Emergency in Private Bird Keeping
In Switzerland, it is estimated that birds such as budgerigars, canaries, and zebra finches are kept in over 40'000 households, with two thirds of these, according to a survey by the Swiss Animal Protection STS, housed in cages and aviaries indoors. This makes traditional indoor cage keeping the most widespread form of housing in Switzerland. However, many of the enclosures used are too small: the birds cannot fly, are not exposed to natural weather conditions and stimuli, and generally have no access to natural sunlight.
For a long time, virtually nothing was known about the actual keeping conditions of small pets in Switzerland.
Hamsters, geckos, budgerigars and the like mostly live behind closed apartment doors, completely shielded from the public. The indications suggested that many keeping situations involved serious shortcomings, yet until now no one knew precisely how widespread these were.
Through anonymous online surveys of Swiss pet owners, the STS is shedding light on the situation. The findings of the surveys covering various animal groups provide, for the first time, an insight into the real living conditions of pets.
Particularly frequent keeping deficiencies have been identified and recommendations for remedying these shortcomings have been derived: For all those involved in any way with the keeping of rodents and rabbits (commercial and private animal and enclosure vendors, animal welfare organisations, animal shelters, enforcement authorities, and animal owners), the STS research represents a valuable tool for specifically promoting the welfare of hamsters, budgerigars and the like, and for consigning animal cruelty in the form of keeping and feeding errors to the past.
In approximately 20% of those surveyed, parrot-like birds such as African grey parrots and cockatiels are kept in conditions constituting animal cruelty — either in solitary confinement or without a conspecific partner.
These social animals absolutely require conspecific companions to avoid developing behavioral disorders and social deprivation. Keeping these birds alone is therefore prohibited by law. The bad habit of using mirrors as a substitute partner for birds also persists stubbornly — even though it has been known for many years that mirrors are unsuitable as partner substitutes and can trigger dangerous behavioral disorders. In addition to the responsibility of bird owners, the trade also has an obligation to remove this problematic accessory from its range.
Bird owners can now quickly and easily calculate the legal minimum requirements and the enclosure sizes and furnishings recommended by the STS for birds online. The STS online tool tierhaltungsrechner.ch, which can already be used for other small pets such as rodents, rabbits and reptiles, has been expanded to include the animal category of birds. Information on keeping 16 commonly kept bird species is now available in the STS animal keeping calculator. With just a few inputs, the online tool calculates the legal minimum requirements for keeping birds and shows which enclosure sizes Swiss Animal Protection STS recommends. These recommendations for animal-friendly bird keeping go beyond the legal minimum requirements and take into account the species-specific needs of birds, such as being able to fly at least a few wingbeats within the enclosure.
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