Environmental Enrichment for Companion and Aviary Birds
Bob Doneley BVSc FACVSc (Avian Medicine)
West Toowoomba Veterinary Surgery
Background
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In 2006 it was estimated there were 9 million birds kept as pet and aviary birds in Australia
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By comparison, there were 2.43 million cats and 3.75 million dogs
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Compare the numbers, and then compare the level of care…
In this presentation I will discuss…
1. Normal wild behaviour, using the galah as an example
2. How pet birds are commonly kept in captivity
3. What effect captivity has on them
4. What we can do to overcome this
The normal behaviour of wild galahs
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Mated pair is the basic social unit
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Pair-bond maintained till death of one partner
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Establish and maintain a nest site
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These pairs form loose flocks of adults that nest near each other
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Sedentary – do not move more than 10 kms from nest site
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Usually fairly small flocks – 10-20 birds
There are also wandering flocks of juveniles and non-breeding adults
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1000 square kms
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Stay together for approximately 2 years
Daily Behaviour
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Activity commences with first light – well before sunrise
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Calling to each other
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Moving around tree top and sun basking
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Short feeding time beneath tree
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Preening
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Calling again, stretching wings
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Fly off in search of food
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Daily Behaviour
Move to feeding area, sometimes joining up with other flocks on the way
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Feeding is done on the ground in the early morning and late afternoon
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Middle of the day - shelter in trees, nibbling on leaves and bark. Play on
telephone lines and branches, especially if raining
Late afternoon
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Evening drink
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Move back to nesting site/roost tree
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Pre-roosting aerobatics and play, lots of noise!
Night
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May still call and fly around a little, but generally sleep
Compare and Contrast with captive behaviour
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Usually kept in isolation
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Usually confined to a small cage, perhaps an aviary
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Food is always available
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Diurnal cycle varies
The results…clinical &/or psychological
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Clinical
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Obesity
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Cardiovascular disease
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Reproductive disease
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Hepatopathies
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skeletal disease
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Diabetes
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Shortened life expectancy
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Psychological
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Feather Damaging Behaviour
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Inappropriate social behaviour
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Screaming
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One-person bonding
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aggression
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Stereotypic behaviour
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‘Psychotic’ episodes
So what can we do?
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Four areas:
1. Prevention is better than cure
2. Matching our expectations against the bird’s abilities
3. Selection and preparation of birds to be pet and aviary birds
4. Managing the bird’s environment
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Prevention is better than cure
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Education is the key
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Educating bird owners
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Educating vets
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Educating legislators
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Government
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RSPCA
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Matching our expectations against the bird’s abilities
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People have an image of what a pet bird is like; this often bears little
resemblance to what the bird can do
Matching our expectations against the bird’s abilities
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What can birds do?
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learn to feed from seasonally variable food sources;
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learn the specific call or `dialect’ of their flock;
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interpret subtle nuances in body language of other members of their flock;
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perform elaborate courtship displays;
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learn to mimic sounds in their environment to manipulate an environmental
condition or maintain a pair bond;
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develop monogamous pair bond relationships;
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rigorously defend breeding territory;
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develop flight skills advanced enough to avoid/escape predatory attack; and
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successfully rear young and make decisions about resource availability that
influence fledgling mortality.
What can’t birds do?
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Can’t place objects in a line from largest to smallest
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Can’t recognise some letters if taught
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Can’t print their own name
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Can’t recognise familiar words in simple books or signs
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Can’t understands the concepts of "tallest, biggest, same, more, on, in, under,
and above”
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Can’t count 1-7 objects out loud
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Can’t understand the order of daily routines
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Can’t speak in fairly complex sentences, e.g. "The baby ate the cookie before I
could put it on the table."
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Can’t ask a lot of questions, including ones on birth and death
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Can’t enjoy singing simple songs, rhymes, and nonsense words
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Matching our expectations against the bird’s abilities
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Can’t adapt language to listener's level of understanding
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Can’t learn name, address and phone number
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Can’t ask and answer “who, what, when, why, and where” questions
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Can’t continue one activity for 10-15 minutes
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Can’t name 6-8 colors and 3 shapes
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Can’t follow 2 unrelated directions
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No basic understanding of concepts related to number, size, weight,
colors, textures, distance, position, and time;
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Can’t understand immediate passage of time as in what happened
yesterday, and do not understand calendar time;
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Do not have a long attention span and can’t finish activities;
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Can’t understand and remember their own accomplishments.
Matching our expectations against the bird’s abilities
In other words, birds do not have the IQ and maturity of a child - we need to remember
this, and not have unrealistic expectations of what birds are capable of.
Selection and preparation of birds to be pet and aviary birds
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Hand-reared vs parent-reared
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How to hand-rear
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Socialisation
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Training
Managing the bird’s environment
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Normal daily routine of a wild bird:
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80%: foraging for, and consumption of, food
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20% : grooming, socialising, and ‘playing’
How do we attempt to replicate this in captivity?
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Environmental Enrichment:
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Foraging activities
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Social opportunities
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‘play’ opportunities
Foraging Activities
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Preferred means of eating for most birds
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Wild birds
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Melbourne Zoo trial
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It is a natural (but not instinctive) behaviour that is restricted by captivity
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Why provide foraging behaviour opportunities?
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Expression of natural behaviour
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Incompatible behaviour – when you’re looking for food, it is difficult to scream,
feather-pick, etc
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Reduces over-eating
How do we provide foraging behaviour opportunities?
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Simple
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Moderate
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Advanced
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Captive-reared birds have not been taught to forage
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Must teach bird to forage
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Break down into stages
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patience
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Young birds may pick this up faster than older birds
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Once learnt, most birds seem to prefer this to ‘food in a bowl’.
Social Opportunities
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What is a social bond?
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Need to provide opportunities for birds to socialise – very few pet/aviary birds are
‘loners’.
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Play Opportunities
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Many birds seem to enjoy ‘play time’ – either by themselves or with their ‘flock’
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This can also be done for aviary birds
What else?
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Environmental enrichment should also allow birds the opportunity to:
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Seek shelter
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Bathe
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engage in normal behaviours (courtship, nesting, etc) where appropriate
In summary
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From an animal welfare point of view, many birds in Australia (& the world) are
maintained in poor conditions – mainly due to ignorance, rather than malice
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Environmental enrichment can be used to improve the lives of these birds.
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Doing so will improve their health, their reproductive success and their general
wellbeing
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The veterinary community has an obligation to ‘get the word out’.