Bird Care

Diet

Many birds are fed seed as their sole diet. A seed based diet can be very high in fat and to provide a balanced diet, many other foods need to be offered daily. Fresh fruits and green vegetables are extremely important. Good examples of green vegetables include spinach, silver beet and celery. High quality bird pellets can be used instead of seed.

Cage Information

Perches should be made of natural wood branches of varying sizes and not metal or plastic. Incorrect perches can cause foot problems for your bird. Food and water bowls should be placed in cages where the bird will not defecate in them. It is best to use a grill to allow faeces to fall through or plain paper. Also avoid using metal toys or plastic coated bag ties in the cage as these may lead to heavy metal poisoning.

Wing/Beak & Nail Care

A birds beak and nails are continually growing, care needs to be taken to ensure they don’t become overgrown – nail & beak clipping for your bird are offered at Spearwood Veterinary Hospital. The decision to trim a bird’s wings is a decision made by the pet owner. When considering whether to trim a bird’s wings or not, consider the following positive and negative results: Positive- They will be unable to fly into mirrors, windows and ceiling fans, regular trimming can cause a bird to be more tame. Negative- Trimmed wings can cause a bird to lose its balance both on a perch and while in flight, unbalanced flight can cause the bird to crash and injure itself, the bird will be unable to escape predators like cats, incorrect clipping can cause wing damage.

Parasites:

Mites can cause feather loss and scaly skin conditions of the face and feet.