Keeping a bird sanctuary

[Calorious]

Still as a young adult, I recently just watched a video of a "bird sanctuary" within my own country. I currently have my 3 conures - and they are loud. Very, very loud. This bird sanctuary that I watched consisted of 28 parrots, all of different breeds. Although I know parrot screaming is something common, watching the video really showed the birds behaving very well - Keeping to their own boundaries, not randomly flying out of openings (windows/doors), they scream but with a certain volume that doesn't disrupt the entire neighbourhood.
I can only see the birds are definitely not young and can be atleast 5 years old and above by now, but watching the video still really shocked me with the way they behaved.
Although I do sometimes find them annoying for shouting so much, this video still makes me want to try and keep a "bird sanctuary" when I'm older.
It's tons of work and cleaning behind the video but I do still feel like I really want to try out this venture (some people may just stare at me when I say "try out" but even if I don't like it, I'm not going to give them away or anything and still feed, and play with them)

Now, the reason why I made this post was to really see whether anyone has this kind of large parrot family and how y'all usually manage their screaming/keep them within their boundaries.

 

[saxguy64]

Rather than the concept of "trying it out" for yourself, and possibly winding up in an unmanageable situation, is there any chance you could find a nearby rescue/refuge/sanctuary where you can volunteer? The refuge my birds came from is wonderful, and has 50-75 birds there at any given time. It's a huge undertaking, and a volunteer situation should quickly give you a ton of information about the daily routines and upkeep. It's invaluable experience for anyone who shares their lives with parrots, or aspires to.

Food for thought.

 

[Calorious]

Rather than the concept of "trying it out" for yourself, and possibly winding up in an unmanageable situation, is there any chance you could find a nearby rescue/refuge/sanctuary where you can volunteer? The refuge my birds came from is wonderful, and has 50-75 birds there at any given time. It's a huge undertaking, and a volunteer situation should quickly give you a ton of information about the daily routines and upkeep. It's invaluable experience for anyone who shares their lives with parrots, or aspires to.

Food for thought.

Living in my small area of Singapore, there's only one bird park within here (which isn't really a bird rescue/sanctuary) and one bird rescue in a secluded area of Singapore about 20km away from where I live, and I don't think they accept volunteers either (probably due to the fact that there are 1k+ birds there) so I don't really have anywhere to volunteer as much as I want to.

 

[SailBoat]

There is a couple of Members that have several Parrots that could be seen as mini-sanctuary. The information above provides an excellent way to learn the demands of a larger number of Parrots.

The problem with larger number of Parrots is the serious underline need for money. The cost of Medical Care, Housing (Cages /flight enclosure), Food, cleaning equipment and at some point Staffing (goal is volunteer), etc, etc, etc... Clearly, there comes a point that having a greater number of Parrots is their Noise and neighbors as not everyone will enjoy listenings to Parrots.

As stated above, Volunteer at a sanctuary, a rescue, or even a Parrot store to get a clear idea of what the care of larger number of Parrots involve.

 

[Laurasea]

As a member with 7 birds. They are loud, plenty loud. During breeding season there is pretty uncontrolled screaming.

Easy to spend thousands on a disease outbreak .
It is easy to have a flock out break of diseases! I'm having a flock outbreak of chlamydia right now. As it can hide as a chronic infection for years in a bird. It is very very expensive to have a sick flock. Its very easy for diseases and virus to be airborne or carried on feathers dust. Its very time consuming to take care if multiple sick birds. Also chlamydia can be passed to humans.

New burds always need quarantined in a seperate room for 30 days, and testing for diseases and veterinarian check up before added to a flock. Or you could easily end up with an untreatable diseases in a your birds like PBFD....

20 dsy journey of treating a chlamydia outbreak in my flock, with 10 more days of treatment to go, and no guarantees i won't have a relapse in 1, and if I do all 7 will have to be treated again
http://www.parrotforums.com/general...ick-i-ve-been-holding-back-making-thread.html


Then there are things like egg binding. Life threatening and expensive to treat. Injury, or fights leading to Injury, parrots have bitten off tge beaks of other parrots, or caused sever damage. Common to have yeast infection, or do us infection.. stuff happens. With more birds a risk of parasites...

I'm all for bird sanctuary, but its not just a hobby for your home. Significant money and veterinarian care will be required.

 

[noodles123]

Still as a young adult, I recently just watched a video of a "bird sanctuary" within my own country. I currently have my 3 conures - and they are loud. Very, very loud. This bird sanctuary that I watched consisted of 28 parrots, all of different breeds. Although I know parrot screaming is something common, watching the video really showed the birds behaving very well - Keeping to their own boundaries, not randomly flying out of openings (windows/doors), they scream but with a certain volume that doesn't disrupt the entire neighbourhood.
I can only see the birds are definitely not young and can be atleast 5 years old and above by now, but watching the video still really shocked me with the way they behaved.
Although I do sometimes find them annoying for shouting so much, this video still makes me want to try and keep a "bird sanctuary" when I'm older.
It's tons of work and cleaning behind the video but I do still feel like I really want to try out this venture (some people may just stare at me when I say "try out" but even if I don't like it, I'm not going to give them away or anything and still feed, and play with them)

Now, the reason why I made this post was to really see whether anyone has this kind of large parrot family and how y'all usually manage their screaming/keep them within their boundaries.

A student asked me what I would do if I could start any cooperation for free the other day, and I sad a bird or dog rescue, but it's complicated for sure. I would LOVE to do it, but unless I win the lottery, I don't see how I'd care for even 10+ birds forever and ever...and you can bet money that people would try to pass off their unwanted birds all the time, which would make saying no very complicated and stressful (especially if you started finding unwanted birds on your doorstep)...because it would be easy to end up with too many and not enough hands or financial backing.

A lot of people end up in over their heads quickly due to the extreme cost and work. Plus, a documentary is not likely going to show the birds misbehaving together--- I mean, just keep in mind that just because there were no boundary confrontations or disputes that there never have been- think about human children-- just because they get along when you are watching one day, does not mean they always do.

If you get the money (lots of it) and have a solid base of volunteers etc- go for it, but if you call it a sanctuary, it means that the birds will be your and your children's obligations forever (as birds don't generally leave a sanctuary). There have been a few cases where sanctuary owners get sick, or run out of money and that puts the birds in a really desperate situation, because rehomoing 1 is hard, let alone 10 (some of whom are bonded).

In order to "manage" screaming, you have to make sure your parrot's needs are being met and that you don't react to the screaming when it happens by accidentally giving attention or responding to it in some way.

Large parrots are going to scream when they want something (out, attention, a specific person or flock member, when they are super excited (sometimes), to keep contact with the flock when the flock is out of eye-shot, when they are scared (sometimes), when they are bored (sometimes) and to manipulate situations (which goes back to attention). A lot of it involves meeting all of their needs, and waiting out scream-sessions that can be very uncomfortable. You'd have to live on acreage because neighbors would likely take issue with the noise.

It's also important to know that housing certain birds together can be dangerous for their health and that breeding etc could also be very hard to monitor.

Parrot Confidential is another documentary out there that talks about running a bird rescue, in case you haven't seen it. **note (if you watch it)- the ex-breeder (woman) in the blue shirt-Jamie Mcleod -touches Dolly, the cockatoo, in a way that you never should touch any parrot** and while amazons do often bite super hard, they are not the "hardest" bite you can get (although they can be quite motivated and therefore, quite painful). I respect what Jamie does, but that sort of touching etc makes me nervous--- as does boarding birds when you already have others. She's doing really great things, but I wouldn't do as she does.


That having been said, it is worth watching and, while still sugar-coating it, it gets into some of the logistics of a sanctuary (a few inches, when there are feet to explore, but you get the idea)

 

[Calorious]

Thanks for all the responses! Regarding volunteering at a pet store... Yeah, I followed my parents to get these three conures. Staying there for the short 20 minutes almost drove me insane already because of how loud the sounds were, and they were continuous!

As for Laura, please, stay safe! Hope your parrot(s) are good too! >:3

Thank you noodles, I'll take a look into the documentary if I can find it :3

 

[wrench13]

Hi !! Singapore is such a wonderful city, but it is one of the, if not the, most expensive places to live in the entire world:
World's most expensive cities to live in 2020:
1. (tie) Singapore
1. (tie) Osaka, Japan
1. (tie) Hong Kong
4. New York City, New York
5. (tie) Paris
5. (tie) Zurich, Switzerland
7. Tel Aviv, Israel
8. (tie) Los Angeles, California
8. (tie) Tokyo
10. Geneva, Switzerland

I should know, I live in #4. Everything is more expensive; Parrots, cages, food, toys and (very significant) quality vet care and medicines! Singapore might not be the best place to start a sanctuary.

 

[Flboy]

Something to remember, the video you watched was only a short slice of time—and edited for viewing pleasure!

 

[Calorious]

Thank you wrench13! I kind of knew how much the parrots would cost, they easily cost S$300 - S$800 (or easily up to $2000 for the larger ones) for one of them.

As for Flboy, I know regarding the video. I'm sure there's a lot of editing and BTS that went behind the video.

Not really sure if I'm allowed to put it here but this was the video:
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlS3UseUe_c"]This Man Built A Bird Sanctuary In His 1,400 Square Feet HDB | Know My Home - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Laurasea]

I enjoy. You could hear the noise throughout, they are behind glass , that helps lower tge sound. But that was just happy burd chatter, nit an example of the screaming sessions most parrots do daily. Like morning and late afternoon are times parrots are naturally more vocal.

So he seems more like a collector. He's git the money and the interest. There lots of great set up, there are lots of toys, lots of perches, and lots of climbing jungle gym type stuff. Because macaws have big beaks and love to chomp and destroying stuff, I see he has stainless steel perches play stand for them... wow,...and expensive!!

His aviary has that caged window he can open for fresh air and unfiltered sunlight .
He has designed it to help make cleaning up easier. But birds are messy, you heard the guy comment on the poops on paper, we know they are poop machines and in a few hours can look like you never change the papers.

I would love to have his special and so very expensive set for my self too!!! But not that many parrots. He looks like he is doing a good job , enjoying his collection.

 

[bug_n_flock]

We have somewhere around 50 parrots. Most are budgies and even still it is a LOT of work, a LOT of money, a LOT of mess, a LOT of noise, etc etc etc etc. Our *entire lives* revolve around these animals, and I can't even imagine what it would be like to try and do this while working outside the home. We are not a "sanctuary", since we do breed our birds and responsibly sell the babies. However, we do rescue and we take in birds who we will NEVER breed. We have birds who love us, birds who tolerate us, birds who are afraid of us, birds who HATE us(looking at you, Boomer)... ALL of our birds scream, destroy, misbehave, go where they are not supposed to be, etc. They get sick, they get injured, they break or shred or poop on things that we wish they would not... etc. It is a MAJOR commitment. Even just the budgies when you have as many as we do are LOUD, DUSTY, MESSY, and they eat a LOT. *so* much. You don't realize how much budgies eat until you have dozens of them....

 

[noodles123]

When we were talking about parrot cost, no one was referring to the initial cost. It was more about long-term and upkeep. The cage and parrot hardly count in the long-run.

 

[Calorious]

I know its extremely expensive with tons of commitment involved
Even my 3 parrots seem to already be quite tough because of how much human interaction one parrot wants.. (because the other 2 play on their own and do each other feathers)