Bird Care

  Bird Grooming Today I will be discussing how to groom your bird for their health. Keeping your bird clean is very important to their overall health. The most common grooming your bird will need is nail trimming. Nail trimming is something many pet owners must take into account, and for birds, it is especially important. Bird's feet are used for all sorts of day to day activities such as climbing, eating, and cleaning their feathers. This is why well trimmed nails are important to the bird. When trimming your bird's nails, it is important to keep them safe during the process. Your bird may squirm and move, so you want to keep them still. The best method of doing this is holding them with a towel, tight enough to stop them from moving around, but not too tight as to not hurt them. When trimming the bird's nails, gently hold the foot or toe still and use a nail clipper to cut off a part of the nail. With certain birds, you may see a dark black or red material inside the nail...

  Cleaning Your Bird's Cage Cleanliness is an important factor in your bird's health. Birds, like any pet, are able to make messes in their enclosure. Today I will be talking about how to properly clean your bird's cage. When you get a birdcage, it will almost always come with a tray underneath the floor wires. This tray has a purpose. It is meant to be lined with paper (newspaper will do just fine) in order to catch any waste products or food that drops onto the bottom of the cage. You should change this lining daily. Sometimes however, waste is not caught on the paper lining, and instead, is caught on the bottom wires of the cage. This, and other parts of the cage, should be cleaned thoroughly, weekly. Always remove your bird during these cleanings and put them in a safe place while you work. A secondary smaller cage will suffice as long as the bird is not there for too long. To clean the metal wires of the cage, use warm water and a small amount of apple cider vinegar, o...

  Where to keep your birdcage Keeping your bird's cage in a busy room is important for your bird to develop a level of trust towards humans. Placing the cage in the corner of the room is also very important to keeping your bird calm. However, there are other factors that go into where to place your bird's cage. Do not place the cage in sight of windows. Being able to see the outdoors will make your bird constantly on edge and on the lookout for predators. With no way to hide from a potential hunter, your bird will become very stressed. In the event that they see potential predators out of the window, they will become even more frightened. Some of these predators include large birds such as hawks and eagles, dogs, cats, and other wild animals. If you have other pets but still do want to get a pet bird, it is your responsibility to keep the cage in a place where your bird will not be bothered by other pets. Otherwise, you risk causing more stress to the bird. Do not place the cag...

  Being Social With Your Bird The next step to taking good care of your bird is being social with them. Birds, while a social species, can be very nervous around humans. Today, I will be talking about how to form a bond with your pet bird and get them to trust you. Something to remember when handling a bird is that you are massive to them. Birds have natural instincts to flee from danger, and will react loudly when frightened. Keep this in mind when interacting with any small animal that you do not know. The first step is to find a safe spot to keep your bird cage. Hopefully you referred to an earlier post when picking out a cage for your bird. It is good to put the cage in a room with traffic, so they can get used to human presence, but it is also good to keep the cage in a corner. This makes the bird feel more secure. If they are nervous or scared, they can feel like they are not exposed from every side, causing less stress for the bird. It is important to spend time with your bi...

Supplies Continued Another type of supplies you will need for your bird's wellbeing is enrichment. Enrichment, usually in the form of many types of toys. Toys are a very important part of taking care of a bird. They keep your bird occupied, as well as keeping them active and entertained. There are many types of toys you can get for different birds. Rope toys are a well loved toy by many birds. They are good for them to grip on to, and the twists you can do with the perch toys allows for more variety in where you bird can perch in their cage. It is important to get a rope toy with multiple sizes. Having variation in where your bird can perch will prevent them from getting cramps in their feet from holding the same footing position for too long. Cuttlebones are another type of toy for your bird. It is a chalky mass harvested from the shells of cuttlefish, and are very rich in calcium. Birds often enjoy chewing on them. Chewing on these masses is like the bird equivalent of a salt lic...