Pet Birds – How to Make Good Use of Everyday Things to Give Your Pet Birds Variety

To give your pet birds variety to enhance their lives you can make good use of everyday stuff that you find in your own environment. Some household items and human foods can help your birds to live a more interesting life. What’s more, watching your pet birds when their curiosity gets the better of them and they decide to investigate the new intrusion into their environment can be a rather entertaining experience. Many everyday things can help your pet birds to live a more natural existence.

They are very curious individuals by nature so anything you give them will undoubtedly be investigated thoroughly once your pet birds are aware of its existence. With this in mind you must be certain that anything you give to them will not cause any harm.

Also you will find that many so called ‘human’ foods can be eaten by your birds as long as you determine beforehand what is good or bad for them. This coupled with everyday stuff you find lying around in your home or your local area can be incorporated into their lives to add variety for them and sometimes entertainment for yourself.

For example my birds love toast, so if I am having toast for breakfast (or any other meal for that matter) I often also do a slice especially for my aviary birds. However I do have a lot of them in my aviary so one slice of toast soon gets eaten up quickly, but if you have just one pet bird or just a few then a little bit of toast from your own meal or snack would be more suitable. Of course it will do no harm as it is mainly composed of wheat flour and little else.

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Of course this is not the only ‘human’ food they can eat; your birds can eat many everyday foods as long as the food will be suitable for their digestive systems and general health. Try them with carrots, my parrot type birds (budgerigars and cockatiels) love them, however the finches are not that interested but do love almost any type of seed or fruit (sesame seed and melon for example).

However you should not give them coffee, chocolate, meat or any food with a high fat content. Common sense should play a big part in deciding what to give them, if it’s not very good for you it certainly will not be good for your pet birds. If you are unsure what foods they can or cannot eat then it is advisable to consult the internet or an avian professional beforehand.

On the other matter I would advise you not to go out and pay a lot of money for toys for your birds as this can considerably increase the cost of their upkeep. However many things in your everyday life can and will be used to keep your birds entertained and encourage them to be more active.

For example a basic swing made up from a piece of scrap timber and a bit of rope will be an adequate alternative to a shop bought swing. Your pet birds will not know the difference and as long as you give the materials a good scrub down (no detergents please) first and they contain no paints or varnishes they will be fine.

Any old bits of twigs, broken plastic childrens toys (as long as they’re safe, no small bits to fall off etc.), and just about anything else you can think of will be suitable for your birds to play with as long as they are cleaned thoroughly first and are safe. Pet birds, especially parrot type species, love to chew so be sure that anything they do chew will cause them no harm, and could save a fortune in the long run.

As always, if you are unsure then the advice of an avian professional should be sought.

In summary you should feed your birds a wide variety of different foods which will help their health, and offer a variety of other stimulants to enhance their lifestlyes.

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A brief outline of alternative foods to give to your pet & aviary birds

I have a large open air mixed aviary at the bottom of my garden which is home to lots of budgies and finches (Bengalese (society) finches and zebra finches), a few cockatiels, a pair of turquoisine grass parakeets, some java sparrows (java finches), a couple of Eastern (golden mantle) rosellas, and a few kakarikis, who all live together in reasonable harmony (the large flight helps to reduce squabbles as they have room to get out of each others way) and they also share the flight area with – you’ll love this – a rabbit; yes I have an open rabbit hutch in the bottom of my aviary flight and my rabbit gets the run of the flight – nothing new, I’ve been doing this for years. The rabbit and the birds have got used to this set up and never bother each other, I’ve even known them to share food.

I discovered this one day a while ago when I took dandelion leaves and carrots into the flight to give as a treat for the rabbit, and within minutes I noticed some of my birds coming to the floor and helping my rabbit to eat her treats. I’ve since been giving dandelion leaves and carrots not only to the rabbit but to my birds also, they love ‘em!

The basic rule is if you can eat it then most likely your birds can also, with a few exceptions of course, common sense should prevail when feeding other foods to your birds. Avoid meat, fatty stuff, food full of preservatives, sugary food etc.; remember common sense, healthy is best; but if unsure about anything then don’t give it to them or talk to an avian vet or avian nutritionist.

Avoid these:

Alcohol, Apple seeds, Apricot pits, Asparagus, Avocado (entire plant and fruit)
Avoid anything high is salt, sugar, and fat content.
Beans (any uncooked), Butter
Caffeine, Carbonated beverages, Cherry pits, Chocolate, Cigarette tobacco
Dairy Products (birds are lactose intolerant – cleaned/cooked eggs and yogurt are fine)
Fatty foods, Food Dyes, Fruit Pits, Fruit Rinds
Garlic,
Houseplants (most are toxic, not all)
Lettuce
Mayonnaise products, Mushrooms, Marijuana (hemp),
Nectarine pits, Nuts (brazil nuts, almonds, imported nuts that have been polished/dyed)
Old Seeds, Olives, Onions (raw or cooked)
Peach pits, Pear pits, Plum pits, Raw Meats, Raw Peanuts, Rhubarb (contains oxalic acid, as does spinach)
Salty/Sugary Foods, Seeds of: Pears, Oranges, Papaya, Grapefruit, Grapes, Apples & some Melons, Sugar (too much is a bad thing, best kind is natural sugars), Sulphites (found in dried fruits and veggies to help preserve them-only from health food store)
Tobacco, Tomato plant
Uncooked Rice, Unwashed Fruits or Vegetables

Give these veggies:

Acorn or Butternut Squash , Artichoke
Basil, Beans (cooked only), Beet & Turnip Greens, Beetroot, Bell Peppers, Bok Choy, Broccoli, Broccoli Rabe, Brussels Sprouts
Cabbage, Cactus Leaf, Carrot Tops, Carrots, Cauliflower, Celery stalks, Chayote Squash, Chickweed, Chinese Cabbage, Collard Greens, Cooked Red Potatoes, Cooked Sweet Potatoes, Corn, Cucumber
Dandelion Greens
Edomame, Eggplant (fruit only), Endive, Escarole
Fennel
Green Beans
Hot Peppers
Jicama
Kale, Kohlrabi
Lettuce
Mustard Greens
Okra
Parsley, Peas, Potato (cooked), Pumpkin (and seeds)
Radicchio, Radish Red Beet (fresh), Radishes, Red or Green Pepper, Romaine or other dark leafy lettuce
Snow Peas, Spaghetti Squash, Spinach, Sprouts, Squash, Sugar Snap Peas, Sweet Potato, Swiss Chard
Tofu, Tomatoes, Turnip Greens
Watercress
Yams
Zucchini (courgette, marrow)

Give these fruits:

Apples (cored), Apricot
Banana – (only served fresh), Berries (Strawberries, Raspberries, Blackberries, Blueberries), Blackcurrant, Blood orange
Cactus Pear (peeled), Cantaloupe melon, Cherry, Cranberries
Dried dates
Figs (fresh)
Gooseberries, Grapefruit (seeded), Grapes (with seeds), Guava
Honeydew melon
Kiwi (peeled)
Lychee (Litchi)
Mandarin, Mangos (pitted), Melons
Nectarines
Oranges (seeded)
Papaya, Peaches (pitted), Pears (cored), Pineapple, Plums (pitted), Pomegranate
Quince
Red Currants
Star Fruit
Tangerines (seeded)
Watermelon (no seeds), Winter Squash
Yams, Yellow Plum

Other safe foods:

Cooked grains, Cooked legumes

Grains, Breads, and Muffins:

Graham crackers, Mandel bread (soaked), Matzoh, Mini bagels, Oatmeal, Pastas, Rice cakes, Rice Chex, Rice Krispies, Sweetened corn cereals, Sweetened oat cereals, Toasted bread, Unsalted crackers, Unsalted, unbuttered popcorn, Wheat cereals, Whole-wheat or multigrain bread, Zwieback toast, soaked, Whole Grain Breads, Whole Wheat Pasta, Lentils, Sprouted Mung, Sprouting Peas – can also be sprouted:
Amaranth, Brown Rice, Buckwheat, Hulless Barley, Millet, Quinoa, Spelt or Kamut, Teff, Whole Oats, Wild Rice, ,Corn Bread, Hulled seeds
Millet spray, Monkey biscuits

Hard-boiled eggs, Peanut butter sandwiches rolled in millet, Scrambled eggs, Sprouted seeds

Please note that this list is by no means conclusive, but it will give you a good start – there‘s plenty of variety there to keep your bird or birds happy even if you never bother with anything else. There are many other foods and plants that are safe to give to your birds, and also many that are not safe. The best advice I can give is; IF IN DOUBT, LEAVE IT OUT! We don’t want to make our birds ill through our incompetence or lack of knowledge now do we?

Remember; for the best advice talk to an avian nutritionist or avian vet.

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How much Marvel Aid do I give my parakeet?

I believe my parakeet is sick and dehydrated. I bought some marvel aid feed it through a syringe because it is still a baby. Can anyone tell me how much and how often should I administer the marvel aid.

How do you know when it’s time to give up a pet? (human health problems!)?

I have two parakeets–one of them I’ve had for around four years, the other one I got about a year ago. Since we got the new one, my mother has gotten double pneumonia and had to go the hospital, and I’ve had bronchitis five times already. My doctor and the hospital said it’s most likely the birds. I try to keep the cage as clean as possible, and I’ve got an air purifier too. But I’m just soo busy with school now and life. I have little time to take them out, and I also have to make time for my rabbit (who is not the reason behind the respiratory problems. its not allergies, it’s more related to psittacosis and bird flu illnesses)
I’m in my junior year in high school and I know I’ll be going away soon, another factor to consider. But I’m also centering my career around animals (I want to be an animal behaviorist) and I feel giving up pets I chose to take in would make me the biggest hypocrite in the world. How can i start a career with animals when I can’t even take care of them at home?

What do I do when I want to give Parakeet eggs to a new parakeet to watch and raise?

My friend’s parakeet just laid her second brood and is most likely going to lay a third brood. If that happens my friend wants to know if it is possible if my adult female parakeet could incubate the eggs of my friend’s parakeet’s third brood and then raise the babies when they are hatched. If so, what do I do to make it possible for that to happen?