Housing – The Cage: Why?

A cage is important to have since a bird needs a safe place to stay at night, and when you’re not around to observe it. Many bird species do not do so well out of cages (most non-psitticines or ‘non-parrot’ species require 24-hour caging). Birds that spend all their time on a perch out of the cage are at risk. They may be fine while on the perch, but if suddenly frightened, may fly into a window, onto a stove, out the door, etc.

Poisoning: The most common cause of poisoning in pet birds is leaving then unattended and allowing them access to household poisons (found in linoleum, curtain weights, ashtrays, jewelry, toxic food items, toxic plants, cleaning products, etc.)

Injury: One of the most common causes of injury is from other pets playing with your bird (cat, dog, and other bird bites are the most common) after it leaves the perch.

As well as being a safe place in terms of danger, a cage is also a haven where your bird will often feel safer. A bird that does not have a cage can eventually get very stresses out, especially if kept on a low perch. Chrinic stress leads to health problems in birds just as it does in people. Provide your bird with a safe area—a cage.

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Cage Basics

Most pet birds live at least some, if not all, of their lives in a cage. This is not necessarily a bad thing, depending on the type of bird. Cages are a necessity for unobserved birds and for those species that are kept more for their song and/or looks. Because a cage is such an integral part to your pet bird’s life, it is not an area that should be overlooked.

Bigger is better—to a point, though. A cage that is too big to readily recover your bird from, should it be injured, can be a problem.

Complexity is good for your bird’s environmental enrichment. But again, this can make it difficult to extract your pet from its cage.

Caging material is another important consideration s some materials can contain lead or zinc which are highly toxic when ingested. Sharp edges or sloppy workmanship can be a real hazard as most birds eventually explore every little square millimeter of their enclosure, and if there’s trouble, they will find it. Be sure your cage comes from a reputable source.

What To Put and What Not To Put in a Cage

What’s in the cage is worth mentioning, too, as many owners bring their cages into the hospital and we get a glimpse of the junk that pet stores can manage to sell. The following are a few suggestions:

1. PERCHES: Get perches of various sizes. This way a bird’s feet won’t always be resting on the exact same spots making them susceptible to sores (called bumble foot). The best perches are natural branches made of non-toxic woods like Eucalyptus.

2. NO SANDPAPER: Sandpaper on the bottom of the cage or on the perches, sold for the ridiculous excuse of keeping the bird’s nails filed is not only useless but also hard on a bird’s feet, again creating the risk of bumble foot.

3. ‘MITE PROTECTOR’: The ‘mite protector’ often sold with a parakeet’s cage is useless. Whether it is a health risk or not, we do not know.

4. BEDDING MATERIAL should be limited to newspaper or other safe paper products. It may not always look the best but it is by far the most sanitary since it’s easy to clean (by removal) and does not promote growth of all sorts of dangerous things like bacteria and fungus, as does cob, a popular pet store bedding material. NO COB! Ease of cleaning is important since cleaning the bedding frequently is essential. Fecal buildup will result in unacceptable levels of bacteria and fungus. Newspaper is also non-toxic in case your bird decides to eat it, or to make nest out of it.

5. WATER & FOOD DISHES should be easy to clean and remove. Water sources that provide a long-term supply of water should be avoided since all sorts of things can grow in that water if left unchanged or uncleaned for more than several days. Food dishes should not hold more than what a bird can eat in a day or two. Dishes full of a 6-month supply of food will invariably have something else in them before long—feces, urine, bacteria, fungus, ants, etc.—and will pose a serious threat to your pet’s health.

6. TOYS are a very good idea and provide necessary enrichment for your bird, who’s probably a lot smarter and more bored than you might think. Be sure to put toys that are either not easily ingested accidentally (small plastic objects are very hazardous) or should be safe to ingest, such as wood and rawhide. Too many toys may make catching your pet very difficult.

Where

Location is important, too, as some areas of your house may contain potential hazards that can either poison you bird (for example, kitchen-heated Teflon can produce toxic vapors), chill it unnecessarily, provide excessive sunlight and heat, or either provide it with too much or too little attention.

Birds feel safer when up high, making their lives more stress-free. However, some birds will feel ‘too comfortable’ if kept higher than your head, and become unmanageably aggressive.

The danger from natural drafts is overrated. They are NOT a danger to a normal, healthy bird. Drafts from air conditioners, however, can be excessively drying or cooling and should be avoided.

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Wing Trimming

Many owners feel that trimming wings is akin to cutting off our legs. It’s not. Birds are naturally meant to fly, but flying birds do not necessarily make good pets. We highly recommend trimming wings for the following reasons:

1. Fully-flighted birds can get into trouble. They may either fly into windows, pots of boiling water, onto hot stoves, into dog’s mouths, or out the door and far, far away.

2. Birds that can fly will often seek out high spots in the house that not only make them difficult to retrieve, but also can add to an aggression problem, making the bird feel more dominant and more likely to bite. Trimmed birds make much better pets.

When trimming wings, we strongly recommend trimming BOTH wings. Otherwise birds are very likely to crash land and break a bone or their necks. We also trim most or all the flight feathers, depending on the size of the bird. Generally, the larger the bird, the less flight feathers are needed to be trimmed. This enables big birds to at least have a controlled landing versus falling like bricks and splitting their chest open. We recommend having a trained individual trim your bird’s wings so that they do not only get a cosmetic effect, but a safe one, too.

Beak and Nail Trimming

We recommend nail trimming if either your bird’s nails are overgrown, or if they are causing you pain when your bird sits on your shoulder. However, nail trimming is not always necessary. Most active birds will not have excessively long nails as they have varying perch diameters and walk around a lot. Little canaries that sit on smooth dowel rod perches all the time will usually get excessively long nails. These need to be trimmed for they will become a danger to your pet by getting caught in things possibly resulting in a broken leg.

Bird nails have a ‘quick’ which is where the dead nail tissue is covering a blood vessel and nerve. Cutting the quick is painful and will result in a bloody nail. Therefore, we recommend having a trained individual do this, and having some clotting powder available in case a nail gets cut too short.

Trimming or clipping beaks is NOT something we normally recommend. Unless there is already a problem requiring shortening or straightening of the beak, most beaks should be left alone. Clipping a normal beak, just to make it a little less sharp, can sometimes lead to a beak deformity and can be a painful experience for your pet. Beak trimming is definitely a job for an expert!

Leg Bands

We recommend removing leg bands since they are only a danger to your caged pet. They can get hung up on things in the cage and sometimes can cause a ‘tourniquet effect’ resulting in death of the rest of the leg. Removing a band can be a risky procedure in some birds and sometimes anesthesia is necessary to keep the bird very still and avoid the inadvertent removal or fracturing of a limb. Removing bands is definitely a job for an expert!

Bathing

Many birds are originally from very humid environments and appreciate the opportunity to take a bath or shower. Bathing is a healthy behavior as it keeps feathers in good condition, and provides needed water to birds that normally don’t drink well from tiny dishes. When providing a bath for a bird, one must keep in mind that most pet birds do not swim and can easily drown in deep water. Shallow baths are much safer.

Many birds may enjoy actually being taken into the shower, too, though one should never force this on an unwilling pet. Some birds may enjoy being misted daily, if showering or bathing isn’t working out.

Note 1: Some birds do NOT like to get wet and should not be forced to bathe. Many pet birds are from very dry desert climates and bathing may be an unnatural behavior for them.

Note 2: A wet bird cannot regulate its body temperature very well, so the environment must be very warm so it can dry out without getting chilled.

SOAP: We do not recommend using soap if you are actively bathing or showering your bird. Soap will remove oils your bird depends on to keep its feathers manageable. They can also cause serious respiratory and digestive problems if taken internally.