Bird Blogs and Mash

I follow a few other bird blogs, A bird for Keeps has some interesting posts. This post here followed by this post  here are all bout making mash for your birds. It is also a great resource for other articles about bird health and behavior. I would suggest anyone interested in such things to take a look and follow the blog for great insight on parrots and their care.

Mash like bird bread is a home made fresh option to feed your birds. It's chock full of healthy grains and legumes along with veggies that our birds should have in their diet. I have been researching mash recipes and will be (hopefully) trying my hand at it next weekend. We will see how it goes, and of course I will be reporting it all here, the good, the bad, and the messy. ;)

Until then, have a great weekend everyone.

Insomnia

Insomnia if directed can be quite useful. Since I didn't sleep last night i got some house cleaning done along with some other needed to be done chores, including mixing more bird bread since this has become a regular staple.

Todays bread is strawberry banana. Its the same basic recipe as the birdie bread. (found under the recipe tab) Cornbread mix, eggs, apple juice, as a base then add in things your bird likes. I always add the 1/2 cup pellets, just so I know they are getting as much rounded nutrition as possible. Today I added in 1/2 cup frozen veggie mix, 3 large chopped strawberries and 2 large bananas. I like this base bread recipe, it's pretty cost effective and I can add what ever is in season or on the cheap at my local farmers market. Strawberries were a steal this week.

Last week I added sweet potato, zucchini, and grated carrots because thats what was in abundance and affordable at the farmers market. Keep in mind that the apple juice is "as needed" I did not need to add any with last weeks bread because zucchini and carrot are very watery.

So this afternoon the birds will have some nice fresh bread to munch on. That should keep them happy. Maybe I'll make up some rice for them too.

Holiday Hazards

With the holidays upon us and the festivities going into full swing and the fact that the other night I watched my neighbors house burn to the ground, I thought it prudent to make a post about the hazards to us and our pets during the holidays.

I, like most of us, decorate the house with yule tide cheer. I love putting up the tree, the garlands and all the other flotsam of the season. The day after we trimmed our tree we found one of the ornaments in the back room chewed like a great white swam threw the living room. Thank goodness it was just a cheep non-toxic reindeer that my dog decided looked quite tasty and that he did not actually eat it, or the rest of the tree...or the lights..or anything else in general.

The fact is that during the holidays we must be extra vigilant, for the safety of our pets and our family. Here are a few things you can do to make sure your holidays are full of cheer and not fear.

1. Check your fire alarms! There are more fires on the news in December then any other month. It can be caused by your holiday lights, or a space heater, or just about anything. So check your smoke detectors while your setting up your decorations, it only takes a second to do and if there is a fire they can save your life.

2. Have an escape plan! Have a plan, any plan. Think of the different exits in your home and plan ways out with the rest of your family in case of an emergency. Have a meeting place once your out so you know where everyone is and Never, EVER, go back into a burning house.

3. Keep emergency numbers on hand. Call your vet and find out what their schedules are during the holidays season. Get numbers for emergency vets they recommend. Pets can get into a number of things at this time of year, having the numbers and schedules of vets can save a lot of time when you need to find someone quickly.

4. Be vigilant. Dogs, cats and birds do not understand that the new items in the house are not for them to explore and taste. They are curious by nature and will want to check out all the new visual stimulus. Keep a watchful eye on them to be sure they don't get into trouble.

Be safe out there guys. Take care of yourselves and those you love. Have a happy yuletide season and a safe one.

It gets Loud in here.

I have talked before about how Cockatoos can be loud before, but they are not the only ones.

”Whose loud? Not me.”

There are quite a few species in my flock, and all of them have their moments. It can get loud here, especially at dawn and dusk when everyone has to say hello/goodbye to the sun. There is really no sure fire way of combating the noise, but there are some things that can be done to tame it down a bit.

Since my Too had the capability of being the biggest problem in the flock I'll talk about her. When she was a baby she hardly made any noise. I showered her with affection, letting her roam around as long as I could keep an eye on her. She was a serious cuddle muffin so she was always close to or on me.

When Trouble screamed for the first time she scared me out of my skin. She was so loud that it actually echoed through my house. It was at that moment that I knew I was going to have to do something to train her to be quiet before this became a regular occurrence.

Trouble was actually relatively easy to train because all she wanted in the world was to be with me. If she got loud, I would put her in her cage and walk away. Sometimes I had to go to my bedroom and close the door because she would scream continuously, trying to get me to come back.

This went on for about a month or two. She would scream, get put in the cage where she would scream some more. When she calmed down she would come back out again. Slowly over time, the time she was in the cage due to being loud was shortening. Her vocal tantrums became shorter and shorter, to the point that now she only lets out a protest scream if she feels ignored. These don't happen often, but when they do I do not react to it. I ignore the outburst and only give her attention when she is being quiet. So far this has worked beautifully and my eardrums are thankful.

I have found this technique works better for younger birds. I am still trying to make this work with Duke, but he has this alarm clock noise down to a science and does not seem put off when I ignore him. He is rather indifferent to my presence and that is putting a cramp in his training. So I may have to find something else to try and see if that works.

Have any of you had to train your parrot from doing something? What have you tried? What worked and what didn't? Let me know in the comments.

DIY Toy basics

Lets face it, bird toys are expensive, yet we must keep our birds entertained, so that leaves us with two choices. 1. Break the bank and buy these uber expensive toys, or 2. Make our own.

The first rule of toy making is,
Save everything. Every chewed block from the toys they already have, every chain, rope, and d-ring should be horded for future toys. You never know what will come in handy later. We have a large box filled with trashed toy scraps that we go through when we build new toys, it saves us a bundle.

Materials:
Wood is an important aspect of bird toys, birds love to chew on wood so make sure you use untreated pine for your toys. Other woods and treated woods can harm your bird.

Rope or chain are good ways to work your wood blocks together. If you use chain make sure the links are not so small that your bird can get his toe stuck inside a link, also if you have a smaller bird make sure the links are not to big where the bird might get his head stuck. If you opt for rope, untreated cotton or sisal ropes are a good choice, both can be found at the local hardware stores. (Some Sisal rope is treated with oil, read the package and when all else fails smell it, if you smell anything put it back and find something else.)

Beads can be fun for birds as well, but watch that you use a bead that is appropriate for your bird. You would not want to use small plastic beads for a Macaw or Amazon toy, the bird can/will break them and could swallow them.

If you want to dye your blocks of wood an efficient and inexpensive way is to use equal parts food coloring and rubbing alcohol. Just one dunk in the mixture will give your wood a rich color and the rubbing alcohol lends to quick drying.

The Wiffle Ball

Materials:
1 Wiffle ball (You can get these for a buck at any dollar store.)
Rope
chain
Wooden blocks
Plastic beads if you have them
D-ring
2 O-rings


For this toy I used a large Wiffle ball for my Cockatoo. First I took a section of chain and 2 O-rings and set them through the center.

Now, take the wiffle ball and thread different lengths of rope through the holes. I used sisal, which can be scratchy so you may want to wear gloves when you work with it. Slide blocks and beads onto each end knotting the rope beneath them. If you have the issue I have with knots being too loose Hold the knot firmly in your hand and pull down hard. Your loose knot should tighten nicely.

Trim any frayed edges and hook a d-ring to one of the O-rings in the center chain and you are done. If using cotton rope be sure to watch the fraying, keep it trimmed so your bird doesn't get his foot or toes tangled in it.

All the materials other then the rope were from old toys that my birds had already destroyed. You can pay upwards of $30 for a similar toy in the pet store.

DIY Mondays

Since I talked before about the expense of birds, I thought today I would talk about how to save a little money. In fact I have decided to make Monday posts, DIY Mondays.

Bird food is pricey, bird treats are even more expensive for less quantity. So how do we treat our birds with out breaking the bank? Well here are two sure fire ways to treat your parrot.

Bagel Treats

Need:
½ Bagel (stale bagels are fine as long as they have no mold on them)
Peanut Butter (creamy is the best)
Parrot Seed (approx 1/4 cup or so depending)
Plate (paper works great)

Take half a bagel (mini bagel for smaller birds) spread peanut butter over it (creamy is best) and stick some of their seed into the peanut butter. I usually use a paper plate with a cup of seed on it and press the bagel PB side down into the seed to make a few of these rather quickly. Then hang the bagel treat from the top of the cage with string or rope. Use a slip knot method for this, double strands of rope, chain, string etc. can cause a bird to strangle themselves when they twist around on the toy.

This can also be done for wild birds using wild bird seed and hung from a tree branch.

Peanut Butter Balls

Need:
½ cup Peanut Butter (creamy)
¾ cup Parrot Seed
Cookie Sheet
Wax paper

Another inexpensive treat mix about ½ a cup of peanut butter with about ¾ cup bird seed. Stir the sticky mess thoroughly adding more peanut butter if needed. Take a cookie sheet and cover it with wax paper. Roll the PB and seed mixture into small balls and place on the cookie sheet then place sheet into the freezer. Let freeze for about 30 mins to an hour, the mixture should no longer be sticky allowing you to easily remove them from the wax paper and distribute to your parrot. Store left overs in the freezer until needed.


If you have any DIY treat recipes you use for your birds, let us know!

So you want a parrot

Parrots can be wonderful companions. Unfortunately I have seen owners that have had to give up their beloved bird for a variety of reasons. These parrots are hard to place, they need to be trained or re-trained out of bad habits, they scream, bite, eat all the wrong foods, and are over all scared to death over their new found situations.

So before you get yourself a parrot, these are some of the things you need to know:

1. Parrots are long lived. The smaller parrots, quakers, conures, lovebirds, cockatiels can live upwards of 30 years. The larger varieties, Macaws, Cockatoos, Amazons, African Greys, etc can live anywhere from 50 to 80 years and older. Owning a bird is a long term commitment, be sure you are up to the task.

2. If you don't like loud noises it's probably best not to get a parrot. Parrots can be loud, seriously loud. A Cockatoo's scream can be heard up to 2 miles away, think of what that could be like in your house. Conures though smaller can screach with the best of them, in fact, most of my conures make alot more noise then my Cockatoo and my Macaw combined. Cockatiels are quieter but chitter all day long, same with parrakeets, so keep this in mind before getting a bird also keep in mind that baby birds, which are normally sold in pet stores, make significantly less noise then adults. For instance, I fell in love with my sweet, quiet, cooing Cockatoo when I worked in the pet store, imagine my surprise when she screamed for the first time almost 8 months later.

3. If you don't have the time, don't get the bird. Birds bond to their humans, they want to be with you, stand on you, talk to you and play with you. If you work 8 plus hours a day, leaving the bird alone with nothing to do you will have problems like plucking and self mutilation.

4. Parrots are smart. They need to be mentally and physically stimulated. Toys are important for parrots, they need to chew and play and toys provide that for them. There are toys that hide food and treats that are wonderful ways to stimulate your parrot. Remember a cage with out toys is little more then a prison for them.

5. Feng shui your bird. Because parrots are so smart and need to be stimulated. You should rearange their cage about once a month. Exchange their toys, put in something new for  them to explore. This accomplishes two things, the first it engages their brain keeping them from developing a routine with their toys that may lead to bordom and from there bad behavior like plucking. Second it can help them from becoming so accustom to their cage being a certain way that they become cage bound.

6. The beak that bites. If you own a parrot is not the case of if you get bit as when you get bit. Parrots bite, it's a fact of life. They dont have hands so they explore their world through their beak and tongue.  Sometimes they don't mean to hurt you, but parrots speak to one another differently. In the wild if there is danger they will bite the bird next to them to alert them, they will bite to establish domanance heck they will bite for just about anything. A companion parrot is not much different from it's wild cousins. You have to train your bird not to bite you and keep in mind even the best trained bird can, and possibly will, still bite under the right circumestances.

7. Feeding a parrot. Food is an important part of the life of a parrot. A wise vet told me that a proper diet for a parrot is 70% pellet, 20% fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts and 10% seed. This is an over all good diet for most parrots, though some like Macaws need a different balance of pellet vs. seed. Be sure to talk to a vet, that specializes in Avians, on the proper mixture for your parrot. In general though there are a few rules that encompass all birds. Feeding only seed will shorten the lifespan of your parrot. Seed is high in fat and low on nutrients, so an all seed diet leads to some medical issues the least of being liver disease and obesity in your parrot. Even in small doses, avocado and chocolate will kill a parrot. All parrots are lactose intolerant, do not feed them any milk products like cheese or icecream.

8. A parrot is an investment. Parrots are expensive. The birds themselves can run a tidy price, then factor in the cage and toys and food and you have one hefty price tag. Be prepared to invest a lot of time and money in a bird over it's lifespan.

9. Research, Research, Research! The biggest thing about owning a parrot is research. Know what species of parrot you want to invest in before you ever step into a store. For instance, if you don't like loud noises or live in an apartment you do not want to invest in a cockatoo. Keep in mind that every bird is an individual and might not line up completely to species standards, but those standards are still a pretty good guideline to what your bird will be like.

~Suzanne