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Viral infections in African Grey parrot

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Reach YOUR neeD

Team of Professionals and Passionates

13 articles

February 10, 2023

Viral infections of African Grey parrot via reachyourneed

Several viruses affect parrot chicks and spreads infections.

Polyomavirus: This virus cause rapid death in young chicks. Chicks affected with this virus shows a very pale skin colour with small spots of haemorrhage.

Psittacine Beak & Feather Disease: PBFD is caused by Psittacine circovirus which affects older chicks, as they start to grow feathers. The new feathers which just arises might clubbed or constricted, and will fall out easily. Infection leads to deformities in feather and beak growth.

This virus affects the all organs of bird slowly and also impacts the immune system in the later stages if not treated on time. This might leads to death of bird with acute organ failure. The virus prefers to live and grow in the dividing cells. The tissues of young birds which grows rapidly such as are best sites for this virus. Damage of all organs further leads the bird vulnerable to other bacteria and viruses which makes the life of bird as a disaster. The virus survives for months to years in feather dust, faeces, or nest material. This again leads to spreading of virus easily to other birds via

inhalation of contaminated air with feather dust

ingestion of contaminated faeces or crop secretions. Clean the Cage and nest box always with cleaners.

Red urine: This condition is particularly noticed in juvenile African grey parrots. This is nothing infectious or serious alarm. Just because of food items. Observe and change the food items.

Mouth and throat infections: These infections are common in baby parrots. Infections spreads via poor feeding, contaminated food. Can be treated with antibiotics and anti-fungal drugs. Place food catchers in cage to collect the left out food or droppings.

Crop Injuries and infections: This happens while the process of hand feeding. Get through on the feeding formula and must be careful with equipment. Those feeding syringes or pipettes should not be with pointed tips or sliding rubber tubes which can easily. Any holes made by these feeding syringes to the chick’s oesophagus needs surgical repair to correct the things. But, this is little complicated process. It is always better to feed the chicks very carefully.

Crop stasis: The ingested food material accumulates in the crop and may fermented instead of digestion. This might leads to many other bacterial infections. Reasons for this problem might include hypothermia, dehydration, foreign bodies, or infections. Large volumes of liquid content need to be massaged out slowly with the chick turned upside down. This technique helps to resolve the problem.

If noticed and untreated, this might leads to distension of crop. The crop slowly sags down below the level of stomach. Because of this, the food remains in the crop and never been digested. So, it is always recommended

Feed small and frequent meals for the babies.

Give few drops of lemon juice with the food which acidifies the gut and helps in proper digestion.

Use crop bra of soft tape wrapped around the lower neck and chest to lift up the crop.

Never feed your bird too hot or too cold food. Hot food leads to ulcers over the long period and cold food leads to indigestion problems over longer.

[searenbound]

I’m big anxious and have accidentally hurt my cat because her tail got in the door while leaving my room and I didn’t notice until she screamed at me. She’s fine and there’s no injuries on her she’s just upset and I feel like a bad cat mom now. So here’s some old pet head canons I had up on my old blog because reading them made feel a little better

Warnings: swearing

Pairings: Katsuki Bakugou x reader, Izuku Midoriya x reader, Denki Kaminari x reader

Bakugou

- When she would go on about how precious her ‘baby’ was he wasn’t expecting this

- He was expecting a Chihuahua or Pomeranian or some other bratty purse dog

- What he wasn’t expecting was about thirty or forty pounds of muscle running up to greet them

- “Is that a Pitbull?!” “Isn’t he cute? His name is Rex” “Where the fuck did you get a Pitbull?!”

- It took a bit for him to get comfortable being around Rex

- He knew about the reputation that pits have so he was weary

- “I know Pitbulls don’t have the best reputation but once you get to now them they’re actually really sweet! Actually it’s kinda like you when you think about it” “What the hell is that supposed to mean?!”

- He eventually warmed up to him and by that I mean he practically stole her dog

- “…” “What the hell are you staring at?” “Will I get to cuddle with you or are you just gonna hug my dog all afternoon?” “It’s not my fucking fault he fell asleep on me”

Midoriya

- This is so????

- He came over for a study date and when she answered the door she had a rat on her head

- Why????

- She had to know right?

- “Um… (Yn)?” “Hmm…?” “You have a rat on your head” “Oh, I know you wanna hold her?”

- He wasn’t prepared for this

- Boy didn’t even know she had a pet let alone a pet rat

- How do you even hold a rat?

- Wait was it wearing a dress? They made dresses for rats?

- “S-sure, what’s her name?” “Ok it’s kinda dorky but her name is Peach, she has a sister named Daisy you wanna meet her to? She doesn’t like being carried as much so she’s hanging out in the cage”

- He ends up falling in love with them both

- He does a lot of research on how to properly handle and care for rats

- Now whenever he comes over he brings a few rat safe snacks and some new enrichment items for them

- “Sometimes I think you like my rats more than me” “That’s not true!” “Izuku you put Peach in your shirt pocket as soon as you saw her and gave Daisy a blueberry because you didn’t want her to feel left out” “She likes it! And I don’t want her to think I’ve picked favorites!” “Izuku you have to stop being so cute”

Kaminari

- He fell in love with him immediately ok

- “Ok when you said you had a birdie I was thinking something like one of those tiny guys that sit on the side of your finger” “Did you just… are you fat shaming Grey?” “That’s not what I meant! He’s awesome!”

- Kaminari loves it when she teaches him more about him

- It could be fun facts about African grey parrots or about Grey himself

- He thinks its really cute how enthusiastic she is when talking about her feathered friend

- “Wait he’s how old!” “Twenty! I know that must sound old but as long as I take good care of he could live up to ninety!” “Holy crap!” “I know right?!”

- She made the mistake of letting him know how easy it was to teach Grey new things

- (Yn) now lives her life fearing the enviability of a meme reference made by her own bird

- “Babe, Babe check this out! Here comes that-” “Denki I’m going to stop you right now, if you taught my bird another meme, dead or not, I’m cutting all your hair off in your sleep” “… Never mind”

[windycityparrot]

What Challenges Does Your Bird Face This Spring And Summer?

Linda F asks Hi, As spring approaches we look to protect furry as well as feathered friends. Any suggestions on Frontline and heartguard type products that are safe around parrots and toos (Cockatoos) when used on three little dogs? Are the two above mentioned harmful when used on dog that lives in same house as a bird? Thank you for all help I have received as my CAG (Congo African Grey, goffie (Goffin Cockatoo) learn to share our life together. Would not have made it as smoothly this far without your good advice and Birdy Brunch. Thank you again. Linda, Micha and Stewie   Hi Linda   Thank you for the kind words   In that dogs (mammals) and birds (aves) have different integumentary systems (fins, fur, feathers, scales) treatments should not cross over. Everyone likes to think of themselves as being prepared for disaster and certainly life’s cuts and scrapes.   I’ve personally sutured a dog in a garage (after 5 minutes of training by my vet :-)   I’ve yanked shards of glass out of more than one dogs paw and got them bandaged over the years.   Sutures are easy to come by if your vet is a fellow musher but for the most part many dogs, and I presume cat medical emergencies, can be treated with a human first aid kit.   Removing a little fur on a dog while rapidly getting a wound bandaged, is something a dog will get over pretty quickly.

Mammals are very different than birds.   Unless your birds are exposed to mosquito bites which is unlikely because they are indoors, the chance of incurring heartworm disease is slim to none.   Parasitic roundworms named Dirofilaria immitis affect mostly dogs but may manifest itself in ferrets, cats and other prey animals.   Once the roundworms mature they can be found in the heart, ergo the name heartworm but they can also be found in the lungs and blood vessels between the lungs in the heart.   It can take up to six months for the actual parasite to develop in a dog's heart.   Thus heartguard is certainly not a necessary prophylactic treatment for birds.   There is a topical flea treatment you can get from the vet.   SevenDust sprinkled on the ground helps kill the fleas in the sand.   I've used Adams flea and tick spray with success directly on birds who have fleas, but make sure to avoid their eyes and mouth.   Adams will work for feather mites and lice as well.   You may also try Pest Control Dyna-mite All Natural Mite-lice Repellent 8 Oz (.24 L)   best   mitchr   Migrating from spring to summer   We talk about parrots being equatorial animals and how life in North America, for example screws up their instinctual expectations for things like light cycles and temperature. So you would think with summer here all those problems would go away. Some do, but now we face new challenges. Escape routes Summer is the time of open doors and windows, screens instead of glass and much more in and out traffic typically. Flighted birds pose the risk of escape by flight, and summer increases that risk no doubt. But when your wing clipped 240g feather ball chews through the screen where you left the window open in the guest room on the second floor, your wing clipped bird could easily ride the warm summer thermals (those air things that keep un-motorized gliders afloat) and end up in the next state before you knew she was gone. If you open doors and windows, it’s best to keep your bird in a cage, flighted or not.   Ceiling fans A fan can be a human’s best friend. I’ve seen videos of birds who like to play in the airflow. That said, I’ve also seen birds who were placed under or in front of a fan with every good intention by its keeper. While keeping the air around the bird cool the birds feathers were always getting lifted. A “ruffled” feather needs to be put back in its place, and this is done by preening.   https://youtu.be/sIR-q9GsXcg   With the unceasing airflow from the fan comes when unceasing amount of preening, which has in the past triggered plucking. I advise you to keep your birds out of the path of direct airflow.   Ceiling fans fall under the category of super hazard for flighted birds. Veterinarians call the result “shredded tweet” For more ways on how we kill and injure our pet birds, read this. Shade We discussed the need for full-spectrum lighting on a regular basis. What could be better than the real deal, the sun. You know that thing that can fade paint, burn skin, crinkle car interiors? Yep, that sun.   Sunlight is good, direct sunlight is not - make sure your bird always has access to shade. If your cage is near a window check it throughout the day to make sure there is always a shady spot somewhere in the cage where your bird can seek refuge. Mosquitoes West Nile virus is usually transmitted through mosquito bites and can cause an avian condition resulting in death. Keep your bird protected from mosquitoes If you take him or her outside in a cage outside on an unprotected deck potential exposure you bird to mosquito bites greatly increases. An outdoor aviary may require an additional layer of screening. Burning the burgers Grilled food always taste better, who doesn’t like a good barbecue? Whether the barbecue is at home or your bird travels with you remember the smoke from campfires and barbecues may be toxic to your bird. Check to see that direct inhalation is not occurring through an open window, too.   The Varments For us the circle of life usually starts the supermarket and ends on our kitchen table. For a feral cat, a raccoon a nearby Hawk, the circle of life can be seconds away from your bird’s cage. Please don’t leave your bird alone outside for a moment. The ability to maintain a high and constant body temperature enables birds to exploit a remarkable range of habitats -- tropical, temperate, and polar. This achievement is not without cost, however. The "expense" of metabolic heat production must be repaid by taking in sufficient energy to balance what has been expended, and mechanisms must be available to shed excess heat when necessary. If the environmental temperature falls, birds raise their metabolic rate to prevent their internal temperature from falling as well. In contrast, if the environmental temperature becomes too hot, birds must mobilize water to lose heat through evaporative cooling (as we do when we perspire) and avoid death from overheating. Since birds have no sweat glands, heat must be lost through the respiratory tract by panting, or in non-passerines (birds with zygodactyl feet) by the rapid vibration of the upper throat and thin floor of the mouth ("gular flutter"). To minimize the energy cost of temperature regulation ("thermoregulation"), birds use a variety of morphological and behavioral traits to adjust their rateof heat loss and heat gain. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yjBoxDYfv4   Unfeathered (uninsulated) body surfaces serve as important sites for heat exchange with the environment. When heat-stressed, therefore, some birds, such as Black Vultures, excrete onto their unfeathered legs to increase heat loss by evaporation. Emergency liquid foods for caged birds are: sugar water lemonade (noncarbonated) milk and egg yolk pediatric pedialyte To administer: Use a plastic eyedropper or syringe (no glass or needles!). Hold your bird's head back 45 degrees. Do not put pressure on the chest, because doing so may inhibit her breathing. Instead, cradle her body and lightly tilt her head back. Administer one drop at a time to avoid choking your bird. Stroke your bird's throat to help her swallow. Repeat the process, giving up to 7 drops for small birds (canaries), 10 to 15 drops for medium birds (parakeets & small conures) and up to 5 teaspoons for large birds (cockatoos). written by mitch rezman approved by catherine tobsing your zygodactyl footnote   via GIPHY Read the full article

[windycityparrot]

What factors affect the lifespan of parrots?

One day I'll stop apologizing for stepping on toes. Although I have great respect for my esteemed associate who answered this question previously (on Quora)  I have a totally different point of view. The most influential factor in determining the lifespan of any companion bird in captivity, in and of itself - is daylight and the daily duration of light vs darkness. 50 million years of hard wiring for an animal to believe that he or she can go where they want anytime changes the moment they occupy a bird cage. Unfortunately many captive birds do die of malnutrition. Many captive bird owners mistakenly believe that human food in the form of something called “chop” can replace commercial bird food that has been researched and produced under exacting conditions for dozens of years. There is also a misconception about seed diets. According to Mark Hagen, the creator of Hagen bird food who happens to have a Masters Degree in agriculture. “The most dramatic nutrient problem with seed based diets is not their deficiencies, which can be met with supplements, but their excesses of fat which can not be removed prior to feeding. Fat levels in the three most commonly eaten seed kernels are so high that these seeds are referred to as “oilseeds”. Although safflower is a smaller and less palatable oilseed than sunflower, its fat content is, in fact, higher than sunflower. All birds may not like the bitter taste of safflower and thus tend to eat a larger variety of seeds when eating a diet based on it. Read more here Withholding seeds from a bird deprives them of the texture they enjoy on their tongue as well as different tastes. We talk about  foraging and enrichment which I'll get to in a moment, but without providing large seeds to an African grey parrot, or parrots in general, the birds are missing out on doing natural tasks like cracking the shell on a hazelnut. Now let's circle back to nutrition. The majority of experts are great proponents of a pelleted diet, Something that supposedly will extend a bird's life expectancy.  Full transparency,  I am an internet retailer bird supplies (we sell no livestock just the supplies). We offer 26 brands of bird food all for captive birds and for 15 years I have been reading labels while entering them into the internet (our website) so I'm familiar with the ingredients of not only the commercial bird foods that we sell but our competitors and the ones we don't sell, for reasons of Our Own. Naming Harrisons & Kaytee in the same sentence is like comparing aged Prime beef versus taco meat. That said, Harrison's contains toasted soybeans. Soy Has been shown to be a plucking trigger and plucking is a common behavior found in African grey parrots. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgLd5nUR55Q&t=41s That  is why we sell 26 brands of bird food which still really isn't enough because we have to satisfy the dietary requirements of close to 700 + species of captive birds many with unique digestive systems. Most Captive Bird Keepers neglect to offer the birds food with an enrichment delivery system.  Birds are hardwired to work for food.  You can change food a dozen times but it all looks the same to them.  Many birds when offered unlimited food in an exposed bird food dish versus food that is much more difficult to get to will select higher levels of difficulty to feed themselves -  because they are birds. Let's shift gears and talk about lighting. EVERYONE gets lighting wrong.  I will debate anyone publicly on this subject be it a behaviorist or a veterinarian.  No one takes into account when talking about lighting two issues that are at the core of captive bird care. The Inverse Square law of light (an absolute physics law) and circadian rhythms. Let's start with the inverse Square law which I write about in detail here Let's say you have two 25 watt fluorescent tubes in the ceiling emitting a combined 3000 lumens over a bird cage. If the ceiling is 8 feet tall and the cage is six feet tall here’s the math: 3000 lumens are emitted at the source which is the ceiling. 1 foot away, halfway between the ceiling and the cage, it is receiving 1500 lumens. The Top of the cage at six feet is receiving 375 lumens and one foot down from the top of the cage, 3 feet from the ceiling the bird is receiving about 94 lumens of the original 3000 lumen coming from the ceiling. Moral of the story, to get any sort of benefit it is best to have lighting no more than a foot but closer to, 6 inches above the cage. This doesn't have to cost a lot of money. We sell a full spectrum light bulb for as little as $12 that feels great to the birds.  They do not emit UVA or UVB. We’ll sell you a full spectrum bulb with UVA and UVB for about $22 but the addition of UVA and UVB is not going to improve your bird's quality of life nor is it going to help your bird produce more vitamin D. We get a lot of phone calls asking about Full Spectrum Lighting because they want to help their  bird and improve their vitamin D. My first question is always “How do you know your bird is vitamin D deficient? Have you had a full blood screen work up that indicates any vitamin deficiencies because if you have not you're only guessing. If you want to improve vitamin deficiencies it's best to do it nutritionally.” Let's talk about that circadian rhythm thing.  This just blows me away because nobody talks about how Captive Bird Keepers will spend thousands to get the bird to stop plucking. They will whine about their bird screaming,  but they won't spend $10 on a timer to emulate equatorial light cycles. Birds lighting should be direct and top of their cages attached to a timer. Our bird cage lights come on at 8:20 in the morning regardless of daylight savings time which we do not respect.  That indicates to them the day has started. The budgies rarely come out of the cage but our Senegal is out most of the day. She's returned to the Bird cage five or ten minutes before the light goes out on top of her cage signaling to her the precise end of day. Without providing these light signals to our birds they may molt and get hormonal, at arbitrary times.  Without consistent light cycles they are confused and very stressed out which can lower the life expectancy of an African grey or any captive bird for that matter. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IR1NyWoELqg Many of you may have heard of SAD - Seasonal Affective Disorder. It's a human depression related to the change in seasonsand usually happensstarting in fall running through winter. Treatment for SAD can include light therapy (phototherapy) according to the Mayo Clinic. It's a real disorder. Why then do we assume our birds with a much greater sensitivity to light are immune to some sort of avian SAD? The fact is they are not! If we get our birds light cycles in order other positive behaviors will begin to fall into place. If you want to learn more about the science of The bird of time: cognition and the avian biological (circadian) clock click here The temperature of a parrot’s physical environment is important but doesn't need to be overstated.  We live in an 1800 square foot apartment with a nine and a half foot ceilings meaning that the furnace has to heat more than 17000 cubic feet.   We choose to keep the thermostat set to 65 in the winter but all the birds have heated thermal perches and or heated cage panels as well as oil-filled electric radiator heaters next to each bird cage providing necessary warm year-round. Heat the cage not the home. Generally speaking if you are warm your parrots are warm and if you are cold your parrots are cold  which makes your bird's comfort zone easy to determine. In summation, it's important to look at any bird's environment holistically. Meaning: nutrition - cage environment - lighting/light cycles - out of the cage environment - clipped or flighted - training  - sexuality - species - foraging/enrichment opportunities - exercise - frequency of bathing - other feathered flock members - human flock members. You will not solve your bird’s problems by reading answers on Quora,  watching a couple of webinars, or googling questions while working through endless YouTube videos. What you are facing is dealing with an animal having the intelligence of a 3 or 4 year old (autistic) child in a feather suit. If you're not ready to make that commitment - get a hamster not a bird. written by mitch rezman approved by catherine tobsing your zygodactyl footnote Click to Post

[windycityparrot]

Budgie Nutrition, Cage Set Up Video & Tips

Peggie W replied - Feb 19, 8:25am Hi, I am about to order some of the Scenic pellets for parakeets. I was just wondering how this compares to Volkman’s parakeet mix or Harrisons. I've been feeding my keets Volkman’s . Also, could you write more about parakeets ? No one will write about parakeets! It's all always about the larger birds. I'd like to hear more about training an older, or stubborn bird, getting them to play more. Also, more about creative cage arrangement for smaller birds. Many cages I see on YouTube with parakeets are heartbreaking - sparsely furnished, boring. Also, seems 99% of the bird toys out there are for larger birds. Parakeets are a huge part of the market, so I'm surprised they are so ignored when it comes to toys and care advice. I'd love to hear more on this from your newsletter! Thanks for the weekly emails, I always look forward to reading them. I'll work up something for you Peggie To be clear Volkman is all seed - Harrisons and Scenic are pellets or fully engineered food. Harrisons is organic and non gmo but they only have a couple of formulations. Scenic has more flavors and been supplying zoos for many years. I'm waiting for a wider angle camera - until then enjoy - this our breakfast club - Bacon, Eggs, Toast and Jam https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-5mvveYeKE So here's the something When most of us hear the word parakeet we instantly think of what our budgies. The reality is parakeets come in all shapes and sizes, monk parakeets a.k.a. Quaker parrots. Mustache parakeets, Indian ringneck parakeets you get the idea. Editor's note: all conures are parakeets but not all parakeets are conures. Now that we've gotten housekeeping out of the way let's talk about "budgerigars". At a TASC meeting one night Dr. Karen Becker spoke about performing intake on a budgie in a woman who was in her late 70s or early 80s. Working away through the traditional intake questions, when quizzed about the bird's age the woman said 26. Naturally, Dr. Becker reply with how can you confirm this? The woman brought out the Woolworths receipt where she had originally purchased the bird confirming its age. When Dr. Becker queried the woman as to what she attributed the birds longevity, the woman replied "I have a cup and he has a saucer of decaffeinated green tea, every day for 26 years". Which led to an interesting discussion by Dr. Becker about how widely tea is used in nutrition and zoos for exotic animals. But that's another rabbit hole. This is a first-hand tale of budgie socialization Some of you may remember when we rescued Bacon the budgie last summer last summer. After a couple weeks we had come to the realization that he was miserable, he was wild and it would take a long time to train him if never. He needed a cage mate, not us. It didn't take us long to acquire what we thought was another boy budgie but turned out to be a female which we named Eggs. Fortunately they got along famously and would sit next to each other for hours chatting and kissing. But they still acted very skittish as Bacon would react wildly when we neared the cage which also got Eggs going. Here we had this big beautiful flight cage and Catherine felt that the addition of another pair would round things out. We had no idea how prophetic that turned out to be. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4yG7a3fsu0 Thank you ! I saw several things there that I know my parakeets would enjoy. I've been chopping their lettuce for them but I am going to start using those clips. Also, the millet holder, and some of those toys. I've had them 3 years this spring and none of them will take a bath ! Dirty birds. But more than that, I think they'd enjoy a bath, if'd they'd at least try it.  I'm reluctant to mist them in their cage. I was worried their perches would get too wet. Would love some advice on getting them to take a bath, for their own pleasure. Again, thank you for being so responsive, very appreciated.  Peggie The weekend of the National Cage Bird Club show that we were helping brand Hagen bird food we were gifted a beautiful pair of budgies by none other than Jason Crean from the aforementioned TASC. It's been about seven weeks since these four hoodlums have been together. We made some changes to the cage.  They also like millet - what bird doesn't? We give them one millet spray in a holder every two days to share between the four of them. By moving most of the toys to both the left and right side of the cage allows short flights of 6 to 18 inches but flights nonetheless. This solves two problems. It ensures that they all get plenty of exercise while allowing "escape routes" when one bird gets a little over affectionate towards another - which happens a lot. I can tell you from experience budgies are not monogamous. We’re fairly certain that Toast and Jam are brother and sister. What is even more interesting is that the head feathers on Eggs have changed dramatically making her look very similar to a relative of Toast - which is very pretty. I'm working on getting the camera with a wider lens. The activity in this video defines their day. If one of us is standing in front of the cage they all freeze in place, but once we walk away it is a never ending soap opera. You can hear them talking to each other. They're clearly communicating about "activities." And I don't take this lightly. Look at this BBC video of millions of budgies in the Australian outback. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyfCMrqitWI We get a mind numbing amount of phone calls at the birdie boutique asking where one can buy a "parrot that talks" There are volumes written on how great African Grey parrots can talk and certain Cockatoos. We will always tell people it iis the luck of the draw. Male cockatiel's are generally talkers whereas female cockatiel's are usually just chirpers. But this can vary of course. Surprisingly one of the best species of talking birds is a, you guessed it the budgie  - don't believe me? Meet Disco. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXc9ylCXqCw So now you know that even if Mickey Rourke feels that having a large white bird on his shoulder, you can take solace in the fact that the diminutive little budgie can fend off by and out fly a hawk 10 times its size Watch a budgie out fly a falcon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUpGRQK7o78 Back to the matter at hand which we call cagescaping - like landscaping but for birdcages. When we set out to fill up the cage with toys and accessories there's certain fundamentals you always want to keep in mind. Birds will spend the majority of their time in the upper third of the cage no matter how tall the cage is. This is where you want to offer them privacy but easy accessibility while at the same time placing perches lower in the cage avoiding poop trajectories reducing your cleaning time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ghkn57fQw_A Birds interact with toys because of the need to forage, to hide behind for privacy and sometimes when you have a multi-bird case scenario is we do, Bacon for instance likes to spend time tugging on this ring toy but also acrobatically jumping through each of the hoops. He doesn't want to be bothered with by any other bird and as though he has his own space like your I going to the gym. Toys can also offer protection barriers where one bird can hide behind a toy indicating he or she wants to be left alone. You also want to plan for jealousy and aggression. The Breakfast Club always has a minimum of two areas to acquire their basic seed diet. We have an 8 inch long horizontal Millet holder so they can all share without bumping tailfeathers. Two sources of water, one to bathe and one to drink but is still two sources. Should one bird become protective of a feeding area as well as hanging treat bars. I also fill a snack cup with three or four nutriberries, pulverizing them between my thumb and index finger making them highly palatable for small birds and that dish gets filled every day because of the broad spectrum of nutrition nutri-berries offer Editor's note: sometimes treat bars fall apart into chunks that I place on top of their regular see dishes or in treat cups around the cage. I'll remove the treat bar fragments if they lose interest but most cases it becomes one more pile of dust on top of the seed dish that it's in. This Treat Stick Holder dish by LIXIT is just great for keeping treat sticks useful to the very last bit. One of the biggest knocks on pet bird ownership is that "birds are messy". I can tell you from experience that the hulls of millet contain some antigravity property sending them hundreds of feet away from the cage. If you don't want to clean the mess every day don't get a bird. Take four flighted budgies and a millet spray every 48 hours and you'll understand why we keep the canister vacuum directly under the cage. There are things that you can do to reduce your cleaning time. Most birdcages have a floor called a grate, and then a pullout refuse tray. The problem with grates is that they get most of the poop and food particulate making them very difficult to clean. Even the best of powder coatings can come to rust after years of trying to bust off the poop you meant to clean last week. We have always been fans of putting newspaper over the great in the newspaper in the tray. If you're not putting newspaper over the grate the birds are walking on the grate and the poop can get stuck to it creating quite a mess to clean. We avoid this by removing the grate altogether and lining the remaining tray with newspaper that gets replaced daily. Healthy parakeet droppings are firm little black and white balls that should not be wet. If your birds have wet droppings for long, you may need to take them to the vet. Birds like swings. Our budgies like swings. Our Senegal likes swings. Swings should be in every cage to see if they would enjoy it.. The perch part of the swing can be made of many materials everything from wood to calcium. In terms of perches it will always be good to have a growing type perches in highly active areas like around food dishes and entry doors. One or two wood perches at the very least not counting the long dowel rods that probably came with the cage. If you have plastic perches you should replace with wood or rope. But I'm talking about Manzanita and coffee wood, with shapes that will challenge your bird's feet. You'll notice in all of our cages we have a lot of Booda soft rope purchase. They are flexible and provide an endless variety of opportunities for your bird to move about the cage on its feet which they are on 24/7 for the most part. There are those who are concerned about loose threads. All rope perches need to be inspected daily and trimmed if a loose thread shows up. Also, your budgies nails need to be watched and if too long, should be trimmed. All of our cages also have a heated thermo perch giving the birds an opportunity to feel warm and comfy should the ambient air in our home be a little too cool. written by mitch rezman approved by catherine tobsing your zygodactyl footnote via GIPHY Click to Post