By Pauline James

What do most parrots and parakeets all have in common?  Dust!  They produce and shed copious amounts of dust.
 
There are many things that can be done to significantly improve the air-quality in a room housing a ‘powder down’ parrot:
 
1. Clean all surfaces regularly with a damp cloth, rather than a dry duster.  This will trap and remove particles, rather than sending a large percentage airborne again.

2. Use a vacuum cleaner with a highly-efficient HEPA filter that traps dust rather than spreads it, and avoid vacuum cleaners that collect dust in a removable bag.

3. A good quality HEPA air purifier can be very effective at removing dust and pet cander as well, in some models, airborne allegens.

4. Use a simple misting spray daily and aim the spray above his head, so the fine water droplets fall on him from above, rather than make him nervous by aiming straight at him.

5. Keep a humidifier near to the cage.  This will help to keep the bird’s skin and feathers hydrated, and prevent its skin from becoming dry, flaky and itchy, stopping it from scratching and preening excessively.

By Pam Fryer
 
It is my belief aviary parrots should have available adequate inside living accommodation, somewhere secure where they can go to eat, drink and shelter from the winds, rain, ice and snow, especially at night.
 
In my experience, if you wish to prevent frostbite of your aviary birds, you have to increase the width of perching during winter months.  Parrots need to be able to cover their toes with their feathers when at rest and when roosting at night.  If, as it is often advised, you decrease the width of perching in winter months, it will cause the unfortunate parrots to wrap their toes around the narrow perching, making it difficult to cover their toes with their feathers.  The exposed toes could end up with frostbite. So do make sure your parrots have sufficient perching.  So often I have seen aviaries with insufficient perching which is a stress factor to parrots.  It is important to discourage parrots from clinging to aviary wire, especially during winter months and never use metal or concrete perching in aviaries.
 
For a great article about Winter – precautions and procedures by Rosemary Low, see December’s issue of Parrots magazine - READ MORE HERE.