We understand that welcoming a feathered friend into your family may be overwhelming, so we’ve tried to make it a little easier to settle your new buddy in.
Basic Information
First 3 days: Never rush your bird. They will be naturally scared because of the changed environment and may not eat much for the first day or so due to stress. Place an extra seed bowl on the floor while they are settling in. Its important to get your birds used to a varied diet young or they will be difficult feeders when mature.supply seed, Birdsville blends and pellets straight away. Once they are eating properly and feel at home, then it is time to start training! Over handling can lead to stress and death. Its normal for young birds to mostly eat grain for the first See our website, Facebook and Instagram for more information.
The first 10 days: When bringing your bird home, we recommend adding spark liquid to the birds drinking. The carbohydrate and electrolytes help during times of heat or stress such as a bird being relocated to a new environment. Worm your bird after day 10, follow instructions on the bottle.
Essential Supplies
Cage\enclosure – see our staff about getting the suitable enclosure to your pet bird or parrot.
Carry enclosure – safe transport, adventures or holding during cleans
Toys – Ladder, swing with a minimum of 4 toys. dec out the top middle and bottom level of the enclosure.
Perches – Minimum of 5 perches, most cages come with 2 dowel perches, for healthy feet we recommend 2 natural wood perches and a cement perch all of different sizes.
Quality seed – high grade seed for young birds is much healthier, be wary of supermarket blends especially with baby birds.
Pellets – Passwell, Vetafarm or Harrisons.
Millet Sprays – Millet sprays are great for training and getting young birds eating while transitioning to their new environment.
Seed bar – play treat
Healthy blends – great an addition or to mix with their seed mix, Birdsville blends will also help with varying up a baby birds diet to make them better eaters as they mature.
Calcium, charcoal & Iodine – Pink button, iodine perches and bell contain iodine. Cuttlebone, white button and bells contain calcium. charcoal button and bells contain charcoal to aid digestion.
Substrate – grit or sand sheets is ideal for the bottom of the cage or enclosure.
Vitamins – Multivet, Calcivet, or Ornithon
Sulfa 3 or Spark – helps prevent stress or illness from transitioning to a new environment.
Wormer – to be administered after day 10 of bringing your bird home, worming should be done every 3 months.
Lice & Mite spray – applied every three months, it’s easier to remember when spraying them with this product at the same time when you worm your Birds. Simply give your pet bird a good spray all over, under the wings as well, try to avoid the eyes as it may cause some discomfort.
Cage cleaner – F10 or avicare makes it easy to remove poo and dirt from the enclosure, toys, perches and bowl. Normal disinfectants can be quite toxic to parrots.
What you may consider – Enclosure stand, Enclosure cover, Enclosure tidy, Spare bowls, no mess feeder, Drink bottle, cuttlebone holder, millet spray holder, bird bath, tent/hide, bird stand/play gym, Symbiotic/propbiotic, the good oil, first aid, harnesses.
Diet & Feeding
We recommend a ratio of 40% quality pellets or crumble, 50% quality seed and Birdsville blends and 10% of fruit, vegetables, and supplements. Baby birds will mostly eat seed to begin with, and should be always supplied for the first 6 weeks. A good bend such as the Birdsville blends will broaden your birds horizons with edibles and make them a much better feeder as they grow. If birds are not given a varied diet young they will be more difficult to feed and keep healthy when they become mature. Food especially seed must always be available to baby birds as they take time to learn how to eat pellets, seed must be in an easily accessible location.
treats – Millet sprays
Behaviour & Handling
Handling/training: Basic training has huge benefits for you and your bird. It requires dedication in the first few weeks especially – repetition and persistence are key. If your bird bites you, do not pull away, continue to work through it. Remember: Ignore bad behaviour and reward good behaviour!
Toys have everything to do with behaviour. A ladder, a swing and 4 to 6 appropriate sized toys per bird, to chew, preen and play. Environmental enrichment keeps your bird entertained while you are away or while in their cage. It also helps prevent behavioural issues such as plucking, biting or loud tantrums. It will help create a tamer, friendlier, happier bird. Toys need to be rotated regularly so birds don’t get bored. If the bird destroys a toy, it means they like it and should be replaced! Watch for wear and tear and discard anything that becomes frayed, rusty or sharp.
Health Care & Maintenance
Common Health Concerns
Nail Trimming: There are many perches available to help wear down the tip of your birds’ nails. However, we also offer nail clipping services in store 7 days a week.
Wing Trimming: There are pros and cons to having a birds’ wings clipped – it will not guarantee they can’t fly away, however should reduce flight allowing them to glide safely to the ground and can make training/bonding more manageable, especially to those new to bird ownership. If you are unsure about whether you should keep your bird clipped, chat to one of our friendly staff in store for more information.
Worming: Birds should be wormed 4 times a year. Baby birds should be wormed 14 days after taking them home. As worming too early can upset a baby bird’s crop and digestion. Worms can kill your bird so please worm them.
Mite and lice spray: This should be applied on all birds every 3 months as lice and mites unfortunately seem to spread everywhere and birds in an inside environment are still susceptible. It’s easy to remember when done with worming.
Signs of illness: It can happen regularly that a bird moving from one location to another can cause stress on the bird and can cause them to have a drop in immunity. First line of defence if you notice watery poo is to add sulpha 3 or triple c to the drinking water, this can be used in conjunction with spark liquid. if symptoms don’t clear up within 10 days or become worse contact a local bird specialist vet mentioned below. It’s always good to become familiar with your pets normal droppings as they are a great diagnostic tool.
A bird on the floor of the cage fluffed up or with faeces covering their vent or just generally depressed, and must be monitored closely – a first line of defence is using a broad spectrum antibiotic triple c in the birds drinking water and used in conjunction with spark liquid. If the conditioned becomes worse or isn’t much better within 10 days you must seek veterinary treatment.
For all the above products mentioned we stock them in store, we can’t give health advice on the phone as we need to look at the bird and if we do not have a product that can remedy the problem we will send you to a vet who can.
Holiday Care
Boarding is available at www.petsvillehotel.com to book your stay. Come see us in store if you have any concerns, or questions and feel free to bring your bird for us to see!
Fruits & Veggie Guide (Examples, not limited to:)
| Do’s Fruits– pears, apples, citrus, watermelon, stone fruit, kiwi fruit, strawberries, rockmelon, banana, and pomegranate Quality seed blends. Vegetables and greens– Silver beet, sweet potato, carrot, green beans, peas, corn, capsicum, endive, broccoli, spinach, pumpkin | Don’t’s Chocolate, Salt, low quality seed, Avocado, Onions, Garlic, Ginger, Iceberg Lettuce, Processed foods, Caffeine, Dairy products, tea, coffee, and alcohol. |
Recommended Vets
| The Wild Vet 1300 9453 838 Glebe | SASH 02 8913 400 Alexandria | SERV 02 9436 4884 Artarmon | Carlingford Animal Hospital 02 9871 6036 Carlingford |
