is the manner in which their owners are managing their diet and daily food intake. Perhaps more so that any other groups of parrot owners I encounter, keepers of pet Eclectus parrots seem to really go overboard with just about every aspect of the feeding program for their bird. A lot of the Eclectus I am seeing (particularly those developing problematic behaviours) are fed excessive amounts of nutrient dense, often high carb, foods at excessive quantities 7 days a week, 365 days a year. The `All You Can Eat Smorgasbord' seems to be the common Eclectus owner's approach to diet management. If you ever get the chance, dial your ear in to a conversation between Eclectus owners. The rap almost always immediately directs itself towards `What do you feed your guy?' Eclectus owners are obsessed with the diet of their birds! Pasta diets, rice diets, large quantities of sprouted seed, as much corn and high sugar fruits as you can eat, human table foods (`awww - but he loves it when we have Pizza') and let's wash it down a few nuts - but hey, just as treats right? ;-) I gotta say - if there's such a thing as reincarnation - I wanna come back as a pampered Eclectus! Now, getting enthused about the diet of our parrots is a good thing - I'm just as passionate about the whole issue of feeding my birds as the next owner. Where we seem to be going wrong is losing sight of the reality of what these birds in their wild state have biologically evolved to feed on, the manner in which they access that food, the volume they would normally be able to obtain vs the energy expenditure required to source and access their daily food intake, and the seasonally fluctuating nature of the nutrient composition of their diets.

Compounding the complexity of getting an Eclectus diet `right' is the increasing anecdotal evidence of problems such as toe tapping and wing flipping being associated with processed foods and some pelleted diets. Those issues aren't the only problems - an increasing number of companion Eclectus parrots are presenting with severe feather picking, chronic masturbating, and concerning escalations in the frequency and intensity of territorially aggressive behaviour. Of course, as a behaviour analyst, evaluating the immediacy of what is occurring in the environment of these birds is the first stage in a pathway towards understanding the problem behaviour and developing behaviour change solutions. However, my approach towards developing some `bigger picture' solutions when working with clients of Eclectus parrots always includes a careful evaluation of the diet management of their bird. For my thinking, when we pump these birds full of nutrient dense foods in excessive quantities 365 days a year it must surely be providing an influence on the physiological state of the bird that has flow on effects in terms of the observable behaviours and responses to environmental stimuli that we then start to see.

It's not just diet issues either - we can now start to see (after nearly 10 years of Eclectus being available to the pet market in Australia and a good sample size to draw anecdotes from) that the social nature of the species, in particular the males, may also be influencing some of the failures to maintain these birds as behaviourally active, engaged, compatible with humans, and healthy, in captive conditions. And the females???... I'll leave that for a future Blog ☺

To all the participants at the Melbourne Workshop (too many to name - you know who you are you bird nerds!), thankyou so much for helping to make that day such a positively reinforcing experience for me - I hope you enjoyed the learning and sharing as much as I did!!!

Two young male Eclectus parrots - growing up and developing life skills in an aviary environment that facilitates the level of activity, exploration, and exposure to environmental stimuli that these birds thrive in.