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Pet Bird Care Guide

Basic care for birds
Canaries
Cockatoos
Finches
Parakeets
Parrots

Housing - Your bird’s cage must be large enough to allow the bird to fully extend and flap its wings without touching the cage bars. To accommodate their tail feathers, macaws and other long-tailed species require tall cages. Small birds require wide cages to facilitate flying. Canaries especially must have room to fly in order to remain healthy since they do not climb like parakeets and other birds.

Nutrition - Birds should not be fed dry seeds and pellets exclusively, although pellets can provide a healthy mainstay. Provide a wide variety of fresh foods to supplement your bird’s diet:

Fruits and vegetables
Hard-boiled eggs
Bean sprouts

TIP - Avocado and chocolate can be toxic to birds.

Fresh water should be available to your bird at all times.

Grooming - Frequent bathing is necessary for your bird’s health. Mist your bird with water or offer a water dish for bathing once a day. Keep your bird’s nails trimmed. Unless otherwise recommended by a breeder or veterinarian, have your bird’s wings clipped. Clipped wings prevent your bird from escaping or from flying into windows or other objects.

Health - Birds tend to hide their illnesses, so it is important to pay close attention to any change in your bird’s behavior. The following can be signs of illness:

A noticeable decrease in food intake
Increased water intake
Bloody, watery, or discolored droppings or no droppings at all
Wet feathers around the nostrils or clogged nostrils
Reduced movement

Toys - A variety of toys are necessary for a happy, healthy bird. Birds who become bored are more prone to behavior problems and self-mutilation. Also, chewing toys allow your bird to keep his beak in top shape.

For the best advice on your pet’s specific needs, consult a breeder or veterinarian.

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Canary is one of the most popular bird pets. People keep canaries for their beautiful songs, and because they make cheerful companions. Canaries belong to the finch family. They are named for the Canary Islands, where they are still found in the wild. The songs of wild canaries are not nearly so melodious as those of the tamed birds that are bred for the quality of their song. Wild canaries are dark green and olive-colored, and are seldom over 8 inches (20 centimeters) long. Wild canaries live in pairs, but often flock together like their distant relatives, the American goldfinches. Canaries build nests of dry moss and grass in branches about 10 feet (3 meters) from the ground. A canary lays four or five eggs.

Most tame canaries are bright yellow, but some are pale yellow. If fed red peppers, canaries may be bright orange. During the late 1400's, canaries were brought to Spain from the Canary Islands. English, French, Scottish, and Belgian canary breeders have developed many varieties with strange appearances. Some tame canaries bred in Lancashire, England, grow 8 inches (20 centimeters) long. Scottish canaries are long, thin birds with tails that curl between their legs. Belgian canaries have such long necks that their heads droop. French canaries have curly patterns of feathers all over their bodies.

The best singing canaries, such as the St. Andreasburg variety, are bred in the Harz Mountains of Germany. Different kinds of singing canaries are named for the qualities of their songs. Rollers, for example, have a rolling, gurgling song.

Canaries should be kept in clean cages that are large enough to let the birds fly for exercise. Although canaries eat canary seed, they also need green food. In addition, canaries should be given water for drinking and bathing.

Because canaries are more sensitive to poisonous gases than human beings, canaries have been used to detect such gases on battlefields and in coal mines. Each year, canaries selectively replace some of their songs with different songs. As a result, canaries have become important laboratory subjects for studies of selective forgetting and learning.

In North America, the name wild canary is often given to the American goldfinch and the yellow warbler, both of which look much like the tame canary.

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Cockatoo, is the name of several large parrots. Cockatoos live in Australia, Indonesia, and neighboring islands. Unlike most other parrots, cockatoos have a crest of feathers that can be raised and lowered. A cockatoo's coloring may be combinations of white, black, red, rose, or gray. A cockatoo has a powerful, curved bill and a thick tongue. It has strong feet with which it climbs about the branches of trees.

Cockatoos feed on seeds, nuts, and fruits. These birds are serious pests in regions where there are many orchards. They are often seen in large flocks that fly swiftly. Although they rarely learn to talk and often scream loudly, cockatoos make amusing pets because they can perform stunts and acrobatics.

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Finch is a general term applied to any small seed-eating songbird. Finches include towhees, goldfinches, buntings, and grosbeaks. They live on all continents except Antarctica and on most ocean islands. Their stout cone-shaped bills, strong skulls, large jaw muscles, and grinding gizzards enable these birds to eat hard seeds.

In North America, the term finch usually refers to members of the family Fringillidae. Many of these finches have striking red and yellow colors. These birds also sing beautifully, often while in flight. Finches build closely woven, cup-shaped nests in the branches of trees and shrubs. The female lays three to six bluish eggs that are usually streaked or spotted. She sits on and warms the eggs until they hatch, and the male finds food. Both sexes care for the young.

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Parakeet, is a small member of the parrot family. Parakeets are brightly colored birds with green, red, blue, orange, yellow, or purple feathers. Their tails are either short and square, or long and pointed. The name also is spelled parrakeet, or paroquet.

Parakeets usually are affectionate and clever pets. They are natural acrobats, and can do many tricks on toy ladders and seesaws. The most common pet parakeet is the budgerigar, or budgie. This bird is native to Australia. It is also called the budgerygah, or shell parakeet. It lives well in captivity and becomes very tame.

You can tell the sex of an adult budgie by the color of the skin at the nostrils. This patch of skin is called the cere. In the male the cere is bluish, while in the female it is brownish. Most budgies can be trained to talk. It is best to start when the bird is only a few weeks old. Say the same word or phrase over and over until the budgie repeats it. Both the male and the female can learn many words. Some trainers believe males learn faster.

Many people enjoy the hobby of parakeet breeding. Amateur parakeet breeders often find the hobby both fun and profitable. The best time of the year for breeding is in the spring. Birds hatched in the spring will benefit from the sun and warmth of the summer. Special housing for the birds is necessary, because the space for one bird is inadequate for two. The female bird lays an average of five eggs. The eggs hatch in about 18 to 20 days. A parakeet may live 10 years or more.

Seeds and fruit are the chief parakeet foods. Wild parakeets nest in trees and are swift fliers. Many species live in warm parts of the world. The ground parakeet of Australia and Tasmania nests in bushes. The lovebird is a small, colorful African parakeet. One of the largest parakeets is the slatyheaded parakeet of India, Thailand, and Laos. The tiny hanging parrot of Southeast Asia is a parakeet that sleeps hanging upside down from a tree branch.

The Carolina parakeet once was common in the United States, ranging northward to New York and Illinois. The head of this parakeet was orange and yellow, and its body green. These parakeets have disappeared. Many of them were killed because milliners wanted their feathers for hat trimming. The last flock was seen in the Florida Everglades in 1904, but some of these parakeets may have survived until about 1920.

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Parrot is the name of a large group of colorful birds found chiefly in warm, tropical regions. They are popular as pets because they become affectionate and tame, and many can be taught to talk. Parrots range from about 3 inches (8 centimeters) to over 3 feet (90 centimeters) long. Most parrots have thick, hooked bills, and many have long tails. Parrots also possess short legs and feet with two toes pointing forward and two pointing backward. This arrangement of the toes is called zygodactyl «zy guh DAK tuhl». These strong, grasping feet enable parrots to grasp fruits and nuts, climb, and even hang acrobatically from tree branches. Parakeet is a general name for many kinds of small to medium-sized parrots, especially those with long, pointed tails.

Parrots are noisy, sociable birds that live chiefly in forested areas. Some live in savannas (grassy, thinly wooded areas) and deserts. Parrots commonly eat fruits, nuts, seeds, and buds. Some also eat nectar and pollen.

Most parrots choose one mate for life. Female parrots lay round, white eggs. They deposit the eggs in holes in trees, on the ground, in cracks in rocks, or in holes dug in termite nests. The monk parakeet of Argentina builds a huge community nest out of sticks. Many pairs of monk parakeets share the nest, which provides a safe place to lay eggs and also protects the birds from cool weather. Other parrots may nest in artificial nest boxes placed in trees by people.

Kinds of parrots. There are about 350 species of parrots. About half live in Central and South America. Most of the rest live in Australia, New Guinea, and nearby Pacific islands. About 50 species live in Africa and southern Asia. The United States once had its own species of parrot, the Carolina parakeet, but it became extinct in about 1920 because of hunting and forest destruction. A rare species, the thick-billed parrot, lives in western Mexico and may wander into southern Arizona and New Mexico. The Puerto Rican parrot is an endangered species.

Parrots of South and Central America. The macaws are large parrots that live mainly in tropical lowland forests of South America. A few species live in Central America. Macaws have long, pointed tails and huge bills. The blue Hyacinth macaw is the world's largest parrot. It grows up to 39 inches (100 centimeters). Amazons are predominantly green parrots with big, chunky bodies and short, squared tails. Colorful spots adorn their wings and head. These birds live in treetops in the tropical forests. Parakeets and conures are small to medium-sized, mainly green parrots with long, pointed tails. Parrotlets are tiny parakeets with short tails.

Parrots of Australia and New Guinea. Cockatoos live in Australia, New Guinea, and nearby islands. They have large, thick bills. Most cockatoos are white with bushy crests of feathers on their heads. The palm cockatoo is a large, jet-black bird. It has a bare skin patch on its cheek, which may turn bright red when the bird is alarmed. The rose-colored galah «guh LAH» lives in large flocks in central Australia. The cockatiel, a long-tailed relative of cockatoos, commonly inhabits northern and central Australia.

Lories and lorikeets live mainly in wet forests in New Guinea, Australia, and nearby islands. They are small to medium-sized parrots with black, red, or orange bills. Their bills are the longest and narrowest of any parrot, and they have brush-tipped tongues for gathering pollen and nectar. The tiny pygmy parrots of New Guinea have extremely long toes. They creep up tree trunks, like small woodpeckers, in the thick forest. The budgerigar «buhj uhr ee GAHR», from central Australia, is the best-known parakeet because of its popularity in zoos and as pets. The rosellas, found in coastal Australia, have bold patterns of blues, reds, and yellows on their bodies.

Parrots of New Zealand include some of the most unusual species. The large, chunky kea feeds on fruits and grubs (immature insects). It also eats dead animals it finds on the ground. The kea is popular with tourists because of its habit of perching on cars to beg for food. The large, forest-dwelling kaka has a long, strong beak that it often uses to tear apart dead wood in search of insects. The kakapo, or owl parrot, has an owllike face and cannot fly. Unlike most parrots, the bird is nocturnal--that is, it sleeps during the day and becomes active at night. The owl parrot is close to extinction because of mammal predators that people have introduced to New Zealand. These predators include rats, cats, and mongooses.

Parrots of Africa and southern Asia. Hanging parrots are tiny, mainly green parrots of southeastern Asia and the islands of Indonesia. Their name comes from their strange behavior of roosting upside down at night like bats. The rose-ringed parakeet lives in tropical Africa and southern Asia. It has a long tail, a bright red bill, anda bright green head. The nine species of lovebirds are the only small African parrots. They have short, rounded tails and rather large bills. They are called lovebirds because they use their bills to caress each other. The large gray parrot, from the west African rain forests, is a popular bird pet because it can learn to say words.

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Find your bird needs here at Pet Lifestyle.

Bird Care Basics Guide This includes - Basic Care, Canaries, Cockatoos, Finches, Parakeets and Parrots.

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