The most important principle or activity in keeping any animal in captivity is to reduce stress experienced by the captive. The sources of this stress can be categorized for the convenience of discussion as: Environmental, Dietary, Social, Genetic and Disease. Stress from any source is totally and completely cumulative on the well being of the captive and as such is only categorized for the convenience of discussion and resulting management options. The use of aviary techniques to reduce stress can actually prevent a disease organism that is latent in the flock, from developing by promoting or allowing natural resistance to prevail. This is a very powerful result beyond the reach of our antibiotic culture.

Most veterinary discussions about animal care focus on disease as the source of stress. This clinical discussion, while especially useful in individual pet care, is far too narrow to be completely useful to the animal keeper managing a large group of animals. The focus of this article will be on allaying problems whose source can be found in all areas of stress generation: Part one will cover some areas of Environmental Stress. Dietary Stress, Social Stress, Genetic Stress and Disease Stress will be covered in later articles.

The discussion of animal care and management from the perspective of cause not symptom has been very useful to me over the years, as it is far easier to manipulate potential sources of stress than second-guess symptoms caused by some cumulative group of stresses. This approach involves making management changes then listening to your flock for any change in chatter.

This approach gives access to some of the reasons why when a novice (beginner) might single-mindedly follow instructions of a champion (successful breeder) with the novice often not getting the same result as the champion. Also implicit in the focus of this method is that veterinary care of individual birds, however effective, is not the procedure of choice in maintaining a large flock of breeding birds. Stated another way, any bird that succumbs to a major disease (chronic or catastrophic) is lost to the breeding program even if it survives, so prevention is the only effective path for the group.

A car headlight or a cat strafing the aviary of roosting birds: Double aviary wire and strategically placed sight-barriers and wind deflection shields perform wonders in reducing stress caused by exposure. Over the years I have learned much about the night stresses of my birds by taking an occasional quiet stroll through my aviary at night, where breathing and air sac mite issues become apparent in the night stillness. Often rodents and worse may be observed running silently over the wire silhouetted against the night sky.

Rigid perches in the flight: Having perches that move on impact is actually a critical issue for passerine birds like canaries. I also believe we could effect a lifestyle health improvement in budgies by paying attention to this subtle exercise issue in our flights. The low amplitude spring action of a perch that is affixed at only one end gives a powerful if subtle exercise to our charges. This may be analogous to the stress reduction effect of standing on bare concrete verses standing on a rubber mat on humans. The forces generated by this impact can fatigue the ½ X 1 wire holding the perch over years of use so plan on using the largest fender washers possible to minimize maintenance.

The use of cedar or corncob bedding in the nest box or flight: Any wood that has an odor such as cedar or pine has a potential for liver damage when used in close quarters. Ground corncobs carry too many mould spores to be healthy in a confined space. I use shredded aspen bedding and coconut choir in my nest boxes, as they are the safest bedding available and shredded aspen packs to form an absorbent mat in the nest box.