Pet Bird Care - The Basics:
Diet
In general, you need to provide a large variety of fresh food for your bird. However, it is important to know the needs of your particular bird because all species have unique dietary and environmental needs. Please do your research.
For many of our companion parrots, a core diet of organic, color-free avian pellets appropriate for the species and a large variety of vegetables should be offered daily.
Chop is also a popular addition and can be created with a mixture of chopped vegetables and cooked whole grains.
Seeds should be limited to training treats except for the small birds such as finches, budgies, and cockatiels, which should have a 50% seed diet.
Clean sprouted seeds can also be offered and are a good way of introducing greens to the stubborn eater. See SproutPeople.org for good sprouting information.
Fruits should be limited as a treat only, except for particular species such as Lories.
Offer clean, fresh water at all times.
Many species have additional nutritional needs – please research your particular bird’s needs, or give us a call if you have any questions.
Supplements
Generally, they are not needed for birds on a good, balanced diet, and some supplements can be toxic if overdone.
Unique Species Needs:
Bird species have adapted to many different environmental conditions, which have structured their dietary needs. It is impossible to cover all of them in this booklet, so please do your research, but a few individual needs are listed below.
Fats: Nuts
Macaws tend to need a higher content of fat in their diets, which should be offered from nuts. It is important not to overdo this as obesity is common in pet birds. All birds benefit from omega-3 fatty acids, which can be obtained from formulated diets and nuts such as walnuts.
Calcium:
Breeding birds, immature birds, and African Grays tend to need a higher calcium content. All birds require dietary calcium. Calcium is obtained from formulated diet (pellets), vegetables, and supplementation such as cuttle bone and Tums.
Vitamin A:
Eclectus parrots are known to require high vitamin A diets, but care should be taken not to over-supplement, as this could lead to toxicity. An eclectus' specific diet is recommended. Vitamin A is available in green and orange vegetables.
Vitamin D:
Available from exposure to sunlight, vitamin D fortified diets, and vegetables.
Toxicity:
It is common with fat-soluble vitamins, and care should be taken to provide a balanced diet.
Nectar:
Nectar is part of the wild diet of birds such as lories and lorikeets, which have specialized tongues to utilize this food source. Formulated diets are available for these birds and should be provided. A seed diet is not appropriate for lories.
Medical Concerns
Feather picking, skin mutilation, respiratory disease, eye infections, trauma, organ disease, malnutrition, reproductive problems, and many more. Basically, what can go wrong just might. Call your veterinarian if you notice any of the signs of a sick bird.
Sick Bird Care
As soon as illness is detected in your pet, please bring your pet to your veterinarian for a thorough physical examination. A diagnostic work-up may be needed and could include blood analysis, fecal examination, radiographs, skin scraping, cultures, and others.
Diagnostics are very important in allowing your veterinarian to take a "peek inside" your bird to identify the cause of your bird's symptoms and formulate an appropriate, specific therapeutic plan for full recovery.
Once the cause of the symptoms as been identified a therapeutic recommendation will be made which may include: dietary changes, medication, and environmental changes.
It is essential to follow these recommendations closely and provide all recommended care to allow for a full recovery. If problems arise with suggested changes or medication administration, please contact your veterinarian.
Learn to recognize a sick bird. It is common for the first signs to go unnoticed. The first signs usually include:
- Changes in behavior, such as decreased activity level or decreased vocalization
- Reduced appetite - Remember that birds will pretend that they are eating, so don't be fooled
- Diarrhea or persistent abnormal droppings
- Too much fluid in the droppings (polyuria)
- Fluffed feathers or changes in the feathers
- Changes in general appearance and posture
- Sitting on the cage bottom
- Coughing, sneezing, and abnormal breathing sounds
- Nasal discharge
- Frequent scratching at the nares or the side of the head
- Tail bobbing
- Weight loss
- Regurgitating, vomiting
- Change in water intake
- Weakness
Medical Progress Exams:
Your veterinarian will suggest rechecking the patient at variable intervals, depending on the patient's state of debilitation or the need for changes in care.
The medical progress exam allows us to assess your bird’s response to treatment, as well as your compliance and understanding of instructions and recommendations.
Often, during the treatment of an exotic pet, the treatment must be adjusted to ensure the best response.
These rechecks also reinforce the changes needed to keep the bird healthy.
Lab values may be rechecked to ensure that your bird is truly recovering and not just feeling well enough again to resume hiding any weakness.
The goal is to achieve complete recovery of your pet to prevent relapse or chronic disease.
Serious signs of Illness
Please call us immediately if your bird is exhibiting any of these symptoms:
- Drooping wing or wings
- Falling off the perch
- Eyes closed with long periods of sleepiness
- Vomiting/regurgitation
- Frequent sneezing with or without discharge
- Discharge from the nostrils, eyes, mouth, or any part of the body
Environmental Enrichment:
Environmental enrichment means providing adequate mental and physical stimulation in the home environment to help your bird stay mentally and physically healthy.
Many examples of enrichment can be found in zoo design. In the past, they were kept in small cages, with only the viewable audience in mind. Now modern zoos are structured so that the environment provides mental stimulation and prevents abnormal repetitive behaviors in animals, such as pacing.
Cage:
Bigger is better! Get the largest cage you can for your bird. Cages should have many perches of varying textures, shapes, and sizes. The bar sizes should prevent a head from getting through and possibly getting stuck. A good-sized cage will provide substantial "real estate" for your bird to engage in various activities. Consider offering an outdoor aviary that is bird safe and protected from wild birds and their droppings. This can be used during good weather to provide additional stimulation and exercise.
Food & Water:
Should always be available, but we recommend using smaller food dishes and placing them all over the cage to encourage movement throughout the day. We also recommend keeping high-value foods (nuts & seeds) for training and foraging toys.
Toys:
Enrichment toys are vitally important for your bird and not optional.
Toys offer excellent foraging opportunities for your birds, providing both mental and physical stimulation. Toys should be bird-safe so that heads and toes cannot get stuck, and should be produced with non-toxic chemicals.
Foraging:
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What is it and why is it important? Our companion birds have adapted from a wild environment in which they would interact with dozens of other flock members, expend energy by flying to food sources throughout the day, and use their minds to search for food in various environments. We take these same birds and place them alone in a small cage with a full bowl of food and water, and ask them to be happy.
Does this seem reasonable? So, how do we provide for happiness? The answer often lies in an appropriate environment, including foraging toys. The definition of foraging, according to Merriam-Webster, is to wander in search of food or to search. So, how do we do this in a cage environment? With toys! Foraging toys are toys constructed so that the bird must look through and manipulate them to get a highly valued food treat. It is crucial when filling these that a small treat is offered for the effort, to keep their body and brain occupied.
Some examples of easy homemade items include:
Toilet paper or paper towel rooms (empty) with a small treat inside and the ends rolled shut; small paper cups with a seed placed inside and wadded into a ball; paper taped over the food bowls with higher-value treats; and seeds placed in a phone book.
For more information on foraging, see these resources:
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Training:
Did you know you can train your bird? Bird training is actually pretty easy and very rewarding for you and the bird. It not only provides the bird with necessary mental stimulation but also often solves or prevents problems.
Some simple things to train are potty on command when out of the cage, recall, and step-up.
Additional useful things to train include lying on the back and allowing nail filing, raising wings on cue, opening the mouth, lifting a foot, lowering the head, and many others.
Training can be done with a clicker just as you'd train your dogs and should include high-value rewards such as nuts and seeds in tiny amounts.
See these resources for more on bird training:
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