How old are they?

[FieryPhoenix]

At what ages are the following. Birds considered to be seniors?

Quaker Parrot
Sun Conure

 

[Rival_of_the_Rickeybird]

Well here is what the missus did a while back. The extreme end of lifespan for Patagonian Cons, I mean Conures, lol, is 30 years. So anything close to that is old. The Rickeybird is 37. So that's REALLY old.
So maybe Google the average lifespan and speculate from there.

 

[FieryPhoenix]

Life span for both is 25 to 30 years but that’s not always the case. I would think they would go senior if they hit 25?

 

[HeatherG]

I think a senior Quaker is 14 or 15 years, maybe a few yrs older? It depends upon how well the bird has been cared for (diet, exercise, etc)and whether it’s had any injuries. I think senescence or old age occurs when the bird starts getting arthritis, cataracts, scaly feet, rough feathers, other signs of age. Quakers are prone to fatty liver disease and need careful diet and exercise.

My QP Lucy passed at 24 yrs but I and the vet considered her ancient as she had lived most of her life with one eye, a lame leg, and unable to fly. She had gotten more and more tottery and fragile in her last 3-4 years, when she rebroke her left leg (at 19-20) and lost some toes. She had had a liver issue (related to egg yolk peritonitis) at about 7 yrs but we saved her. After her early life injuries, Lucy was cared for well. I think Lucy did very well to last that long, and if I had not had a medical background, she would not have. She needed lots of intervention in her last few years.

Willow QP is 8 or 9 years old but he is in fine health and the prime of his life. I hate to think he will be a senior at 15 but I may well consider him a senior then. I would certainly say a 20 year old Quaker is a senior. Willow appears, on careful assessment, to be a young bird. Honestly, old parrots begin to look grizzled. Scaly of beak and foot and hoary of feather.

I’ve been a QPS member for many years and there are many Quaker fans there. You could contact the Quaker Parakeet Society (QPS) for other opinions.

 

[Rozalka]

I've heard that a bird may be a senior when is at least 2/3 of standard species lifespan

 

[FieryPhoenix]

I thank you guys.

 

[miki]

Hi there! It's been awhile, but I'm back. My pet captivity-born and raised female Congo African Grey Parrot, Aziza, is now 12 years old. Since the pandemic started, I have not had any parties for Aziza, where I'd have friends over to my house for a meal, and I do miss those days, but I hope that someday, they'll be back again.

 

[miki]

I've heard that a bird may be a senior when is at least 2/3 of standard species lifespan

I wonder how old a pet Congo African Grey Parrot has to be before s/he is considered a Senior. My pet female Congo African Grey Parrot, Aziza, is now twelve years old, as of February 1st, of this year. I purchased her back in April of 2010, as a 2.5 month old baby.

 

[FieryPhoenix]

I live with other people so having people over isn’t really a great option that’s why Zoom works great. Hi

 

[Laurasea]

I've heard that a bird may be a senior when is at least 2/3 of standard species lifespan

I think sounds right.
My avian vet called my rescue quaker a senior bird her est age 10

 

[Laurasea]

Here is a data study

Survival on the ark: life history trends in captive parrots - PMC

Members of the order Psittaciformes (parrots and cockatoos) are among the most long-lived and endangered avian species. Comprehensive data on lifespan and breeding are critical to setting conservation priorities, parameterizing population viability ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Excerpt from above linked :

" DISCUSSION​

Parrots have a reputation for being one of the longest-lived avian taxa (Prinzinger, 1993). This analysis of 260 species of captive parrots spanning the order Psittaciformes demonstrates that even closely related clades of parrots can differ dramatically in lifespan and duration of reproduction. While a few individual parrots have lived for nearly a century, the majority of parrots in captivity did not live much beyond two decades. Even when accounting for juvenile mortality, only 30% of the 260 species had median adult lifespans ≥ 10 years. Clearly, most captive parrots are not living as long as generally thought. However, we found that lifespan in captivity appears to be increasing, as the median age of living adult birds is significantly greater than the median lifespan of all birds in the database, despite the truncating effect on lifespan of considering only living birds. This increase is likely due to advances in animal husbandry and indicates that modern zoos have improved their care and maintenance of parrots. "

 

[miki]

I live with other people so having people over isn’t really a great option that’s why Zoom works great. Hi

having parties for Aziza via zoom.us is a great idea. I think that I'll take up the idea with some friends. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[FieryPhoenix]

I think sounds right.
My avian vet called my rescue quaker a senior bird her est age 10

10 seems still pretty young though. Quakers can live as long as 25 to 30 years. My girls is going to be 18 years old. My Sun will be 18 on March 23. Is she a senior too?

 

[Laurasea]

I don't know really
Dogs that live to 14 are called seniors at 7
People can live to 100 but after 50 many health issues/risks start to happen
There is probably chronological age, and how healthy diet and how much exercise they get.

I have another article on how lack of flight starts to deteriorate their health (chromosom? I think , will look for)
Very interesting! Lack of exercise and poor nutrition can actually damage DNA
An exercise plan , flying, important for health!
"In order to protect against the deleterious nature of oxidative stress, it seems likely that the exercise regimen of captive birds, especially long-lived species, such as parrots, should be considered where they are kept for conservation purposes. We suggest that even cage sizes that permit short flights and the stretching of wings might be insufficient to allow captive birds to obtain the benefits of exercise-mediated upregulation of antioxidant systems."

Oxidative stress, activity behaviour and body mass in captive parrots

Captive breeding programmes are common for many parrot species. We show that in small parrots kept in standard cages with ad libitum food, high weight gain

academic.oup.com