bird blogging 24/7

When owning a bird, we must remember they aren’t domesticated over thousands of years the way cats and dogs are. They can however adapt to living in a human environment if given a balanced daily routine, filled with things to help bring out behaviours they are naturally created for. These include;

1. Exercise:

Giving your bird a range of options through participating in daily activities such as flight, foraging, training, playtime. Out of cage time is simply the single most important thing you can do for your bird.

Teaching them how to navigate flight around a secure home with lots of encouraging landing opportunities is the best, most natural form of exercise for your parrot. It also introduces them to reaching certain boundaries and feeling confident moving above them. Foraging is another natural and stimulating way to keep your birds active. Keep in mind your parrot will have to learn how to use certain foraging items from you teaching them through encouragement and simple step by step routines. Training your bird to step up onto your hand, a perch, recall (come to you when called) can assist with flight training as well as everyday activities. Playtime with certain toys is a fun part of your birds physical development and should be an active part of training, recall and everyday routines.

2. Diet:

A healthy, balanced diet filled with variety can be exciting to your bird. It’s giving the options of extra nutrients with fruits, veggies, grains, sprouts, nuts and various treatsalong with pellets and/or seeds.

Not only can textures, flavours or shapes be a fun way to introduce birds to new foods but it is a stimulating way to conduct environmental enrichment.

3. Tricks:

Are simply fun and entertaining. They help create a mutual trust and offer various problem solving and brain developing tasks to give to your bird.

Clicker Training offers a fun, quick way to help your parrot problem solve and use their brain to learn a trick in a shorter amount of time.

4. Socialisation:

Socialising can vary between individual birds. It is important to note what appropriate limits are for your parrot and, how best to work on those limitations through training and positive experiences. Exposing your safely bird to different environments, people and various items can help with confidence and problem behaviours in your parrot.

5. Appropriate housing:

Should always give your bird opportunity to gain some lift or room to move freely, stretch and flap their wings, especially if caged for long periods in a day. You should offer activities within their cage to prevent boredom, such as foraging, shredding activity, toys and levels withing perches.

I just found THE best article about bird cage materials while looking to find a source for an answer on my pet adivce blog. ( @askscalestails)

Do NOT give your birds cigarettes (even if they are unlit) or alchohol. This should be a no-brainer but apparently some people are too fucking dumb to realize this.

Do not smoke around your bird. Or any other pets for that matter.

Do not leave toddlers or babies alone (unsupervised) with birds. They could injure each other and toddlers will most likely not know to not squeeze a bird (birds lack a diaphragm which means if you put too much pressure on their chest they will suffocate and die.) Your bird could also bite a toddler or baby which could (depending on the size of the bird and how hard they bite) really hurt them.

Do not leave cats or dogs alone with your birds. Even if they get along and play, cat and dog saliva could kill a bird.

Do not leave a bird out of the cage when you are not at home. They could get into mischief and hurt themselves.

Do not give your birds drugs and this includes caffeine.

This is how I prepare fresh food for my boys. They have other combinations currently in the freezer (like sweet potato with red pepper, peas, carrots, etc) so that I can mix it up and give them something different each day. It’s a really good way of getting your birds to try veggies (I think we all know that struggle), so I thought I’d share!

Today I had half a butternut squash left over from yesterday’s dinner, so I decided to cook it up for the boys. I diced it small and boiled it until it was juuuust tender. Just before the squash was done, I threw in some frozen garden peas and a small handful of curly kale.

Drain them well!

Mash em all up!

Let it cool slightly and divide the mix into ice cube trays. Once it’s cooled down enough, you can pop them in the freezer. I normally take them out once frozen and bag them up, just to prevent them from getting freezer burn when stored in there.

Each day, I pop a meal out into a microwaveable bowl and heat it until it’s fully defrosted. You can also leave it out to thaw, but I’ve found that Pixel and Widget enjoy this better when it isn’t cold. If you do microwave it, make sure you check the temperature before giving it to your birds! Check the bowl isn’t too warm and mash the mix about with a clean finger to ensure there are no areas that are too warm! Microwaves don’t always heat evenly! I don’t serve the food until it has cooled down slightly - until it’s barely warmer than my hand.

- exotic animals in a home environment

-exotic animals being kept in an inappropriate environment (indoors, a small enclosure, etc.)

-multiple species interacting that should have no business together, especially prey species being exposed to predator species

-the animal being exposed to unnecessary stress

If you do not know if a video is actually cute or not, have a look through the notes. Maybe another person has pointed out something or has found a source for the video.  

I mean it, seriously DONT. I don’t care what your reason is, if you need emergency or urgent veterinary advice then you pick up the phone and CALL someone.

You are potentially endangering your pets life by delaying treatment.

Veterinarians are only licensed and registered to provide veterinary advice in the state or country they practice in. On the internet you don’t know where someone lives, you don’t know where we live, and so we’re not legally covered if we give you specific veterinary medical advice.

We also might not be online. If you’ve got a situation where your animal needs emergency treatment within the hour and we’re not online, who’s fault is that if your pet suffers or dies? Yours, realistically, because you thought messaging someone you don’t know online is a substitute for calling a clinic. But morally, we will feel partially responsible for not being online at the right time to stop you being a bloody idiot.

And we can’t do anything for you. We can’t write you a prescription to have medication delivered by drone. We physically can’t do anything to help your pet.

CALL A CLINIC. I don’t care if you think ‘vets are expensive’, a phone call is not.

CALL A CLINIC. I don’t care if you think they’re closed, more and more clinics are open late and most clinics either divert the practice phone to a vet’s mobile overnight, or give you the contact number of clinics that are still open.

CALL A CLINIC. I don’t care if you’re shy. It’s always fine to call a clinic, especially if you think your pet is at any risk at all.

Don’t think Google is a substitute either. Googling wastes precious time, and there’s a plethora of false information out there. You can’t be certain of anyone’s qualifications online. CALL A CLINIC.

Don’t shift responsibility off yourself by thinking messaging a Vetblr here is adequate care. We have enough mental health rubbish to deal with without the guilt of knowing that your animal might die because you chose to message us.

DO NOT ASK A VETBLR FOR EMERGENCY, URGENT OR TIME SENSITIVE ADVICE.