Parrots And Pond Safety

hucker

hucker

Regular Member
This may seem unusual, but I'm planning on having my birds (African Greys, perhaps cockatiels - on seperate occasions) get access to an enclosed area which contains a pond.  Is this dangerous?  I'm concerned they might drown.  Presumably in the wild they manage not to drown in deep water - the pond is 2 foot deep.
 
:welcome:  to the forum

Yeah I think it would be too risky unless they are supervised, can't really compare them to wild birds who learn the dangers, often from mistakes if they are lucky!! and of course they are not enclosed so have massive areas to cover and choose where to bath/drink...
 
I'm going to redo the pond anyway as the waterfall leaks and the liner will be chewed.  I'll concrete it instead and make the edges shallow so they can wade out, and watch them for a while before leaving them alone.  I'll also have lights on all night incase they can't see when they fall in.  If I see they have difficulty, then I'll put a mesh over it and just let them bathe in the waterfall part.  Unless they've forgotten everything from the wild, I would have thought birds can handle water.
 
Hi and welcome to the forum from me and my flock.

The other issue with ponds and waterfalls is that the water is recycled rather than refreshed. So anything like poop waste seed etc just gets washed round and round so even with a filter the bacterial count will rise.  So bearing this in mind you would have to be changing the water twice a week at least.... unless of coure its fed by something like a natural spring and can be drained away all the time... The other thing is if one bird from one flock has an illness and then you allow the other flock access to the water then its going to spread.

Sorry just some additional things to ponder over before you start building and changing things
 
I use water fountain in the bird room plenty of stones to create shallow areas.  I change the water every three days and it can get quite messy.  Birds love it but I would never have stagnant water around and if the filter blocks up that has happened twice then a thorough clean is a must I always have a little aloe in the water. 
 
I'm planning on having it overflow into a nearby drain (where the garage gutter goes), and have fresh mains water trickling in continuously (as I'd thought of them shitting in it and messing it up).  The pond gets bad enough with algae and fish deposits anyway!  I wonder if African Greys eat goldfish?!?!
 
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You feed them fish?  I thought they were vegetarian?  I was told meat was bad for them.
 
most parrots are opportunist birds in the wild and Mine often eat chicken and other meat that they can get from my plate.  never give them fried food or salted.  the marrow in chicken leg bone is one of my birds favourite foods.  I had a salmon out on the side defrosting and my Jackie grabbed it when I was pealing some spuds.  I realised why she was so quiet it was too late to save it  
 
In the wild if a little wriggly caterpiller was to wander past on a branch well am afraid his days would be numbered if the branch had a grey sat on it lol

An spot of protein is after all a spot of protein and a valuable source whatever was it presents itself!

It comes more down to personal human choice.

I know of a lot of breeders who cook up a dish of chicken wings and allow their birds to have a good old chomp. I've been sent some beautiful breeder macaw photo's that have them pictured chewing a well cooked chicken bone cracking it open for the marrow inside. If I can find it and upload it I will pop it on this thread.

Some of my flock like chicken some don't which is fine, and like I said some people don't like to give it which is also fine. :)
 
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Here we go one of my mates Macaws having a chomp this bird is an aviary breeding bird not a pet bird, not handleable not tame totally wild in its nature.

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Two things my birds get that I'm told they shouldn't are chocolate and salted crisps.  They don't seem to do them any harm.  It's probably like we're told half the stuff we eat is bad for us, but we survive.
 
Chocolate is a Nono, can be fatal to birds!!!

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Both chocolate and salt are highly dangerous to parrots. I would recommend you stop immediately.

Parrots cannot excrete salt from their bodies like we do and it thereby builds up into toxic levels.  In the wild they have access to specialist clay cliffs where they eat the mineral clay to assist in the removal of the salt build up.

Chocolate is a known killer of parrots, its a known fact that one pound of chocolate will kill a 7lb dog! Its the theobromine in it that is the killer. Parrots cannot metabolise the theobromine and accumulation of this leads to toxicity resulting in symptoms like lethargic, restlessness, vomiting, diarrhea and excessive urination. In severe conditions, it can leads to internal bleeding, seizures and death.
 
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Other known killers / toxic agents to parrots are as follows:- Avocado, some uncooked beans (e.g. raw lima beans for example), Caffeine, Mushrooms, Alcohol and raw onions or garlic (it should be cooked and seldomly offered when it comes to onions).

There are some really good lists on here in the diet section that will tell you all the things you can offer your flock and there is a huge variety to keep them happy and healthy without the need to go anywhere near the toxic ones :thumbsup:
 
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Click on this link its to the diet section covering safe nutritious foods like beans pulses lentils etc http://www.theparrotclub.co.uk/topic/2054-safe-grains-legumesbean-nuts-seeds-herbal-tea/

This one will give you the list of fruits http://www.theparrotclub.co.uk/topic/15-fruit-and-berries/

There are ones to cover herbs, spices, weeds that have added vitamins and minerals, also safe plants, trees, folliage too :) basically you want it we have it covered :laugh:   there is very little we don't have covered on here the members are very very knowledgeable and helpful too :rose:
 
Great post Tascha, some really useful links, good to remind ourselves so we don`t slip into bad habits :)

The thing is you can easily really thinly slice beetroot, sweet potato etc with a potato peeler and shove them in the oven to make your own salt free birdie crisps which are healthy, that way you get to the keep the Walkers for yourself :)

With so many birdie treats out there, garlic sticks, nuts, scrambled egg, toast etc there`s no need to risk things like chocolate either. They`re too precious to take any risks with as I`m sure you`ll agree given the amazing facilities you`re looking at giving them :)
 
I hear all the time about chocolate being bad for birds and dogs, yet it's never done any harm to my or my friends' pets (over the last 20 years).
 
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Then you've been really lucky. But, when there are so many other foods to give them - why risk it? 
 
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