Moving a housebird to outdoor aviary?

Hi Guys

When i was younger and living at my parents i got a Maroon bellied conure for a pet, he is now 15 years old and i have not lived there for about 5 years. I did bring him to live with me but after a few days he mutilated him self and i had to drive hundreds of miles to a specialst avian vet which also cost me a small fortune too.

Any ways we nursed him back to full health (at my parents house) where he has remained since without any problems.

The problem i have is my mam and dad are now enjoying their later years and starting to go out more often and booking more holidays. I dont want to chance bringing him down here again incase he doesnt take to it.

I was thinking of contacting a parrot sanctuary thinking it would offer him a much better life (socialising with other birds etc). But ive read some stories that they are over crowded etc etc.

Another idea and im looking for advice on it was to buy or rescue another maroon bellied conure, introduce them to each other, and build a nice aviary in my back garden. I was thinking maybe if there is another bird involved he might adapt better to the new surroundings. (I am not thinking of doing this for breeding sake, to be honest id prefer it if they didnt breed)

What are your thoughts, could a bird that has been housed for all of his life be intergrated with others in an outside aviary?

Any advice is greatly appreciated

I definitely think it will work if you take your time and allow the birds to acclimate both to the aviary and each other.

Last summer I finally built an outdoor aviary that is attached to my bird room via a small enclosed pass through. I did NOT want to carry my birds across my yard to the aviary each time they went out plus originally I imagined being able to let them come and go as they wished between the aviary and the bird room. What I didn't take into consideration when I had that thought was bugs! Open doors allow bugs to come inside, especially flies and mosquitos, so the back and forth from inside to outside was kaboshed right away.

Now, as far as introducing two adult birds of the same species, I've also done that successfully. With an aviary it will be even easier because they will have enough room that they don't have to associate if they choose not to. It does depend on individual birds so there is no way to predict how they will get along or if they will become pals.

I have introduced 4 adults into my small family flock. Generalizing, I would say the opposite sex introductions went more smoothly, although Eclectus are generally quite social and other than some power struggles between males who know they are birds (over females) there were no problems with same sex relationships either. It does take some time for the new bird to feel comfortable, especially if there is more than one bird in the original flock.

If you construct an outside aviary, be sure to build it securely so your birds are safe from predators as well as small critters like mice and snakes. I used double wire along the bottom 3 feet and dug a foot into the ground to bury the 1/4" wire to make sure nothing could get in. The wire on the top is heavy guage so a hawk or a cat cannot budge it or reach in.

I can't wait for warm weather so mine can enjoy the outdoors again.

Thanks for that advice

Im thinking of

Basically build a shed (from wood) which has a double or tripple cavity filled with Polysytrene that is coated with foil for insulation (For the colder months), Then Fully lined with mesh so no mice or rats can get in should they chew through the wood. (Maybe even have underfloow heating or some kind of heating), Then have a nice big outdoor flight space with maybe a small real fruit tree inside.

Before i make any decidions, i want to cover every area to ensure im making the right decision!!!

So here is a few more questions:

What is a good size to make the aviary for two conures?
How much intergrating do they need from their owners when in an outdoor aviary?
How do you heat your aviary in the winter months?

Just thought id point out, im from the UK so its quite cold here lol.

I didn't realize you wanted to leave them in an aviary all the time. You know it will take them quite a while to adjust to that and if they don't like each other they may be quite lonely, especially since they are used to being with their human flock.

My aviary is for warm weather only because I live in the northern plains in the U.S. and the winter months are horribly cold. Right now, at noon on Feb 16 it is 1 degree F outside, which would be -17C. Too cold even with a heated shed. I take them out on sunny days when the temp is above 34F (1C) for maybe 10 or 15 minutes because they love it, but they cannot stay outside overnight when the temps dip below 45F (7C).

I guess I don't see the point in keeping your bird if you are not going to interact much with it. Living in a heated shed with a nice flight is better than being stuck in a basement with no attention, but if you could find someone who has the same species who is knowlegeable and would want your parent's bird, maybe that would be a better plan.

Regarding the size of the flight, the info I thought seemed reasonable came from Avian Web I think. Anyway, the length of the aviary should be however great a distance your species can travel in 2.5 seconds of flight. That is optimum. I wanted a 16' (almost 5 meters) but had to settle for 14' because of a rock wall in my yard/garden area that could not be moved. Because I built the aviary very tall, 11 foot peak (3.35 meters) they are able to do some upward and downward flying also which does make up for the bit shorter length.