About Us

Due to the fact that The National Parrot Sanctuary is now probably the largest Parrot Sanctuary in the World, running it is an amazing task.

The financial obligations are huge and it’s not just a matter of a couple of people who love parrots, turning up each day to feed and clean the birds, as it used to be in the early 90’s.

‘In fact it’s nothing like that now’.

As a DEFRA registered organisation to operate in the United Kingdom we now need to have a team of dedicated staff comprising of;

Administrational workers who keep in touch with all the legalities of the rigorous animal welfare legislation the United Kingdom keeps, they also maintain records of every single specimen within the centre so we know exactly what is happening in and around the place.

Medical personnel who work closely with the centres veterinary surgeon, caring for this amount of animals means the inevitable illnesses and injuries and on receiving a sick animal the amount of time needed to cater for the individuals is immense. We also have a rigorous screening of enclosures meaning every week there is at least one enclosure being analysed for disease and or parasites.

Added to the above there are 2 drivers that spend all of their time just fetching and carrying, catering for the needs of the keepers and maintenance staff along with running around the country picking up the parrots when their owners cannot make it to the centre.

We then have zoo keepers whose numbers can increase from the minimum 5 up to double that number in the summer when things get a little busier than normal; these guys tend to all the needs of the animals from preparing food to cleaning the enclosures and never stop, just relentless work, you have to both love working with animals and working long hours if you want to be in the zoo world.

Then if we are to look after the humans too we have to have retail staff, these do for the visitors what the keepers do for the animals, just cater for their every whim.

All the animals have to have somewhere to live and when they damage it they also have to have It repaired so next we have maintenance, these guys have jobs like working on the Forth bridge no sooner is one job complete another crops up and then even when a jobs finished its no sooner up than damaged and needs repairing.

Add to the above, Management, they make sure everything is running smooth and take the brunt should anything go wrong, gladly that’s few and far between and working as a team mean all that should be done, is done and done at the correct time which all adds up to make a group of very well catered for happy animals.

So that’s the people but then there’s the diet, yes feeding the many 1000s is a task above and beyond normality;

Our seasonal changes are spring/summer/autumn as one; we treat winter separately as we increase quantities as well as fats, starches and carbohydrates etc which all assist the creatures in generating their own body heat in the lower temperatures.

Here’s the shopping list for 2010.

Now that’s some shopping list and would usually cost upwards of £75,000 on an annual basis.

“Add all the above ingredients to all the caring staff and that’s the perfect recipe for creating a safe haven for exotic animals”.

That gives you a very good understand of just what it takes to be The Parrot Zoo and what we are all about.