How to Take Care of a Bird

Video Transcript

"Hi my name is Madeline Franco and I'm here to talk about birds, specifically in this segment we are going to talk about how to take care of your birds. You see here several birds. This one is Kiki. She is a kiek. She is a parrot. She is one of the smaller parrots. I have other larger parrots. At 140 grams she is certainly one of the more diminutive of them but even with her small weight it is said that nothing will change your life more than a parrot. I have a number of friends who don't really cook for themselves but they cook for their birds so that is one of the changes that may take place. The basics of parrot care are food, shelter, housing, and proper medical care. Food very many of them eat pelleted diets. They also can become seed junkies so if you get a new bird you want to vary their diet as much as possible. Get them a good pellet type food and get them a good seed mixture if you are going to feed seed. Also you may want to keep in mind that they love fruits and vegetables. They love to eat what you eat. They'll even eat pizza. There are some things to avoid however. You don't want to give them any chocolate, caffeine, avocado and a couple of other things that are not good for them. Many of your bird clubs will publish lists, I know ours does about the things of things that you should avoid as far as foods. You might want to get yourself involved in a bird club because they can help you with some of those issues. As far as housing your bird should have a cage. You shouldn't keep your bird in the cage all day but the cage should be of adequate size. Many people say get the largest cage you can avoid and I say get a cage that is the right size for your bird. Although an African Gray is larger than a kiek by about twice and then some with size and many times an African Gray will not want or use or need a cage s big as a kiek can. Kieks love to play and they live to play and play to live so they will use more space within their cage than many other birds. One of the other vital things for your bird is fresh water at all times. I like to bottle train my birds because it creates a supply o clean water all the time. Birds tend to like to dunk their food and if they have a bowl of water they will get their water pretty grody looking in no time flat so you want to pay strict attention to their water and they need some play time and some attention from you. In order to keep them tame you need to take them out of their cages and make them a member of your family. If you take care of your bird and follow some basic tips you will have a very long and fun relationship with your bird. Keep in mind that they do live a long time and after you have bought your bird and you have bought some good food and you have bought a cage one of the best things you can get for your bird or for yourself is a couple of great books. One of the things you should also keep in mind about your bird is that they require and enjoy regular bathing. Some of them are dunkers, some of them appreciate being in the shower with a human and some of them just appreciate being under a gentle spray. Among my birds I have all kinds. Some of them like to dunk in their bowl. This one really enjoys dunking in a bowl."