Cage Accessories for Parakeets

Video Transcript

"In this video clip we're going to talk about cage accessories, for parakeets. There's a bunch of different things that are important to have. I like to use a water bottle, in addition, to a water bowl because these guys tend to make soup out of their water or poop in their water bowls. A water bottle will offer a fresh source of water, all the time. If by chance the water bowl either dumps out or something, they always have a back-up source of water. Also, if you have to go on a trip, for a couple of days, you know that they are going to have plenty of water, the entire trip. You do need to make sure that if you're going to use a water bottle, for your parakeet, that they know how to use it and you actually see them drinking from the water bottle, before you take away their water bowl. Otherwise they could die of thirst, just because they don't realize how to use a water bottle. A few other things, that I think are very important for parakeet cages, is you need to pick perches that have varying diameters. You can't just use a solid. This would be a bad example, as the only type of perch to keep in the cage; these very long wooden dowels that are highly polished. You want a stick that has got some variability to it. As you can see, this one has different diameters, all along the length of it. Even this one, which is a more natural wood type diameter. The reason is that, as these birds hold the exact same diameter, day after day, year after year, for one, it would wear little soars in the bottom of their feet because they get the exact same pressure point, every time. The other thing that can happen is, they'll develop arthritis from not being able to change diameter, so their leg muscles get very weak from not having a different size. The last one is that if you have varying diameters of wood, in the cage, what it'll do is it actually wears the nails down naturally. If they're too wide or too thin, then the nails don't quite touch, each time, and they'll over grow. Generally, you don't even need to trim these guys? nails, as long as you have a few natural perches, in there. Also, make sure that the highest perch in the cage, is not a wooden dowel, it needs to be a varied diameter perch because the wooden dowels, I don't mind using them, as a low perch, because they'll only use them to stand on occasionally. They don't like being at the bottom of the cage and I like them to have a nice long length of perch, to have available, but the highest perch, in the cage, is the varying diameter, so it's for the health of the feet. Also, the other things you want to have, is some destructible toys in there. Things like wicker and paper that they can destroy. They'll chew it up and pull it apart; it's very stimulating for these birds. It helps, in the wild they like building nests and that sort of thing. Female parakeets are perpetually thinking about nest building, whether or not they've got one. Even if they're alone, they're trying to build a nest, so it's good to give them some paper to just shred up and give them something to do, with themselves, all day. It's a very natural behavior for these birds, to want to destroy a paper type, like material. Puzzle toys I like, again, we've got some toys here where they would have to lift up the lid, a little bit, to get to treats, that would be hiding underneath. They find this as an intellectually stimulating thing for the bird to do, to have to solve a puzzle or to find its favorite type of food. You can put a little piece of Millets Spray in there or you can use a little bit of sunflower seed, as a treat, in there. I also like using skewers. Here's another, as I was talking about earlier, skewers, so that you can skewer vegetable matters. It's just a stainless steel rod and through that rod, you can put bits of apple, you can put pear pieces, you can use vegetables like cucumbers, skewered through there, for the bird to eat. You don't want those vegetables on the flower because the birds will soil them, with poop. Also, toys with moving parts. This toy has two little pieces that will move back and forth, basically so they feel that they can control their environment, they like to watch some action, to see that they can do something that causes something else to happen so the plastic toys sort of gives them a sense of self satisfaction. This last little bit of wicker, is just more destructive material. It's safe, it's sold at a pet store and it's a non-toxic dye used. That, more or less, covers about all the accessories. The only other thing is, I recommend, multiple feeding stations, for your birds just so they can have more than one area to go to, to get different types of food or just put a little bit, in each bowl, so they have to empty one and then go to the next one and empty that one, so it reproduces a wild forging behavior, like they would do in the wild. Those are your basic cage accessories for these guys."