You need more than just a cage to raise a happy bird. Diet, friends, toys and socialisation are all important. Here’s why
The Bird’s Home
Your bird should be able to stretch his wings to the fullest and ideally fly around the cage/ aviary. Since tall and circular cages don’t allow any room for flying, they are best avoided. The cage should be easy to clean and well ventilated.
Location
ALWAYS, Keep the cage in a place from where your pet can see outside, where there is enough sunlight and it doesn’t get very hot or very cold. The cage/aviary door must be properly locked at all times, especially when a window or door is open, in case the bird flies out. When not supervised, keep the window locked for your bird’s safety and for your own as you don’t want any little strangers coming in. If this does occur, you need to be careful that a bird infestation doesn’t come your way. However, you can get this issue resolved by researching into sites such as https://www.apexbirdcontrol.uk/, but its best to be extra cautious in the first place so you can prevent this infestation happening!
Birds require UVA and UVB rays from direct sunlight to synthesise vitamin D.
Don’t keep the bird in complete isolation, your pet will be happier to be in a room where you are.
Food Habits
You must serve fresh fruits and vegetables and seeds. Don’t rely only on a pellet diet. Give different items in their meals. The water bowl must be easy to reach and on a suitable height so that his droppings don’t dirty it. The bowl should be full of fresh water at all times. Avoid plastic or bowls of metals other than stainless steel to serve food and water.
In The Cage
Add perches of different kinds – you can use twigs from trees. Make sure there is no infection or insect infestation in the perch. Pick perches of different sizes, shapes and textures to copy what the bird would have landed on in the wild. More perches means
that you can clean the ones that are not in use.
Get toys like little ladders or swings or offer a small tennis ball for them to learn to balance on. Give them a mist spray to clean their feathers or put in a little dish in which they can have a bath. Birds enjoy it. It is necessary to let them dry in a reasonably warm room or in sunshine.
Interact With Baby
Interact with your birds, talk to them as often as possible. They like company. Birds that learn to talk will pick up what you say so keep your language clean.
Whenever possible, secure a room, keep the fans off, all possible exits blocked and let the bird fly around for a while. Since your bird is a member of your house, take him all through your house so that he identifies all his areas. Put perches in the rooms where you will let your bird fly so he knows where he is allowed to land.
Company Matters
A single bird may get lonely so you should consider getting a pair. If you are getting two unknown birds, it is best to let them get used to each other over the next few days and gradually leave them unsupervised in the same cage.
If you are going to be away for long hours, play music on the radio/music system. Keep the volume at a comfortable level. Introduce games to “seek” – let them find their food when you let them out to fly or to play. Birds from the parrot family enjoy learning tricks.
Importantly, enjoy the time you spend together.
Uma Karve Chakranarayan is editor and publisher of Tell Tail, Pune’s only petzine and partner, Petsworld, a pet food and accessories store. ’Furholics’ appears every Saturday on Pune365.
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