Dear Parrots magazine,
Better environments
It’s great that EB Cravens is pointing the way towards more enlightened methods of housing our feathered friends (May 2020). Large aviaries with natural enrichment should be the norm, but as Robert McKenzie points out, too many birds still languish in miserable conditions, which prevent them from expressing normal behaviour like flying and foraging.
We all have a part to play in setting higher standards of welfare and Eb’s articles have inspired me to add more living foliage to my aviaries. I’ve found that my African Greys don’t do too much damage to living plants (willow, runner beans etc) as long as they have plenty of natural perches and softwood toys to chew up.
Oliver Fry, by email