Something to squawk about

Feathered friends are fun, but they’re also a big responsibility, say bird owners

By Ashley Gurbal, agurbal@altoonamirror.com
When Wendy Geesey’s three children left home, it seemed natural to her to fill her empty nest with a bird. Kermit, a green Hahn’s Macaw, came to live with Geesey and her husband, Ken, about two months ago.

‘‘He’s bonded to me,’’ said Geesey, 44, who lives in Altoona. ‘‘He thinks I’m his mate.’’

Kermit is among the 11.2 million pet birds in the United States, according to the American Veterinary Medicine Association’s 2007 census of pet ownership. Bird keeping is ‘‘centuries old,’’ said Linda Rubin, public relations chairwoman for the American Federation of Aviculture Inc.

‘‘Much has been written about (bird keeping),’’ Rubin said in a telephone interview from her home in Boston. ‘‘One very popular story is that Alexander the Great kept a parakeet.’’

Geesey said her interest in birds was sparked when she heard of Alex, an African Grey parrot who had a vocabulary of more than 100 words, understood the concept of zero, could identify materials by touch and could count to seven. Irene Pepperberg of Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass., was studying Alex’s cognitive and logic abilities when the bird passed away last September.

Geesey acquired Kermit through a family who wasn’t able to keep him, and he’s about 2 1/2 years old. She said he has a life expectancy of about 30 years; some larger parrots can live up to 60 years. Birds can be purchased through pet stores or breeders or acquired from rescue groups and animal shelters.

One hour of interaction a day is recommended for birds like Kermit, but Geesey said she spends much more than that with him. Kermit spends the first hour or so of his day cuddling with Geesey and sometimes accompanies her on shopping trips, enclosed in a plastic bird carrier.

‘‘He’s spoiled,’’ she said with a laugh.

In the time she’s had Kermit, Geesey has taught him to ‘‘stick ’em up’’ (lift his wings on command) wave hello, give kisses and fetch. He says ‘‘hello’’ and ‘‘thank you,’’ among other phrases, and makes laughing noises.

‘‘He talks a little bit,’’ Geesey said. ‘‘But I wish he could talk more.’’

She’s owned dogs and cats before, but Geesey said her bond with Kermit is different than the way she interacted with other pets.

‘‘Birds seem to live on a higher emotional plane,’’ she said.

Birds’ need vary depending on the size and breed, said Bonnie Kinzey of East Freedom — and she would know. She’s devoted an entire room of her East Freedom house to the 49 birds she’s rescued since 1998. She’s taken in finches, parakeets, love birds, a canary, java rice birds and a cockatoo.

The biggest reason birds are surrendered to Kinzey? Owners lose interest or don’t realize what they’re getting into.

‘‘I would say of every 100 birds sold in Blair County, 75 don’t make it to their first birthday,” Kinzey, 65, said. “People lose interest in them.’’

Research, she said, is key to knowing whether bird ownership is for you.

‘‘Read up and study on them,’’ Kinzey said. ‘‘Find out about the noise and the dirt, and then make your choice.’’

Bird care isn’t limited to cleaning and playing — nutrition is a big responsibility, too. Kermit enjoys his own type of carrot cake, from a recipe Geesey modified to include more carrots and less oil and sugar. It’s important that birds be fed a variety of meat, produce and dairy items, said Dr. John Wells, a general practice veterinarian at Blair Animal Hospital in Duncansville.

‘‘Most commercial feeds ... are seed-based,’’ Wells said. ‘‘They’re high in carbohydrates and low in proteins. It’s a diet similar to you and I eating nothing but potato chips. We recommend that (bird owners) feed a wide variety from their own tables.’’

Kinzey spends the first hour and a half of her day feeding her birds. She has them on a fruit and vegetable feeding schedule that alternates every two weeks, and they get lettuce every other day. She ends each night by covering all of the birds’ 29 cages — they need 10 to 12 hours of sleep a day.

‘‘I think they’re beautiful, and I just love them,’’ she said.

The AFA offers an online course in aviculture for bird owners, covering avian anatomy and physiology, reproductive behaviors, and illness prevention and detection, among other topics. It’s a self-paced, read-and-study course that costs $35 for members and $75 for non-members. For more information, visit www.afabirds.org.

Mirror Staff Writer Ashley Gurbal is at 946-7435.