Owning a Mynah Bird

Last Sunday on the way home from morning market shopping, my parents chanced upon this street trader selling different kinds of pet birds. He was situated alongside the road leading to our Village, under a shady tree. Square cages of all sizes were piled on top of each other, housing African lovebirds, their ordinary counterparts, and some smaller avians that I didn't know of.

My mother was initially contemplating on buying one ordinary lovebird, because the two we currently have here at home have not laid an egg since we bought them around six months ago. We think they're either both male or both female.

It wasn't long however before mom heard the "eh-eh" raspy croak of the young Mynah birds at the bottom shelf of the cages.

A Hill Mynah. Photo from this site.

Scientifically known as Gracula religiosa, the usual mynah bird that can be found here in the Philippines is the hill mynah breed. There are varieties under the general hill mynah type, including the Greater Indian Hill, Flores Hill, and the Palawan Hill (I believe the latter is the one we have).

Curiously, these birds are locally fed with pelleted dog food. The first time we had a mynah bird a good five to eight years ago, I was intrigued on why these avian pets thrive on the commercially available dog food pellet formulas like Purina, Science Diet, Sportsman's Choice, etc.

The birds are preferentially bought while they're still young. For one thing, the older birds are more expensive and already trained to talk, and would-be owners sometimes do not like the voice by which the bird says "Hello!" or the more common "Kumain ka na?" (Have you eaten?). In such cases, the fledglings are hand-fed, with the dog food pellets being pre-soaked in water to make them soft and easy to swallow.

Also, the mynah bird loves to bathe in its water dish. It jumps into the water-filled clay pot and methodically shakes its feathers from head to tail, apparently to stave off the summer heat.

Training is done usually while it's being fed, or at regular 15-minute sessions during the day wherein one would say a word or phrase repeatedly for the bird to pick up. "Hello" is the first word for many mynah birds; the young birds would be heard saying "eh-yo" before later on polishing their imitation and saying the word, accurately copying even the accent of the trainor.

I miss having a mynah bird. Did we buy the bird that my parents saw? We did not, it's an endangered and legally protected species. ;-)

[A useful website for current owners of mynah birds is mynahbird.com - on the home page, click on the link Articles to access information written by the site authors on a number of things like feeding, housing, training, etc.]