Parrots can stay for a number of many years. Each particular person African Grey Parrot lifespan will rely on whether or not they’re wild or captive, on their common well being and on how nicely captive Parrots are cared for. To totally reply the query ‘how long do parrots live’ we’ll even be why, on common, parrots stay longer within the wild. And we’ll be providing you with some nice ideas for serving to your African Grey Parrot to have a protracted and wholesome life.
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We all need our pets to stay so long as they presumably can.
Learning concerning the components that contribute to the African gray parrot life expectancy may help you make sure that your chook lives so long as attainable.
So let’s discover out – how lengthy do African gray parrots stay?
How Long Do African Grey Parrots Live?
The African gray parrot is definitely two totally different subspecies – the Congo African gray parrot and the Timneh African gray parrot.
To the untrained eye, these two subspecies look very comparable.
They each stay for a similar period of time, and African gray parrot lifespan doesn’t seem to range a lot between the 2 species.
Both subspecies can stay a median of fifty years in captivity.
In the wild, they will stay as much as 80 years, although one explicit parrot is understood to have reached the grand outdated age of 90!
Many pet house owners are confused as to why African gray parrot expectancy is shorter in captivity than it’s within the wild. Especially when the alternative is true for practically each different species.
However, there are a variety of things that contribute to African gray parrots dying in captivity prior to they might within the wild.
African Grey Parrot Lifespan – The Impact of Malnutrition
One of the most important components is diet.
Many African gray parrots are fed improper diets, which result in them both getting an excessive amount of of one thing they don’t want, not sufficient of one thing they do, and even each.
In the wild, African gray parrots are foragers and due to this fact eat all kinds of meals.
In any given day, an African gray parrot usually consumes all kinds of seeds, nuts, fruits, berries, and greens.
Many business seed-primarily based diets will not be adequate to your parrot’s diet and might result in vitamin A deficiency, calcium deficiency, and hypocalcemia.
African gray parrots are at explicit danger for hypocalcemia, which may trigger seizures.
An unbalanced or irregular weight-reduction plan may cause or exacerbate reproductive problems, feather issues, and infections.
Your chook’s immune response can simply grow to be diminished with an improper weight-reduction plan, which may trigger varied different illnesses to take maintain simply.
Feeding your Parrot For Longevity – Getting it Right
Instead of seed-primarily based diets, it’s best to give your African gray parrot pellets with a big particle dimension as an alternative.
These pellets ought to comprise round three quarters of your parrot’s weight-reduction plan.
The the rest ought to be primarily recent fruit and greens, and a bit lean protein equivalent to cooked eggs, hen or turkey.
Our article on one of the best African gray parrot meals will assist you to navigate the fitting monitor.
African Grey Parrot Lifespan – Shedding Light on the Role of UV-B
Another cause that captive African gray parrots are inclined to die prematurely is because of improper housing and lighting.
Most clearly, these birds are enormous!
They require plenty of room to maneuver round and flap their wings, which is unfortunately not offered by many house owners.
African gray parrots additionally require UV-B mild. This should be supplied with a particular bulb as home windows block a lot of the solar’s pure UV-B mild.
Failing to supply your parrot with UV-B mild might result in hypocalcemia. Which in flip can result in secondary an infection, seizures, and lengthy-time period harm to your chook’s feathers.
However, these bulbs could be considerably costly and should commonly be modified.
Many house owners don’t understand how vital they’re to their chook’s well being and choose to not buy the sunshine in an effort to economize.
Other house owners may buy a UV-B mild however not change it as typically as they need to.
UV-B lighting, although, is completely important to an African gray parrot’s well being and might contribute to an early demise if not offered.
African Grey Parrot Life Expectancy – Housing
Besides being in too small of a cage and never being supplied with UV-B mild, African gray parrots may undergo if they’re housed within the mistaken location.
African gray parrots merely should be housed in a nicely-ventilated, draft-free space. Because of their pure climates, these birds don’t deal with the chilly nicely in any respect.
Drafts and chilly areas can simply result in illness and infections.
Furthermore, African gray parrots should be refrained from your kitchen.
Nonstick cookware is deadly to those chook’s respiratory system. Exposure to the air from a heated, nonstick pan can kill a chook in solely a pair days.
Furthermore, any object that features a nonstick floor equivalent to irons, ironing boards, and warmth lamps may cause the identical impact and ought to be refrained from your chook as nicely.
African Grey Parrot Life Expectancy
Captive African gray parrot lifespan is normally round 50 years, although a parrot may stay as much as 90 years if given correct care and housing.
Sadly, many African gray parrots will not be cared for correctly. This makes their lifespan in captivity far decrease than it’s within the wild.
Hopefully this text has offered you with some recent perception into your parrot’s lifespan and the components that play into it.
Now go give your chook the longest life attainable!
How Old Is Your African Grey Parrot?
Is your pet parrot greater than 50 years outdated?
What do you attribute their longevity to?
Tell us about your lengthy-lived avians within the feedback field!
And in the event you’re bringing one into your loved ones, check out our parrot identify concepts!
More nice parrot articles
References and Further Reading
Stanford, Michael. “The Effect of UV-B Lighting Supplementation in African Grey Parrots.” The International Conference on Exotics. 2004.
Mayer, Joerg. “Polytetrafluoroethylene (Teflon) Toxicity.” Clinical Veterinary Advisor: Birds and Exotic Pets. 2012.
Kalmer. “Apparent nutrient digestibility and excreta quality in African grey parrots fed two pelleted diets based on coarsely or finely ground ingredients.” Journal of Animal Physiology and Animal Nutrition. 2007.
McDonald, Lawrence. “Hypocalcemic seizures in an African grey parrot.” The Canadian Veterinary Journal. 1988.
Schoemaker. “Nutrition-related problems in pet birds.” Tijdschrift Voor Diergeneeskunde. 1999.