Birds For Dummies. Gina Spadafori

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ their capture.

      This shift toward captive breeding of pet birds has provided an unintended benefit: improved availability of better pet birds, from both a health and a temperament perspective. Caring, informed aviculturists (people who raise and care for birds) stepped up to the challenge to produce companion birds who are well raised, see humans as friends, and aren’t damaged by the stresses of being captured and removed from their natural environments.

      The reduction in the demand for wild-caught birds for the pet bird trade hasn’t ended threats to the survival of parrot species in the wild. Habitat destruction is proving to be just as damaging, if not more so, to many bird species. Organizations such as the World Parrot Trust (www.parrots.org) are fighting to preserve birds in the wild. We encourage you to support them.

Review Chapter 2 for our evaluation of each of the popular pet bird species — and some of the more unusual ones, too. If you’re just starting out, you may want to explore Chapter 19, which features our picks of the ten best birds for beginners. And no matter whether this is your first bird or you’re an experienced bird keeper, check out Chapter 17 for a quick rundown of the right questions to ask when you buy a bird.

Telling the Girls from the Guys

      Which do you prefer — a male bird or a female? Does gender really matter? How can you tell the males from the females, anyway?

      Selection of one sex or the other depends on the qualities you’re seeking in your new family member. If you’re buying a canary and you want a singer, a male is your choice. (And still, you should hear the bird sing before you buy him.) Male cockatiels are usually better whistlers than females, and the red and blue female Eclectus parrot is considered the real looker of her kind — much flashier than her green and red mate, although he’s not bad looking, either. In terms of health, females sometimes have obstetric problems, such as egg binding, where eggs get trapped inside, especially in smaller parrot species such as budgies, cockatiels, or lovebirds. And of course, the folks who breed birds have preferences: They don’t want to end up with all males or all females!

      In many cases, though, gender makes no difference in terms of pet potential. The basics of caring for, training, and feeding a bird, as well as the bird’s intelligence, will be the same, male or female.

The sex of a pet bird is most commonly determined by DNA evaluation (see the nearby sidebar), although birds can also be surgically sexed, a procedure in which a veterinarian examines the animal under anesthesia in order to determine gender.

      

The term for males and females who don’t look alike is sexual dimorphism. Many species of birds don’t exhibit any differences, at least not as far as we mere humans can tell. Birds themselves can tell the difference, of course, although we don’t always understand how. We do know, however, that many birds can see a larger color spectrum than humans do, and likely, they can much more easily see the differences between genders.

      Some species have gender identities that are obvious to human eyes. The Eclectus is certainly one of the more extreme examples — the male and female are so different that folks once believed the two genders were separate species — but other, more subtle differences exist in many species. An experienced seller can usually tell the girls from the boys in adult budgies, cockatiels, and some of the other parrot species where the colors are the same but the marking pattern is just a wee bit different, such as in the Senegal parrot.

      In their quest for birds with that something special, some aviculturists have created a number of color varieties, in the process adding another level of confusion to the identification of some species. The classic example is the cockatiel. The common normal gray cockatiel is easy to sex: Males are gray, with bright orange cheeks and no white on the underside of their wing feathers. Females have gray heads with duller-colored orange cheeks and cross bars underneath their outer tail feathers and wing feathers.

      DNA TESTING: WHEN YOU JUST HAVE TO KNOW

      Do you really need to know whether any bird is a boy or a girl? In general, both males and females make equally fine pets, so determining gender is not a necessity — unless, of course, you plan to breed your bird. Give your pet a nice non-gender-specific name, like Avery or Flynn, and go on with your life. Some folks, though, can’t leave it at that. They have to know.

      Enter DNA testing, where a blood sample is sent off to a special lab for gender determination. The cost: Depending on the number of birds you’re testing and whether you’re sending in blood or feather samples, prices start at $17 and go up from there. Most services offer discounts for multiple birds. DNA testing may be a pricey investment for a $60 cockatiel, or a relative drop in the bucket when the bird is a $10,000 hyacinth macaw.

Simple? Sure, but thanks to new color mutations among cockatiels, it can be much more difficult to differentiate the sexes. In varieties such as the cinnamon, the white-faced, and the albino, telling male from female can be difficult, if not impossible.

      

The outcome of a sex determination test is usually documented in writing. If you’re considering buying a bird represented as either male or female (in species where the difference isn’t visible to the eye), ask to see the documentation. Don’t just take the seller’s word for it. Birds who have been surgically sexed typically have a tattoo under their wing webs; males on the right, females on the left. Chromosomal or DNA sexing results also are recorded on a certificate that correlates to the identification number of the bird’s leg band, if she has one, or microchip number. (You can find more information on identification in Chapter 5.)

      Again, buyer beware: If there’s no ID to match with the sexing result, you can’t be sure you have the same bird, can you?

      

Labs offering DNA tests are not necessarily overseen by any regulatory authorities and quality-control measures may or may not be in place. Brian occasionally sees DNA-sexed “male” birds who are egg-bound or have ovarian or uterine disease.

Checking Up on a Bird’s Good Health

      In the wild, a big part of a bird’s survival depends on not presenting a tempting target to predators, who actively seek out the sick, old, and weak. Even in birds who are in little danger from predators — generally safe souls such as our own pet birds — the genetic imperative to hide illness still holds. Some signs of sickness often are visible, however, and you need to look for these tip-offs as you form an overall impression of good health.

      

A bird can be a big investment, and one of the better ways to protect that investment is to have your new pet thoroughly examined by a veterinarian who is experienced and qualified in the field of avian medicine before your warranty period expires. (You can find more on warranties in the “Protecting СКАЧАТЬ