Small Pet Birds - How to Make Good Use of Everyday Things to Give Your Pet Birds Variety

To give your pet birds variety to enhance their lives you can make good use of everyday stuff that you find in your own environment. Some household items and human foods can help your birds to live a more interesting life. What's more, watching your pet birds when their curiosity gets the better of them and they decide to investigate the new intrusion into their environment can be a rather entertaining experience. Many everyday things can help your pet birds to live a more natural existence.

They are very curious individuals by nature so anything you give them will undoubtedly be investigated thoroughly once your pet birds are aware of its existence. With this in mind you must be certain that anything you give to them will not cause any harm.

Also you will find that many so-called 'human' foods can be eaten by your birds as long as you determine beforehand what is good or bad for them. This coupled with everyday stuff you find lying around in your home or your local area can be incorporated into their lives to add variety for them and sometimes entertainment for yourself.

For example my birds love toast, so if I am having toast for breakfast (or any other meal for that matter) I often also do a slice especially for my aviary birds. However I do have a lot of them in my aviary so one slice of toast soon gets eaten up quickly, but if you have just one pet bird or just a few then a little bit of toast from your own meal or snack would be more suitable. Of course it will do no harm as it is mainly composed of wheat flour and little else.

Of course this is not the only 'human' food they can eat; your birds can eat many everyday foods as long as the food will be suitable for their digestive systems and general health. Try them with carrots, my parrot type birds (budgerigars and cockatiels) love them, however the finches are not that interested but do love almost any type of seed or fruit (sesame seed and melon for example).

However you should not give them coffee, chocolate, meat or any food with a high fat content. Common sense should play a big part in deciding what to give them, if it's not very good for you it certainly will not be good for your pet birds. If you are unsure what foods they can or cannot eat then it is advisable to consult the internet or an avian professional beforehand.

On the other matter I would advise you not to go out and pay a lot of money for toys for your birds as this can considerably increase the cost of their upkeep. However many things in your everyday life can and will be used to keep your birds entertained and encourage them to be more active.

For example a basic swing made up from a piece of scrap timber and a bit of rope will be an adequate alternative to a shop bought swing. Your pet birds will not know the difference and as long as you give the materials a good scrub down (no detergents please) first and they contain no paints or varnishes they will be fine.

Any old bits of twigs, broken plastic children's toys (as long as they're safe, no small bits to fall off etc.), and just about anything else you can think of will be suitable for your birds to play with as long as they are cleaned thoroughly first and are safe. Pet birds, especially parrot type species, love to chew so be sure that anything they do chew will cause them no harm, and could save a fortune in the long run.

As always, if you are unsure then the advice of an avian professional should be sought.

In summary you should feed your birds a wide variety of different foods which will help their health, and offer a variety of other stimulants to enhance their lifestyles.



Article By Pete Etheridge

Small Pet Birds - How to Maintain a Clean and Healthy Environment for Your Nest Boxes and Fledglings

Maintaining a clean and healthy environment when trying to breed your pet birds is very important to assure your young birds grow and fledge successfully. Your young birds will live out the weeks of their first development entirely within their nest boxes and so an effective cleaning regime is a must to ensure good development.

Over the course of time until they fledge and leave the confines and security of their nest box nursery your young pet birds will obviously do everything within that nest box, including going to the toilet. This itself is the main cause of contamination within the nest box confines.

Bird faeces will, if not cleaned up, dry out to form a hard crust that is very difficult to remove with any degree of success. This can and undoubtedly will cause health issues with regards to your pet birds offspring, so it is imperative that you keep up a good cleaning regime within this environment.

You must check your nest boxes regularly and inspect them accordingly. How often you do this is down to you but I feel that a check once every two days is a good ratio, this will make sure that disturbance is kept down to a minimum whilst still maintaining a high degree of maintenance.

Firstly you should check any young birds and satisfy yourself that they are growing well and building their strength. Most popular pet birds require minimal maintenance to keep them fit and healthy. However a big problem with young birds in nest boxes is the amount of faeces that gets stuck in their claws and feet, and dries up into a crust on the internal surfaces of the box.

To clean the interior of the nest box you should if possible remove it from its normal position (I suggest when first putting out your nest boxes you fit them in a way that allows easy removal for inspection and cleaning purposes), remove the young from within and place them somewhere safe (I use a cardboard box) so you can get in and clean.

If your box has a removable concave insert (recommended) then remove this and scrape off any dried faeces with a suitable DIY scraper (a wallpaper scraper is ideal), then put it to soak in warm water (no detergents please) for a few minutes to loosen what's left. In the meantime scrape any dried faeces of the interior surfaces and then give them a good scrub with warm water (again no detergents) and a scrubbing brush or scourer, then shake off any excess water and dry with absorbent kitchen towel.

Now remove the concave insert from soak and scrub that also, and again shake off any excess and dry with absorbent kitchen roll then return it to the nest box when dry. I use absorbent kitchen towel as I think it is the most effective way to soak up any dampness.

Now it's the chicks turn; to remove any dried faeces from their feet and claws you should try to soak each foot and claw individually in luke warm or tepid clean and detergent free water. Hold the chick in your hand with one foot inserted into the water, try not to get any other part of the chick wet, only its foot; soak for a minute or two - soaking in water will help to dampen and loosen any faeces that has become attached to the foot - then carefully ease the now moistened faeces from the foot and claw.

Be very careful and gentle when doing this so as not to harm or injure the young pet bird; although they are generally tough and resilient applying too much force or pressure will injure them.

Pat the now clean foot and claws with absorbent kitchen towel to dry.

Next you need to repeat the process with the other foot and then with any other chicks until all of them are done and then return them to the nest box before returning it to its normal place.

Be sure to do only one clutch and one nest box at a time so as not to get your young birds mixed up.

Article By Pete Etheridge