Cage play area
I have been fidling with the birds cage set up for a while now and have come to discover that attching toys to the side of a birds cage can be useful when creating a play gym for the birds. Play gyms can benefit a bird in some many ways by giving them:
*Excercise
*Outside the cage time
*Can help to file down a birds claws and beak
*It can help fight fatness in a bird (which can cause heart and liver problems)
Unlike the very expensive Java perch gyms, just connecting toys onto the side of one cage to another can be a cheap and effective way to start a play gym with your birds. I know many people who do it,that say it is very helpful. With this type of gym it can easily be:
*Changed
*Things can be added and taken away easily
*It can be made into any size you want (not like small gyms you can buy)
*It is not as expensive as some gyms
*It can be personalised
Some things you can put on the gyms could be:
*Java tree perches/wooden perches
*Rope perches
*Wooden toys
*Shredder toys
*Ladders
*Swings
*Plastic toys
*Plastic chains
*Foot toys
Play gyms can tackle illness too! Illness such as:
*Plucking
*Stress
*Bordom
*Fatness
"This is not a substitute for medicine or a cure for illness though so make sure an avain bird checks your bird over before you do these techniques."
For other ideas viset: www.24parrot.com - a UK bird store which does an amazing range of bird supplies.
Here is my play area for my birds. The cage to the right is Charlie's (cockatiel) and the cage on the left is the budgies.
A birds diet
A birds diet should consist of about 40% vegtables and fruit, 30% pellets and 30% seeds approximatly.
A good brand of pellets to buy out their would be harrisons bird pellets which comes in: super fine, fine, medium, large and extra large depending on what size bird you have.
Fine - Budgies
Medium - Cockatiels
Large - African greys
Harrisons is good because it is natural and uses natural flavourings and no preservatives like some brands which can harm your bird or it can be very unhealthy for the bird.
An all seed diet can cause complications in a bird because seed is very unhealthy and can lead to things such a liver faliure. So pellets do need to be offered to. It is hard to get a bird to eat pellets so weaning them onto this diet is the only option.
Seed is needed, however, to make sure a birds diet it still healthy so feeding you bird seed is great to. I would recommend tidy mix for the bigger birds as it contains dried fruit and a variety of helahty seeds as well (avaliable only in the UK). If not, cheap seed is ok as it is still natural but just does not contain the extra vitamins!
Vegtable and fruit for your birds is vital to keep them healthy when going through molts or to keep them alive longer! Although a bird with a bad diet can still lead a happy life, a bird with a better diet is much healthier and it can lower complications in the future.
I suggest things such as:
- Sweetcorn
- Broccoli
- Curly kale
- Apple
-Carrots
- Banana
- Rasberries
Please make sure, to lower the risks of illness, that the produce you buy is organic as pesticides pose a big threat to birds and is very toxic.
Avoid foods high in fat, sugar and salt like
-Sunflower seeds (to many can make a bird fat)
-Millet (again to much can make a bird fat)
- Honey/honey sticks (can make a bird fat)
- Chocolate, crisps, chips (toxic and fattening to birds!)
- Avacardos (toxic to birds)
- Green vegtables such as Lettuce can cause watery and green poo in birds so it is best to avoid it.
Hope this helps
Safe branches and food
Safe foods:
- Radishes
- Turnips
- Carrots
- Kale
- Parsley
- Tomato
- Green beans
- Beet (red beet must be peeled)
- Broccoli
- Corn
- Cucumber
- Apples
- Kiwi
- Mango
- Apples
- Banana
- Pears
- Cherries
- Pineapple
- Cranberries
- Grapes
- Apricots
Safe branches:
- Apple tree
- Ash tree
- Birch tree
- Beech tree
- Bamboo tree
- Aspen tree
- Almond tree
- Elm tree
- Fig tree
- Fir tree
- Grape vine tree
- Grape palm tree
Branches to avoid:
- Avacado tree
- Baneberry tree
- Elderberry tree
- Foxglove tree
- Flame tree
- Cherry tree
- Plum tree
Hope this helps.
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