Bird Care Tutorial: A Crash Course in Pet Bird Care

When most people think of pets, they usually only think of cats and dogs. They do not usually think about pet birds. If they do think of birds, they think of them like fish. They live their lives in a cage. It is like having fish. That is not the case. Having a pet bird is a unique and challenging choice.

The first thing to keep in mind is that you should not just feed them bird seed. An all seed diet will cut their life expectancy. It would be like us eating junk food all the time. You need to give them a healthy diet. Feed them a pellet diet, along with some seeds and fruits and vegetables. Yes, birds can eat most human food. There are a few foods that are toxic to them (mainly chocolate and avocado), but outside of those everything else is fair game. Many birds like pasta and corn on the cob. The key to get your birds to eat the pellet diet and other human food is to not give them an option. If the only thing you give them is sweet potatoes, eventually they will get hungry and eat them.

When you are buying a cage, always buy the biggest one you can afford. Even your little parakeet needs plenty of room. Those little guys are energetic and they need plenty of space to work that out. You want your birds to have as much room as possible for their comfort and safety. Plus you want plenty of room for their toys.

Yes, your birds will need toys. A bored bird is an unhappy bird. Buy them plenty of toys to play with. Also remember that your birds will also need proper socialization to keep them happy. That means spending time with you (AKA the alpha bird of the flock), spending time out of the cage, and having out of the cage activities and toys. You will need to teach them the basic step up command for picking them up. Unsocialized birds are also bored birds.

Bored birds act out in various ways. Some scream for attention while others pluck their feathers until they are bald. If you have a bird with a behavior problem, your first job is to determine why they have that behavior. Maybe it is something you are doing. Maybe your bird was adopted out of poor conditions, and they picked up their habits there. In these cases, you have to fix the source of the stress before you can stop the problem. Like if you have a screamer. If you come running or shower the bird with attention every time it screams, you are telling the bird it is okay to scream for attention. When the bird screams, and you know he has food, water and is not in mortal danger, ignore him. Hopefully he will learn that screaming no longer gets him the desired result.

Birds are like people. Some birds are very affectionate. Some are very needy. Others are not as affectionate. Some are quite moody, and others hate to be touched. You have to learn your bird's temperament for yourself. Some rescues have been so badly abused, they do not liked to be touched. They love spending time with their humans. They love to be talked to, but you better not get to close unless they really trust you. Some birds are just really shy. They will be affectionate, you just need to give them time to warm up to you. Sometimes these "don't touch me" birds will find a human they really like, and they bond to them almost instantly.

The last basic component of bird care is you must (and I repeat must) keep their cages clean. If that means changing the papers in the bottom of the cage every other day, disinfecting the cage once a week and vacuuming in and around the cages daily at times, so be it. Dirty bird cages are gross for one. The more frequently you clean them out, the easier it is to up keep. Plus a lot of nasty diseases can breed and spread in unsanitary cages.

Yes birds are a lot of work, but they are so worth it. Each bird has its own distinct personality and behaviors. They are great and entertaining to have as pets as long as you care for them properly.