TEN COMMANDMENTS FOR BIRD OWNERS
1. When choosing a particular species, we must take into consideration the conditions we are able to provide for a new family member and our knowledge regarding the bird breeding. Beginners should choose types that are easier to breed. Let’s buy birds coming from a reliable source: in good zoological shops, from native breeders or coming from legal import. Let’s not support smuggling which is full of pain and death.
2. A pet is not a toy. It is capable of feeling pain, fear, hunger and thirst like we do. Kept in the cage or aviary, it is completely dependent on us. Be responsible and don’t forget that buying a bird is a decision for many years, and maybe even for all your life, especially owing to the fact that it becomes very attached to its owner and we cannot give it to somebody else just for trivial reasons.
3. In their natural habitat birds most often live in flocks. Kept at home as single pets and concentrating totally on a person, they become tame more easily and some species quickly begin to imitate human speech. Nevertheless, if we cannot devote a lot of time to our new flying family member, let’s decide to buy minimum two birds. Let’s not sentence a bird to loneliness!
4. The more space we will give our pet, the better. There is no such thing as too big of a cage, there may be only too small cages. A bird must be able to sit on its perch without touching its tail against the sides or floor of the cage and its head against the cage top. The cage must be wide enough to allow a bird to spread its wings and long enough to allow it to flap its wings when moving from one perch to another. It is an absolute minimum that we must guarantee! A room for flying must be carefully prepared: close the windows and draw the curtains, hide valuable trinkets and poisonous plants, e.g. Dieffenbachia or Philodendron, turn off ignition sources, hide medicines, etc.
5. Birds need daylight but they cannot be exposed to overheating (e.g. a cage standing in direct sunlight) or draughts. The best solution is to place a cage in a room that is most frequented by family members, at the height of our eyes, never on the floor because scared birds mostly fly up and when their cage is too low, it may be very stressful for them. At least one side of a cage should be placed against a wall to provide a sense of security.
6. When buying a cage, check whether the space between bars is not too large in relations to the bird’s size. The pet’s home should be equipped with water and food bowls, perches to sit on made from branches of deciduous trees, of different thickness (never plastic ones!), “sport” equipment and toys. We should give our birds the opportunity to clean themselves and hang a bowl of water or spray them with water by means of a flower sprayer, used only for this purpose. The cage floor should be covered with pressed sawdust that is natural and helps keep the cage clean. If you want to have babies, choose breeding accessories suitable for a given species.
7. Various types of birds have different food requirements. The basic food for species most often kept at homes, such as canaries, parrots or exotic birds, is a suitably selected mixture of grains. Birds will also eat fruit, green fodder, vegetables and eggs. The bird’s house must also have calcium and mineral sticks, sand, grit or crushed shells.
8. Supplement the basic diet with vitamins and nutrients. If selected appropriately, they will also help obtain a beautiful colour of feathers, prevent thyroid diseases and encourage the birds to sing beautifully. They will also strengthen the bird’s body during moulting season or laying eggs.
9. To keep your bird healthy, clean its cage regularly, change water every day and check its claws and beak (if they are too long, go to the vet to trim them). If your pet behaves differently than usual, is dejected, ruffles its feathers, sleeps a lot, loses its appetite, sits on the bottom of the cage because it finds it difficult to sit on the perch or if there is anything else that worries you, go to the vet who has appropriate knowledge about birds’ diseases. Except for sunstrokes, it is always worth increasing ambient temperature and put a lamp near the cage.
10. Provide your bird with grain sticks. Not only is it wonderful full-value food, but also great fun referring to life in natural habitat. A pet looks for and picks delicacies, such as biscuits, eggs, honey, fruit, vegetables, etc. Providing entertainment, sticks help release energy of pets that spend every day of their lives in limited space. What is more, thanks to a wooden strip, sticks contribute to wear down their incisors and claws.
NESTOR ® for BIG PARROTS i.e. great fun with grain sticks
