Air Health For You And Your Bird

Don’t let dust, dander, and everything in between, leave you and your bird breathless.

Kristy Goodwin loved cockatiels. She had about 40 of them in cages scattered throughout her living room, kitchen and bedroom. She had 30 more in a large flight in her sunroom, which was located just off her living room, and 10 in a smaller flight on her back porch. There were 20 additional cockatiel pairs in breeder cages in Goodwin’s spare bedroom and study. With cockatiels literally filling the house from one end of her house to the other, there was also a lot of feather dust and dried droppings floating around the air.

“I knew the air wasn’t exactly clean, but I wasn’t bothered by it,” Goodwin admitted. “I was totally crazy about the cockatiels, and I just figured the bird dander was something I had to learn to live with.”

Five years into her cockatiel-keeping, however, Goodwin found herself sneezing a lot, even when she didn’t have a cold and it wasn’t hay fever season. Several times she woke up in the middle of the night with a dry, wispy cough in her upper chest, coughing to the point that she couldn’t get back to sleep. She felt sniffly, headachy, tired and generally miserable. That went on for many months. Then one night she had an all-out respiratory attack, which left her gasping for breath and resulted in a trip to the emergency room.

“Both the emergency room doctor and my regular physician told me the same thing — I needed to get rid of my cockatiels,” Goodwin said tearfully. The doctors told her that her lungs had been damaged so much by the bird debris she had been breathing in that she had sustained irreparable damage. If Goodwin kept her birds, she could lose all her lung capacity and die.

Goodwin wasn’t the only one in the house suffering. Gigi, her blue-and-gold macaw, was also experiencing health problems. “I had had Gigi for about 20 years, long before I had gotten into cockatiel breeding, and she had always been in perfect health,” Goodwin related. “But about the same time I started having health problems, I noticed Gigi was wheezing a lot and doing the open-mouth breathing.” She took Gigi to her veterinarian, who confirmed Goodwin’s suspicions: Gigi was just as allergic to cockatiels as she was.

Goodwin’s story is a case in point. Sooner or later, if you’re breathing impure air, your health is going to suffer. And chances are, if you’re being impacted, your bird is, too.

Bird Keeper’s Lung

What can happen when someone consistently inhales “bird air?” A small percentage of people, probably less than half of one percent of all bird owners, develop a respiratory hypersensitivity reaction (allergic reaction) to inhalation of airborne dust from bird feathers, dust, dander and dried droppings. In the medical field, the condition is referred to as Extrinsic Allergic Alveolitis (EAA) or Hypersensitivity Pneumonitis (HP). It is more commonly known as bird keeper’s lung.

Specifically, EAA is an allergic reaction to the protein found in organic avian matter. “When birds flap their wings, all those proteins go up into the air and when people inhale them, they can develop an allergy,” noted Washington state avian veterinarian Cathy Johnson-Delaney, DVM.

This condition is usually associated with keeping birds indoors, particularly heavy powder-producing birds such as cockatiels, cockatoos, African greys and pigeons. It is more likely to be a problem in situations where there are a large number of birds kept in a small area, and the cages or flights are not well maintained. People with allergies and asthma are most susceptible to this disease.

There is both an acute and chronic form of EAA. “The acute form causes a severe respiratory attack, similar to an asthma attack, where your bronchials contract and your respiratory tract shuts down or collapses, and suddenly you can’t breathe,” said Larry Nemetz, DVM, a birds-only veterinarian in Southern California.

The acute form usually develops when an individual suddenly becomes exposed to an overwhelming amount of bird dust. It could be that the person is cleaning an enclosed cockatiel aviary that hasn’t been cleaned for a month, and a lot of fecal matter and other debris has been allowed to build up. A few hours after cleaning the aviary, the individual may start coughing and breathing hard, and develop a fever and/or chills. Normally, this is just a temporary condition. If exposure is stopped at this point, no treatment is usually needed, and the individual will return to normal.

Chronic, low-grade exposure is much more serious. Chronic EAA often develops in people who have regular or repeated exposure to a high concentration of bird dust and dander. With this form of EAA, the allergens damage the respiratory tract by “inflaming the bronchi and closing off the lungs,” Johnson-Delaney explained, “but it does so at the level of the alveoli, which is your air exchange area, and it will thicken them so that you can’t get air.”

Once chronic EAA starts setting in, permanent, irreversible lung lesions develop, leaving the individual scarred for life. At first, the only outward symptoms may be mild sneezing or coughing, lack of energy and weight loss. As the disease progresses, the individual loses more and more lung capacity, and breathing becomes increasingly difficult. Chronic EAA can develop in as little as two years, although it takes 10 to 20 years for most people to develop the severe form.

“If you don’t pay attention to it, EAA can kill you,” Johnson-Delaney warned, “because, eventually, you will have no lung capacity left.” Chronic EAA is survivable, she added, but you have to recognize and address the problem early, before your lungs become too scarred. “Don’t ignore early symptoms because by the time advanced symptoms develop, it may be too late,” stressed Johnson-Delaney.

In most cases, those diagnosed with severe cases of chronic EAA have no choice but to give up their birds. Some patients may also be advised to eliminate exposure to all bird protein altogether, which may involve removing chicken eggs from their diet and avoiding parks or city streets where pigeons are present. They may also need to take corticosteroids for the rest of their life to help keep their airways open.

People with milder cases of chronic EAA may need to remove their birds from their home temporarily and go on steroids for a while, but eventually they may be able to resume bird-keeping. Even then, doctors advise avoiding the high-powder species and to hire someone to clean out the cages for them.

Unfortunately for Goodwin, it’s too late for preventative measures. “I realize now that I had way too many cockatiels in my house, but I didn’t want to give any of them up,” she conceded. “I had one cheap air filter in my living room, but it obviously wasn’t effective.”

Goodwin took her doctor’s advice and found homes for all her cockatiels, as well as her macaw. Since then, her health has improved dramatically. “Giving up my birds was the hardest thing I ever had to do,” she said. “That may not have had to happen if I started limiting the number of birds I was keeping a long time ago.” It’s a difficult lesson to learn, but one all bird owners should take note of. Clean air is a key component of good health — and not something to be taken for granted.

Parrot Has To Try 5 Foods

Find out why radicchio, Swiss chard, Chinese cabbage, watercress and daikon radish should be in your bird's bowl.

Grocery stores are looking very different from 25 years ago. It seems that a wider variety of different foods are available these days and many of them are foods we never even heard of back then. Who knew about quinoa even a decade ago? It wasn’t available in most stores in the United States. Now, it’s everywhere.

Quinoa is just one example of a terrific food that is absolutely loaded with calcium, a very valuable mineral our birds need. Now you can find it in most stores and in different varieties as well. And hemp seed? Chia seed? Yes, both of these are fairly common in the grocery stores aisles. Both are flying off the shelves and being mixed in with oatmeal for breakfast and blended into smoothies and power shakes.

It’s a new era with more and more variety available to the consumer. This variety is also valuable to your parrot. While 50 years ago, the only lettuce you could find was iceberg, you now have a myriad of choices available for your salad bowl. And most of these choices are far more nutritious than iceberg lettuce.

Here are some of the tastier selections you can choose for your bird to try that might interest her. Try these for a change of pace in flavor and some new textures. 

1. Radicchio

You can find radicchio in many grocery store produce sections. It’s brightly colored, with veins of purple and white that indicate a lot of nutrition. It looks like a small and tenderer head of purple cabbage, but it has a stronger and slightly bitter taste. It’s filled to the brim with polyphenols. Polyphenols are a micronutrient that helps out with preventing disease. It’s related to the chicory plant.

2. Swiss Chard

Swiss chard is an absolutely gorgeous and colorful green that my African greys seem to relish. That bright color once again indicates a highly nutritious vegetable. It’s been found to be high in the polyphenol department with 13 different polyphenols. Polyphenols are a naturally occurring chemical that are antioxidant, which help rid the body of free-radicals. Swiss chard also goes a long way in preventing diabetes. You can find different varieties of Swiss chard that range from yellow to red to purple stems. But the deep green color of the leaves remains a constant in all of the varieties.

3. Chinese Cabbage

It’s not just for stir-fries anymore. Chinese cabbage may be a paler green than Swiss chard, but don’t let the color of this “green” fool you. Used extensively in Asian dishes, this crunchy green is really good not only for you, but for your flock. It has highly bioavailable iron and calcium and it has hit more than one “Super Foods” list. What I like about it is the versatility of it. You can serve it raw, steam it, use it in Chop or you can cut it up in chucks and put it on a skewer. The fact that it aids in preventing inflammation is something to take note of. You also can find it labeled as Napa or celery cabbage.

4. Watercress

Watercress has become my “go to” vegetable of choice when it finally began showing up in the grocery produce section. I’ve heard of it decades ago when I was reading books about it being served in little sandwiches at teatime in statelier households of England, but I’ve never seen it in stores and had certainly never tried it. When I saw it being sold, I did some research on this delicate green and the nutritional information knocked my socks off. Watercress has become the hottest super food to be listed on those “Power Food”lists and has managed to dethrone kale as the nutritious green of choice. Research indicates that two cups of this tiny green a day can reduce DNA damage by a respectable 17 percent. DNA damage is linked to cancer so that 17 percent is very helpful. It contains a large amount of vitamin A and vitamin K, both valuable vitamins for our birds. It has a bitter taste not unlike arugula and my birds seem to enjoy this taste. That bitter taste puts a snappy edge on the taste of anything you add it to. You don’t really need to cook this green. Simply snip it into pieces with scissors and add to your bird’s bowls. I have found that my African greys are attracted to that strong bitter taste. You may find it tied into bunches and sold much like parsley or cilantro or bagged up like microgreens. Either way, watercress is a powerful and nutritious green that is a must-try for your birds.

5. Daikon Radish

This mild-tasting and large vegetable is a very tasty addition to your bird’s food bowl. It has a very crunchy texture and is one of the newer foods now available in grocery stores. It contains many enzymes that help with fat and starch digestion and it rocks in the phytonutrient department, which fights cancer. Science has also discovered that it boosts immune systems as well as kidney function. It also has respectable levels of vitamin C, potassium and phosphorus. Slice it up in sticks and watch your birds crunch away! And save some for yourself because it’s delicious in salads.

Must Know 5 Things About Cockatiel Care

Cockatiels are one of the most popular pet birds, but that doesn't mean they don't have their challenges. From being creatures of habit to their sensitive side, find out things you need to know to best care for your 'tiel.

For more than a decade, cockatiels continue to hold the title as America’s favorite pet bird. With their cheerful disposition and gentle nature, cockatiels make excellent companions for children, families, the elderly and chronically ill. Before acquiring a cockatiel, however, here are five care tips you should be aware of in order to be a saavy cockatiel owner.

1. Cockatiels Are Creatures Of Habit
Cockatiels thrive on schedules and become accustomed to regular feed and clean-up times. Professional aviculturists understand the value of keeping birds on a regular schedule to help develop trust and a growing bond, where birds learn they can count on you daily. Regular bedtimes — even on weekends — allow your cockatiel to get the rest she needs to remain happy and healthy. Sufficient exercise — supervised outside the bird cage — proper rest and feeding healthy bird food act as preventatives to illness. Any changes to a cockatiel’s cage or location should be done gradually. Changes in cages or locations can be upsetting for cockatiels, so keep favorite toys, food cups, other birds or people your bird is attached to around to provide some comfort and continuity.

2. Cockatiels Are A Highly Sensitive Species
Unless a cockatiel is defending her territory or nesting site, aggressive behavior in cockatiels is a fear response. Whether handfed, or parent reared, approach your cockatiel slowly and calmly, with a gentle, soothing voice to gain trust and establish a bond. Gaining trust takes time and your approach can either help or hinder the process. Fearful cockatiels will “hiss” like a snake, spread their wings, and raise their crests to the alert status to give the impression they are much larger and more dangerous than they actually are. Cockatiels are the “alert birds” of mixed flocks, the first to signal unknown danger through their high pitched calls. They are also most susceptible to night frights and need a night light to prevent crashing into walls in the dark. Respect your cockatiels feelings; back off, or end a training session on a positive note with soothing, reassuring tones and reward treats. Once your cockatiel learns you are not a threat, it will eventually seek out your companionship.

3. Cockatiels Produce Dust From Powder Down
Cockatiels and cockatoos are among the few parrots that produce a powder down, or have pulviplumes (pulvis for dust or powder, and plume meaning feather). While a cockatiel preens her feathers, she spreads this powder throughout her plumage. If you keep several cockatiels, you might notice a continual light coating of dust in your house, or that you are dusting more than usual. Powder down is a known antigen in humans and can cause an allergic reaction to people who are sensitive to it. It’s highly recommended to invest in a good quality air cleaner to keep the dust to a minimum. Bathing your cockatiel(s) regularly helps to control the dust produced. Avoid possible drafts from open windows, air conditioners, or heating elements that can lead to respiratory illness.

4. Hormonal Changes Affect Both Male and Female Cockatiels
It’s usually not a matter of if a female cockatiel will lay eggs, but when. Many female cockatiels lay one or more eggs at about a year of age, or once physiologically mature. Never, ever, remove an egg once laid, because removing an egg will trigger her to lay another egg to make up for the loss. Allow her to incubate and abandon her eggs of her own accord, when she is ready. Rising hormones can cause your cockatiel to show transferred aggression by biting another bird or object nearby (for example, your fingers!), so don’t take it personally. Males will often become aggressive to their owners, nipping and biting, once they are ready to breed. These hormonal phases are temporary. Once hormone levels return to normal, your cockatiel will return to its usual loving, cheerful behavior.

5. Cockatiels Can Be Trained At Any Age
Although it is much easier to tame a baby cockatiel, or purchase a handfed baby that is already tame, any cockatiel no matter the age can be tamed. The secret is patience, gentleness and perseverance! I have heard many stories of older cockatiels becoming tame when finding a caring, new owner later in life. It may take time for an older bird to gain your trust, but with perseverance, patience, and gentle coaxing, older birds can be tamed. The secret? Never, ever, give up on a bird. If you still find you have difficulty, consult a professional bird behaviorist to learn how to relate to an older bird.

Pet Bird Travel Tips

Tips for traveling with pet birds on short trips, long trips and airplanes.

Before you attempt that cross-country ride, give your pet bird experience on shorter trips. Visit a nearby friend or relative, have a snack at an outdoor café or even pick up some toys at a pet store. Provide some fun destinations: that is, somewhere other than the avian veterinarian or groomer.

A Few Things To Consider As You Are Heading Out:

Never take your pet bird outside without it being inside a carrier, travel cage or attached to an avian harness.

Your bird’s carrier should be firmly belted to the back seat of your car. (The front seat can be dangerous if your car has a passenger-side airbag.)

Reassure your bird by making sure it can see you during the ride and can hear you talking.
If the day is excessively cold, hot or windy, and the trip is optional, wait until the weather is more accommodating.

Covering the carrier with a sheet or towel can protect your bird from the elements. However, Dr. Jorge Mayer, DVM, of Massachusetts advised not to cover the bird completely. Birds that are in the dark can stumble off the perch when the carrier is jostled.

Make sure your destination is not only pleasant but also safe for your parrot. Avoid anywhere that is dark, smoky, overly crowded or that might otherwise overwhelm your bird. If you are visiting friends with dogs or cats you are unfamiliar with, can you find a secure room for your parrot? Do your friends know how important it is to keep windows closed and to keep your parrot away from lit stoves and other hazards? Even though your hosts are well-meaning, be vigilant; they are probably not aware of some of the commonplace dangers to parrots, such as salty foods, chocolate, air freshener sprays, and so on.

Enjoy your trip! Your bird will “read” your manner and relax, even if it’s not quite ready to socialize and prefers to just observe.

Get Ready For A Longer Trip

A few things to consider if you and your parrot will be away for a night or longer:

Pack for both you and your parrot. A supply of your pet bird’s particular food brand is essential, as it might not be available at your destination. A stash of treats, toys, perches and dishes also makes life easier, depending on the duration of your trip. Also, a small carrier might be fine for a quick trip across town, but if your parrot will be spending a few days away from home it will probably need something larger. Luckily, there are collapsible travel cages available that you can assemble once you reach your destination.

If you travel to another state, confirm that there are no quarantines in effect and that your species of parrot is legal there. Quaker parakeets, for example, are illegal to own in California, New Jersey and several other states.

Flying With Parrots
When Jen Silva recently relocated her brown-headed parrot and two cockatiels from Texas to Japan, she learned how complicated it can be to coordinate such a move. Her first piece of advice?

“If someone is only going overseas for a vacation, I recommend finding a good bird sitter,” she said. Assess the difficulties and expenses to you as well as the stress on your birds, especially if the country you are visiting imposes a quarantine period.

Nevertheless, Silva had some good tips for domestic and international flights:

Talk to the airline, and make sure you understand their regulations for traveling with birds. Airlines differ not only in their policies, such as whether birds are allowed to travel in the cabin, what size birds are allowed and any extra fees. Silva learned that no pets are allowed in the cabin for international flights, and there is a limit to the number of hours the birds can stay in the cargo hold. Also, make sure your travel plans do not involve switching planes to another airline, with a whole new set of regulations and fees.

Check the airline’s specifications for carriers. Silva was able to adapt Chihuahua-size crates by outfitting them with wooden perches, spill-proof water bottles and a supply of food.
Obtain a health certificate from an accredited vet no more than 10 days before your flight. For international travel, you will need the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, (APHIS) form 7001, signed by both the vet and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) person in your city; this form has a raised seal.

Also, if you are leaving the country, you will need a CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) permit, which might take three weeks to obtain. Keep a copy of all your paperwork, Silva advised. You will need it for your return trip.
Make sure your birds are banded if you are traveling abroad.

Have your bird’s wing-feathers trimmed, or have it in a secure, safe harness. Airport personnel might ask you to remove the bird from the carrier to pass through security checkpoints, and you’ll want to avoid a panicked bird flying in a crowded terminal.
Research the types of bird food, equipment and veterinary care available at your destination. Bring enough food and supplies with you to last through your trip. If you are not likely to find an avian vet once you arrive, follow Silva’s lead: have your vet perform the full battery of tests on your birds before you leave home, and keep them indoors once you arrive to prevent exposure to new diseases.

Help Your Parrot Like Her Travel Cage

If the travel cage resembles your parrot’s regular cage in some way, things may go more smoothly. A vastly different appearance can be off-putting, especially at first.

Make sure the carrier is big enough for your bird, which should at least be able to turn around and enjoy some movement.

Leave the cage around for a few days or weeks so your parrot can get used to it and see that it doesn’t pose a threat.

Put some tempting toys or treats in the cage where your parrot can see them and investigate; for example, most of our birds can’t resist a sprig of millet.

Avoid dangling toys to prevent your bird from getting knocked around when the carrier is in motion.
Avoid a water dish in the carrier; your parrot probably won’t appreciate a sudden bath. Water bottles can be a great alternative as long as you are sure your parrot knows how to use one. Jen Silva, who recently relocated with her parrots from Texas to Japan, found investing in non-spillable bottles well worth the price. Juicy pieces of fruit can also provide liquid on short trips.

Play With Your Cockatoo in 5 Ways

Have a great playtime with your pet cockatoo with these tips.

Cockatoos can be very playful and are especially good at playing games. The trick is to set the rules for the game or else their games can create some behavioral problems. There is no doubt that our pets try to initiate play with us. This is seen most clearly when a dog rolls his ball toward us or brings us a stick when we are in the yard. Pet birds also initiate play with us, but all too often their message is misunderstood.

I frequently bird sit an umbrella cockatoo named Ginger. I don’t get much work done when she is here because we have such a good time. She spends a lot of time on the rope gyms hanging from the ceiling about 8 feet from my desk. She loves to play and constantly tries to initiate play with me. Even though I find her completely charming, it is impossible to play constantly, and sometimes she starts screaming a bit if I ignore her. If I just look over and say something silly, she usually resumes playing by herself. She can be a bit demanding, but the key is to acknowledge her invitations to play without getting up and giving her attention every time.

1) Silly games that give the parrot lots of attention are always fun. I play “Ms. America” with Ginger. This is an absolutely silly game that Ginger loves to play with me. Clearly it is frivolous without any purpose except to have fun. After her caregiver leaves, Ginger starts to initiate the game with her postures and excitement. It is mostly me making a big deal out of all of the things she does. She throws her crest, spreads her wings and knocks her beak on my hand. She has to win the Ms. Cockatoo contest first. Of course, there are no other contestants, so she is the winner every time we play. We sing and dance and I move her crest from side to side. She squeals with delight but it is not screaming; it is an indication of how much fun she is having. When she is on my hand, I flap her up and down just a bit, and she spreads her wings and I tell her how beautiful she is. When I announce her as the winner, I put a makeshift paper crown around her crest and she is really happy about it all. The game only takes about five minutes. If I played much longer, I think she would get too excited and go into overload. Ginger is a delightful play friend and I think this is because her caregiver understands how important play is for her cockatoo.

2) The first time I met my friend Barbara Bailey’s Moluccan cockatoo, Tiwi, we played a wonderful game of roll the wiffle ball. I would toss it past her, and she would run and get it and throw it back. Her aim was pretty good, but sometimes it was way off and I had to convince her to go get it and try again. We had a lot of fun together during my visit. Fast forward a year or so … from then on when I visited, she would climb or jump down from her stand to chase me around the room. If she caught me it seemed as if she would try to bite my toes. I call this classic cockatoo game “Dance when I say Dance” and it is a favorite for many of these energetic birds.

With Tiwi, I missed the obvious clue that she wanted to play our game with the wiffle ball. She remembered how much fun we had playing together the last time I visited; I didn’t remember. I responded in a way that obviously encouraged more negative behavior and I should have known better. I didn’t realize that she was initiating play with me, because she remembered how much fun we had playing before. The last time I visited Tiwi, I made up my mind that I was going to do better and use my own logical theories with her. I had just arrived and put my suitcase on the guest bed and opened it to get something. As I went into the bathroom, Tiwi came barreling down the hall full of excitement. I shut the door, but I knew she wasn’t going to go away. She started banging the ball against the door but by the time I opened the door she was on my suitcase throwing all of my clothes around the room.

Catch can also be very popular with the smaller cockatoos like the rose-breasted cockatoo and the bare-eyed cockatoo. I played catch with a bare-eyed cockatoo named Roo for over an hour and I didn’t think she was ever going to tire of the game.

3) Teach your pet cockatoo tricks. I recently worked with a large, absolutely gorgeous Moluccan cockatoo. He was a screamer that had been in several homes and his new caregiver was dedicated to working with his problems. The best way to deal with screaming behavior is to teach a cockatoo a few basic behaviors that can be used to distract the screaming. Once the cockatoo learns the tricks, if the caregiver notices the pet bird winding up for a screaming session, he or she can give the cue for the trick. This can actually “change the channel” in the bird’s mind and instead of screaming, the bird performs the behavior. The caregiver can then give the bird a lot of positive praise for his positive behavior. I taught the Moluccan to lift his foot to the “Gimme Four” cue in only a few minutes.

4) A quiet way to play with cockatoos is by reading to them while they are in the cage or on a playgym. It can be anything from the newspaper to a children’s’ book. Of course the key is to read it with a certain amount of drama and to make enthusiastic facial expressions and eye contact. If nothing else, cockatoos love drama.

5) Cockatoos are real swingers. I have seen them swing around and around on branches, on their perches and from their caregiver’s hand. This seems to be a fairly natural cockatoo behavior, and it is easy to encourage. When I watch a cockatoo friend of mine named Bianca, she loves to hang from the hanging rope gym. I start to swing the gym from side to side, and she starts to pump on the perch so it swings more and more. Then she starts going around and around on it. At this point she usually starts screaming, but it is not irritating screaming; it is happy-to-be-alive screaming, and it is easy to tell that she is having a great time.