It's about Time
There are only so many hours in a day. This is an element that levels the playing field amongst all people regardless of race, color, creed, financial standing, or status. In my opinion, time is the single most overlooked element of long term animal care! And for parrots - who are incredibly social, emotionally intelligent, and naturally gregarious animals - attention isn't a luxury. It's a necessity to their overall well being. Which is plain to see when we consider how many owners relinquish their birds due to "not enough time." If we have others take time to do activities to enrich the lives of the things that we love; we call it a job. Teacher. Chef. Babysitter. Nanny. Day care worker. Maid. Tutor. etc. And we pay them for their services. But for birds its often a non-existent consideration for their future caretakers.
Ratio of care
When people see the birds here and their setup, they can feel the love. See the exceptional care. And Understand the commitment. We get offered, asked, and begged to take dozens upon dozens of birds every single year. But we still have under a dozen permanent residents. Why? Simple. The ratio of me to them matters. ALOT. And I'm not willing to compromise my current flocks existing quality of life for "more" without the support necessary to keep standards high. First class is more flight attendants to less passengers. Good schools have more teachers to less students. When we struggle in tennis or science or music - we take ourselves out of mass instruction and opt for a private coach or tutor for a one to one ratio. Quality over quantity. Individual care and attention is paramount here. Tiki, my blue and gold macaw, likes to "shower" in the sink. Do you know how wet she actually gets? 3 feathers on her head. This is her at the end of a 20 minute bath. But there are buckets water of running down the walls and all over the kitchen floor! So I play with her for 20 minutes while she's in the sink while frequently checking the water temperature. Then spend 40 minutes mopping up the mess! But it's worth it for that happy face.
The food and toy thought
This is the financial consideration that I hear used repeatedly to encapsulate the financial contribution needed to care long term for a parrot. However after 35 years of parrot ownership. It's extremely clear that this is as silly for a parrot as it would be for a child. If someone gave you 5 toddlers who will never grow up - but said don't worry, we'll pay for their food and clothes. It would be easy to recognize that as grossly inadequate for the total care required.
In addition to the significant expenses of indoor and outdoor housing, decades worth of cleaning supplies, the frequent replacement of appliances such as vacuum cleaners and dishwashers, medical expenses and the TIME needed to care for them. Other factors include the general upkeep, utilities, and expenses of maintaining the sanctuary building and property in which they live and so many other things.
Just a simple calculation
Consider if it takes an hour a day to play, feed, clean, and care for your bird, and the enclosure, house, and grounds upon which they live (which we all know isn't even close!). But for arguments sake we'll go with an hour. Now say you hire an employee to do that. This employee, who works 365 days a year, every holiday, every weekend, when they're sick, nights, etc that we pay them $20/hr. And we never, ever, give them a raise or health insurance or vacation time or retirement. $20 a day for 365 days is $7300 per year. That's NOT including their food, toys, vet care, enclosures, perches, contribution to the property or facility in which the live (or a zillion other things). Say we make food, toys, etc $225 a month or $2700 per year. So $10K per year for the most bare minimum, not even realistically close, bare bones care. For 30 years that's 300,000! If you double those numbers for better care, that's $600,000. And this number leaves out so. many. factors. So you can see when we are asking others to take care of our pets and we leave these intelligent, amazing, wild animals to others with no financial support. This is how care can end up deteriorating rapidly.
Poopy cage paper is the best example!
Of all the areas of expense, the cage paper is one of the best examples to illustrate the trade off between time, quality of care, and appropriate financial support. Currently there is 102 feet of parrot occupied space at the sanctuary that requires brown kraft paper flooring. The Kraft paper is not cheap - at all. It costs over $1000 a year. JUST on paper that gets thrown away. The paper allows me to clean the cages very quickly. If I used free newspaper, it would take me hours. If I changed it less that would save money. But now the cages aren't as clean. If I made the enclosures smaller, it would use less paper. So what do you want to compromise on in regards to the care of your bird? I know I wouldn't want a smaller cage. Or a dirty cage. Or no playtime bc their guardian uses the day cleaning. So....it becomes money. So over the next 30 years, that's more than $30,000 in poopy paper trash!!
Examples of some of the overlooked expenses
water
Carriers
Gravel
Water is one of the most used resources here. Yes, water bowls, of course. But also hundreds of buckets of hot soapy water for cleaning. Each outdoor aviary also has a full mister system that runs every day for 60 minutes The indoor bird shower system is used about 2 hours every day in the winter.
Gravel
Carriers
Gravel
We are constantly adding gravel to the aviaries to have good drainage for good husbandry. Using Gravel for our new outdoor enclosures and for the foundation bases. I think I have shoveled no less than 20 tons of gravel by now!
Carriers
Carriers
air filters
We have fully assembled carriers here for every single bird under roof. Emergencies don't always give you time to prepare. As happened recently with the East Palestine train explosion. I'm so proud of these birds. We were able to load and evacuate 16 birds from the house in under 8 minutes force free.
air filters
air filters
air filters
We have 2 rabbit air filters here, which each unit costs around $600. But then every 6 to 12 months the filters inside need replaced. The replacement components are $107. Times 2 units. Once to twice a year. We could use several more for sure.
damage
air filters
Quick Links
With free flighted birds who aren't afraid of exploring. This is always an ongoing battle! From Deci chewing a hole in the ceiling tiles, to Carat breaking the welds on his stainless steel cage we're always replacing something.
Quick Links
air filters
Quick Links
Believe it or not our quicklink budget is hundreds of dollars. Every toy, ever swing, every perch uses hardware to attach it to the enclosures. There are hundreds of quick links here. And we use stainless steel ones at $4.00 - $6.00 each depending on size.
Cleaning supplies
Cleaning supplies
Cleaning supplies
I don't think I need to tell you about this! Everything from mops and brooms to F10 and simple green, paper towels, loads and loads of laundry and dishes to the heavier duty things like the pressure washer, steam cleaners, hoses, and shop vacs.
heat
Cleaning supplies
Cleaning supplies
This seems obvious, especially in Pittsburgh. But when you have a 2100 square foot bird room with 12' tall ceilings so your birds can fly around like crazy zoomy airplanes - it gets expensive to heat! During the colder months the heat bill runs upwards of $500 to $600 per month. Then back up heat in case we lose power. Because of the dust we also replace the furnace filters twice as often and will likely need to have the ducts cleaned soon, and on a regular basis, in addition to new furnaces themselves.
Electricity
Cleaning supplies
Electricity
It adds up in an incredible way here! From having the "bird room" lights on all day, the fans, the outdoor heaters, the humidifier, UVB lights, vacuum cleaner, dishwasher, laundry towels, hot water heater for their long showers, the radios / tv, extra freezers to keep their food fresh and on and on. Year round, the electric bill is hundreds per month.