Fans of tame birds very often choose for the maintenance of red-tailed Jaco. The fact is that this bird has outstanding mental abilities. It is enough just to teach her to talk. But as for the content, this business is not so simple, yet it is a bird, not a domestic toy. Therefore, before buying, you should study what the red-tailed Jaco needs at home.
The acquisition of a parrot
Problems with bird owners are due to a lack of truthful information regarding the content of birds. Many sources write that the red-tailed Jacquot is unpretentious at home. However, this is an erroneous judgment. The red-tailed Jacquot parrot is not a toy, and not even a canary, but a rather serious bird that needs constant care and training.
The first difficulties may arise at the stage of buying a bird. The fact is that official capture of Jaco is very limited, and trapped and sold individuals are being counted. Therefore, the black market of these birds thrives.
Poachers usually sell older birds. Wild parrots are offered under the guise of young individuals. And people get them, not knowing that they have to learn all the difficulties of raising an age bird. Well, if it does not turn out to be completely wild and embittered, since such an instance is simply impossible to re-educate. Unfortunately, the age of Jaco can be determined only up to one and a half years.
Nuances to know about
Abroad there are special nurseries where such parrots are bred. It is in them that the chicks of the Red-Tailed Jacquot are sold. Of course, the price for such a bird just rolls over, which is why people get in touch with dubious merchants.
An honest seller will never recommend buying a Jaco to someone without the experience of caring for large parrots. If you keep the bird only in a cage and not train its mind, then it will develop neuroses. In this situation, the parrot will begin to terrorize others.
If you have the time and desire to engage in such a serious bird as the red-tailed jaco (photo is given in the article), then you can raise yourself a good real friend. Such a hand-held parrot is very strongly attached to the owner and can even be jealous of him. Since the red-tailed jacquot has a high intelligence, it can therefore be taught various games, human speech and imitation. In captivity, Jacquot lives up to forty years.
Red-tailed Jaco: Description
Jaco is probably the most nondescript of all the big talking parrots. He doesn’t have such a bright plumage, as, for example, the macaw parrot, so he will not be able to get beautiful, spectacular photos. The main tone of the feathers is gray, it can have different shades, from light to darker. Thanks to this coloring, the bird is also called the African gray parrot. A bright accent in the plumage is the red tail.
Red-tailed Jaco is a large bird. In length from head to tail, it reaches forty centimeters. In adult parrots, the iris is yellow. As a rule, males are slightly larger than females, however, their sex can be reliably distinguished only by analysis (DNA testing). The chicks have a slightly darker color of feathers and iris. With age, they become brighter.
Lifestyle
Red-tailed Jaco (photo is given in the article) lives in nature in tropical thickets near rivers. Sleeping parrots flock to the trees. They live in small groups, but on the other hand, they cause significant damage to agricultural plantations. During the nesting period, the birds are divided into pairs and retire until the end of feeding the chicks.
The parrot red-tailed jaco is very careful and loud. Birds are afraid of people because they hunt for meat and chicks for sale. Zhako fly poorly, their number has significantly decreased due to poaching. The subject of hunting is also bright tail feathers. They are used not only as ornaments, but also for magical rituals.
In the last century, birds lived in large noisy schools, and now they live only in small groups.
Talents Jaco
Jacques are believed to be the most talented parrots capable of onomatopoeia. A bird on average can memorize more than a hundred revolutions of human speech. Numerous studies by Ph.D. Irene Pepperberg have proven that birds associate words with objects that they denote. In addition, they perceive colors, shapes, serial numbers and even zero. Talking Red-Tailed Jacquot is a fairly common occurrence. Many birds, by two or three years old, are already starting to talk a little.
Wild individuals behave very loudly. They screech, shrillly scream, whistle, click their beak loudly. When starting such a bird, remember that at home it will behave the same way. This annoys many, but it's the nature of parrots. Therefore, you should think carefully before taking such a pet.
Parrots often repeat the sounds they hear around them. It can be the sound signals of an equipment, an alarm clock, an intercom, dogs barking and meowing cats.
Red-Tailed Jaco: Care
Jacques were pets even among the ancient Romans and Greeks, i.e., about 4000 years ago. In those days, only rich and noble people could afford to have such a beautiful talking bird. One of the most famous owners of such a parrot was Henry VIII. How does the red-tailed jaco behave in captivity, how to feed this bird? Such questions are most often asked by beginners who first encounter such a fairly large bird. In fact, the parrot is not very demanding. Red-tailed Jaco, whose diet does not contain exotic products, eats a variety of fruits, berries, vegetables, nuts, herbs. But it should be remembered that birds do not tolerate drafts and do not like tobacco smoke.
Communication with the pet
But what Jaco is demanding about is attention to man. Birds are very social. For a full life, they need to communicate daily with a host whom they trust for at least several hours. The longer their communication lasts, the better.
Gaining the full confidence of a parrot and its affection is not so simple. To do this, you need to make a lot of effort and spend a lot of time. But when you manage to make friends, you will not regret the hours spent.
Adaptation of Jaco to a new habitat and to new people can be very lengthy. The duration of this period depends on many factors: on individual characteristics, bird age, efforts and time spent by the owners on their pet. Immediately after acquiring a parrot, it is better to leave it alone. He must get used to the new environment. It is also not worth releasing it from the cage, it is also necessary to monitor the contacts of the bird with other pets, if any.
Young individuals get used to people very quickly. In general, the jacquot has such a feature as the need to choose a leader for himself, and it does not matter - it is a human society or a bird flock. How quickly the parrot gets used to the owner and becomes manual depends on how much time a person devotes to it.
Communication Rules
A parrot is not a decorative toy. Therefore, the cage for the red-tailed jaco cannot be a permanent habitat. You cannot keep a bird in it all the time. Since Jaco needs constant communication, he should not be bored and be left to his own devices outside the cage.
A parrot can reproduce human speech very well. Therefore, you can easily bring closer the moment when the bird begins to talk. To do this, you should devote some time to teaching conversation. Lessons should not be too long, it is better to conduct a few short lessons a couple of minutes a day.
Words must be pronounced separately and clearly. In addition, it is better to use words or phrases only when they are appropriate for the situation. If you already have talking birds in your house, then the jaco can learn from them speech. And on the other hand, a talking parrot himself can teach a beginner to talk.
An important point is that you need to teach your pet not only to communicate with a person, but also to entertain himself. This is necessary so that the zhako can play himself while the owner is not at home. To do this, you need to purchase toys for your pet and change them regularly. With a lack of attention on the part of a person, zhako can develop psychological problems that can cause plucking of feathers.
Where to put a pet cage?
Parrots need at least ten hours of darkness and complete silence. Such birds tend to get used to the place, therefore they react very painfully to its change. Moreover, even minor changes in the familiar environment are already unnerving the parrot.
The Red-tailed Jacquot, whose conditions of detention, on the one hand, are simple, and on the other hand, require the fulfillment of certain rules, does not like to be in a draft or near a heating device. It is better to place the cage in a well-lit place, but it should not be a window sill, since open space and bright light also cause discomfort.
One side of the cage should be adjacent to the wall so that there is a zone of calm. In the kitchen and in the bedroom you should not place a bird - this does not comply with hygiene standards. In addition, it is necessary to arrange the cage so that communication with Jaco occurs at eye level.
Cell shape and size
The cage for the parrot should be spacious enough so that the bird, being on the perch, can spread its wings, wave them and at the same time catch nothing.
The cage must be stainless steel. There should be a distance between the rods so that the jaco cannot stick his head in. You need to remember that the parrot will break, bend, crush, unscrew everything that comes across to him. Therefore, the cell must be very strong. You need to close it securely, you can even lock it, because the bird shows a special trick when opening all kinds of constipation.
Jaco's disease
A healthy parrot has smooth and dense plumage, clean feathers on its stomach, shiny clear eyes, a smooth beak, a well-fed breast, legs without damage, calm breathing. Unfortunately, like all birds, the red-tailed jaco is also prone to ailments. Diseases can manifest themselves as follows: a decrease in reaction to events, dryness, sticky feathers, shallow breathing, protrusion of the sternum, hollow abdomen, peeling of the beak, bowel movements on the legs.
In parrots there is a constant loss of a small amount of fluff. This is a completely normal process. But during periods of molting, fluff becomes greater. Dry air in the room can lead to increased dandruff.
The most important part of care is swimming. Jaco just love water. Frequent bathing (daily is better) helps to maintain the natural structure of feathers, horny integuments and skin, cleansing them of dust and dirt. Birds can be sprayed with a spray bottle, also put in a cage baths with water and even bathe under low pressure in the shower. You need to remember that you need to teach a parrot carefully and gradually, so as not to scare the jaco. If a trust relationship has already been established, and the parrot allows you to pick it up, or at least sits on a stick, then you can take it to the bathroom and wash it thoroughly until the feathers get completely wet. If the bird still does not really trust you, then bathing in the shower can be arranged right along with the cage. Wash not only the Jacques, but also his house.
The process of drying the feathers is certainly accompanied by enhanced heat transfer, for this reason the parrot should dry in a warm room (temperature should be at least 20 degrees).
One of the important points is the creation of optimal lighting conditions. In summer, everything is much simpler, the sun is enough, you just need to shade the cage from direct rays. But in winter, the lack of light will have to be compensated by a fluorescent lamp. Their application gives excellent results.
All parrots can be sick, except for the red-tailed Jaco. A cheek tumor is one of the possible diseases that occurs as a result of a previous infection. The doctor can prescribe vitamins and drugs that will help to translate the purulent focus into a solid state and then the tumor is removed. Sometimes prescribing antibiotics is required, but for this, tests are preliminarily given. In addition, adults are very often susceptible to benign tumors. Sometimes they reach such dimensions that they prevent the bird from moving, then it is removed. This is not at all dangerous for jaco.
Jaco breeding
Jaco reaches puberty in the fifth year of life. And if they are kept in captivity from birth, the process may be delayed. However, couples form at the age of three. Ideal conditions for the selection of partners are natural environmental conditions. Their similarity can be reproduced by placing the birds in one enclosure, and then observe the behavior of the parrots. Gradually you will see who prefers to whom. The finished couple can be planted separately.
But it makes sense to make sure that the partners are heterosexual, since same-sex couples can also create jaco. The main sign of sympathy is the process of feeding each other's beak from the beak.
Emergence of chicks
The mating season for parrots lasts from October to May, and sometimes nesting takes place in July. The couple settle separately, they put a box or hollow, which will act as a nest. In masonry, Jaco usually has from three to five eggs, which they lay in a few days. The hatching process lasts 28-30 days. The female is engaged in this, and the male guards the nest and feeds his girlfriend. Chicks are born with an interval of several days. The first hours they do not feed, and then the female gives them her goiter milk. During this period, more food should be given to the birds, and it should contain more protein, the concentration of which is better to decrease as the young growth.
The first week the chicks themselves cannot raise their heads; they have a very heavy head, so the female turns them on her back with her beak and pours milk. At first, the male does not help to feed; he is allowed to the process only after ten days. Young growth opens its eyes from the tenth to the eighteenth day. For another four weeks, the female will always be around the babies and not leave them. And then the female and the male fly out together and bring food to the children.
Self-feeding
You can try to independently feed the chicks and grow them in an incubator. But this is a complicated process. Feed them all the time with a spoon. First, they are given dropwise water with saline, then you can add liquid baby puree (apple or banana). In the first week, the food should be liquid and heated. As the chicks grow, their food needs increase. Servings gradually need to be increased. Food should no longer be liquid. Imagine that during the first week young animals should be fed every two hours. After two weeks, the interval is already six hours. And after six weeks, feeding occurs twice a day.
It’s easier to take a baby from the parents of one or one and a half months old and then manually feed it yourself if you plan to make it your pet. Chicks in constant contact with the person feeding him very quickly become tame. In this case, the kids are better in contact with a large number of people. This favorably affects the behavior of the chicks. But this method also has its drawbacks. The fact is that Zhako grown in this way has difficulty creating a pair and breeding. This effect can be smoothed out a little by simultaneously growing several chicks.