Hi all,

I'm looking for some advice on how German Shepherds behave around other family pets. I have several parrots that are very tame and curious. Introducing them has to be done at the perfect moment as when the pup is very young, a parrots beak can do excesive damage, however, as the pup grows the tables turn.

My main question is for those who have other pets such as birds etc, how do your dogs interact with them if at all.

Cheers,

Paul

Ian

I breed dogs and Parrots so usually my house has a brooder or 2 on the go with poss a litter too. From my experience I find that the dogs don't push their luck with the parrots, they treat them with a healthy respect.

I do have them on my shoulder whilst I'm attending to the pups and with the adult dogs about. That way the young birds learn about dogs and vice versa with my pups - the adults of both don't care just so long there's not too much noise or too many sudden fly pasts. My first breed of dog was GSD's and they seemed way less interested in the parrots than my Schipperkes do now.

Training is what will make a difference and a few simple precautions such as trimmed wings for a moult whilst the puppy is growing, only have the birds out whilst you are present to supervise their interaction and stopping a nippy playful parrot or puppy from 'tasting' the other. For all those non parrot owners out there they open their beaks wide and use their tongue to feel and taste things in their environment which can be a tad off putting for a puppy lol.

Good luck with them all.

My BF Amazon can reduce 50 hounds to a quivering mass with one utterance of "get out". The hounds/terreriers learnt from day one, that he is not to be trifled with, infact some of them have had a good nip on their noses when they have pushed their luck a bit too far. A big worry, especially with wing clipped parrots, is that they will get accidentally trodden on by a larger dog, I know my friends ESS accidentally squashed her A.Grey that way!
Overall I have noticed a natural respect from all the dogs, so I wouldn't worry too much, just never leave the bird out in the company of a dog, unaccompanied. Try letting the bird sit on the floor with you & your puppy......after 1 nip on the nose from the parrot, the pup will most likely be wary.

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the info. This has reinforced what I already thought.

Best Wishes,

Paul

A friend with three dobes had just got a 33 year old A. Grey after losing their previous parrot. They can't work out why she keeps walking along the floor instead of the furniture but I hear they are treating her with a great deal of respect - hope my lot do as well as I look after the birds when she is on holiday!

Christine

Schip,
I would love to incubate and rear some parrots. I have had a greenncheeked Amazon for years now but have never had 'her'? sexed and am not sure how she would take to another. I have been incubating chickens and ducks for a long time. Is it possible to buy fertile parrot eggs? how long do a pair need to be together until they become a breeding pair ? I hope to have a go at some tortoise eggs this year too.
Ted

I have a pair of Red Lored Amazons that were 35 and 36 when they had their first clutch! These days they are double brooded too almost makes up for such a long wait lol.

If you want to breed and introduce another bird you have to do it slowly - I tend to have them in cages on the floor side by side to judge how they react to each other problems and you move them apart but still on the floor and able to see each other etc. Then move them closer over a period of time. If they are aviary birds then they get ajoining flights with not free flying time together until they are feeding at the same time - then we move them to a neutral flight and pray lol. If all goes well we introduce a boot shaped nest box in the late autumn for them to sleep in during the winter.

Of course we have had exceptions where birds just take to each other and we release them straight out into the neutral flight for 24 hrs they're ok so get their own flight with nest box and left to make their own choice. The quickest we've had over the years was a WEEK then our first egg - mind she was way lazy so we had to incubate from day 1 and handrear oh joy of joys lol.

What sort of incubator do you use? We use the forced air auto turning and auto humidity Curfew ones found them to be the most reliable on the market for my parrots - well any bird eggs to be honest.

Rarely can you buy a fertile parrot egg and to be honest I wouldn't even consider it when you think that to know it is fertile it has to have been incubated for a min of 5 days loss of heat and fluid at that stage of development will almost certainly result in death for the chick at a later stage and of course the other problem is that it may well not be fertile either. You may be able to find a breeder who would be willing to sell you a whole clutch as is with no guarantees.

For sexing we use DNA testing from a feather a very cheap and safe way of ensuring gender so long as you have a closed ring on the bird's so that you can include that on their sexing cert.

OK I come to this site and torture myself hearing about puppies, discovering new breeds of dogs (yours are lovely by the way Schip) and now I find out you've got Parrots - something I have longed for since I was about 7 - bring on the chocolate now..........

Hi Schip,

How long have you had your RLA's? That's some time to wait!!!!

I have a G.Patagonian, LSC Too and am building an aviary for Blue Fronts. I intend to have a Green Winged Caw in the not to distant future, finances pending!

My girlfriends mums dog (mut - lab X ???) chases birds in the garden however doesn't bother with my birds in the house. I keep my birds full flighted as I am not a greatest fan of wing clipping. I'll have to see how my 'Pup to be' reacts to fly-by's before I contemplate clipping.

I have kept parrots and bread parakeets over 15 years, however have never bread parrots, this is my next venture with the BF's. Lets just hope I'm not waiting 30+ yrs LOL!

I've been looking at the Curfew Incubators, they certainly sound the part! I recon I'll pull the chicks at 3wks rather than try and incubate until I gain plenty of practice feeding them. Do you spoon or syringe feed?

Best Wishes,

Paul

Paul

Lets hope you get the choice of when to pull lol - like dogs they never work out the way you hope!

I have used the Brinsea, Polyhatch incubators and even a polystyrene still air one once, but found Terry's curfew ones to be the easiest and most reliable. Started out with Cockatiels some 25 plus years ago and worked my way up to the more exotics. Had C AGrey's, Mollucan, BFA's, L Patties, RLA's, OWA's, RFConcures, RBMacaw's, GWMacaw's, Rosella's, 28's, Rock Pepplars - 1 chick in 12 years! Moustached, Kaki's, Bourkes, LRRumps and cockatiels over the years.

The RLA's we'd had for about 3 years before they produced their previous owner was not a happy bunny when they suddenly decided to give it a go! Have had a pair GWM's and must admit they breed well producing every year and reared for 3 wks on average, they were magnificant birds but needed such a huge flight my L Patties got left out a bit lol. They left when the L Patties produced a lutino male and he survived unlike the ones at Chester zoo! He's still with us his father died last year and he's been with his mother now for 3 yrs and not a sausage grrrrhhhh!

All my babies are reared on Kaytee fantastic results Amazons fully feathered by 8 wks weaned off and done! Grey's usually done by 10 although they are lazy about the weaning bit - and they have to be really hungry to get them to feed even as tinies - Amazon's on the other hand are always hungry so no probs getting them to feed from anything lol.

I've tried both methods of feeding but found they do better with the syringe the heat of the tip touches their beak in the right place and they're off! Temperature is so important with them too hot and they throw themselves about shaking their heads like mad - always have a syringe of cold water ready when u're first starting just in case! Too cold and a feed can take hours instead of mins - I keep the syringes full of food for each chick in a jug of boiling water so keep it at a decent temp.

Oh and keep it high enough that the dogs can't get at them - they loooove Kaytee in fact more than their own food! I think I am going to miss all of this aren't I but my asthma has hit a level that prohibits them in the house once they start to feather up!

You want any info later when things get going feel free to ask lol and where u getting your GWM from would be interesting to know if it's someone I know lol? Do you go to any of the show's - I used to do Stafford twice a year without fail every year really miss all my old friends - a woman would wouldn't she being one of a very few women who knew as much or more than the blokes and proved it often lol?

All those hugs, kisses and cuddles all day long lol nick names by the bucket full - Concrete Brian (had his own concrete company lol) Sum's Freddie (maths lecturer at University level) Dynarod Dy (think that's obvious lol) Copper Bob the cockatiel man (yep policeman!) Sanjee the pied piper (always had at least 4 kids with him all his own lol no 4 different one's each show!) and the biggest was Buderigar Capes no hen budgerigar ever pecks that man!

Hey Reefer got any chocolate spare?????

Schip,

Thanks for the tips.

I noticed you mentioned Freddy - The only Freddy I know is from Newcastle - don't know what he does at the mo but as far as I am aware, he is selling up his birds to free up time to open his new specialist bird shop. He offered me his breeding GW's at one point and I was seriously considering jumping in at the deep end.

I think it's soooo funny that your RLA's bread for you after the other guy failing after so long. This is a story so common with parrots.

I use Kaytee for my birds too. They get a small portion of Kaytee Fiesta (fortified seed mix) in the morning before I go off to work and Kaytee Kitchen Creations for tea - have you tried this? It's got just about everything in it and ends up like mush - imagine the food beards after the birds have had a good munch!!! For supper they get a piece of fruit. At the weekends they get freshly cooked food. It's amazing how much difference the correct diet actually helps birds, this may be the reason your RLA's decided to breed for you??? Who Knows???

How do you find the space and time for so many birds? I have my work cut out with two LOL.

I did have a CAG but gave it to my sis as he was a vicious little so and so with men. He was a rescue bird who had it's wings mutilated, cockatiel cage bound, totally wild, living on sunflower and the owner at the time bought it because she heard that they can talk - gggrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!! I can't really blame the woman as she knew nothing about parrots, it's the breeder that sold it to her that I really have the problem with (it was also well over two years old). The incredible thing is that my Sis is as fanatic about parrots as I am, she has managed to tame it down quite nicely over the past year - still doesn't like me though LOL.

I hadn’t been to many bird shows, I have visited Tropical Bird Land in Desford, Liecester. Highly recommended if your ever looking for a good day out. You should find the details on parrot rescue org. It's also featured in this months parrot mag.

I will certainly give you a yell once I get the aviary up and running, all the advice I can get the better - especially on syringe feeding. I have met a B&G that had been asphyxiated, he was such a poor little thing, he ran out of breath when ever he got excited. He is owned by a breeder in Morecambe (not asphyxiated by the breeder by the way). Hence why I was going to stick with the messy spoon method.

Thanks once again Schip,

Best Wishes
Paul

Admin saves the day ;-)

Schip
Nope think you've got quite enough of everthing else already:D Just out of interest if you have a parrot (always wanted a Macaw or African Grey) do you need to be around near enough 100% of the time, and are there parrot equivelant to kennels? Where my dog(s) will go for hols the people have a fear of birds, which is why I have never taken the plunge.