Bird Toy Warning

This warning and photo came to us via Face Book. I cannot validate it, but do know that China has poisoned dogs and cats in the USA via pet food with Melamine in it. It tests like protein, but isn't. As my husband said, "If they'd put chicken droppings in the pet food, it would test as protein too and wouldn't poison pets. Dishonest and wouldn't provide any nutrition, but at least it wouldn't have killed them." Not just dishonest and greedy, but cruel.

It would not surprise me if Chinese bird toys are a risk too.

I have two bird ladders that are colored with dyes that run when wet. I'd have been happy to buy them as plain wood without the dyes, which look very much like those in the photo above. I've decided to remove the ladders from my cages. From now on, no painted or dyed wooden toys from China for any of my birds. Better safe than sorry.



One removed. One more to go.

This one was recently cleaned and dyes ran badly.

Zinc and lead are both dangerous for birds. How can we know if paint from outside the USA is lead free?

 



I almost hate to take this away from her. She likes it.





Fortunately Bourke Parakeets do very little chewing.
However, this ladder is coming out anyway.



All my cages have one or more of
these hard plastic mirror & bead toys.
All the birds use them to play with
the beads and even sleep on them.
 

It might be that hard plastic bird toys are safest, along with plain wooden dowels for perches. No dyed or painted things.

Peace & Blessings.

 

BIRD ACCIDENTS − A TRAGIC TALE SHARED

  

This is a bit long, but worth sharing. "R" sent this email recently. I've not edited anything out.

MESSAGE FROM “R” IN DELAWARE 

I have some sad news I wanted share so others don't make the same mistake.  I recently lost my 2 Scarlet Chested Parakeets.  One of my dogs killed both birds, even though she had been around them flying loose in my house for 3 years.  Before them, I had another dog for 17 years that never harmed any of my birds.  So while I am upset and depressed about this, I understand that my dog was just doing what came natural.  But I am disappointed and angry with myself for not being more careful.  I thought things were OK but my dog must have "snapped".  Now I don't think I'll ever trust a dog around loose birds again.

To go into detail, the first bird attacked was a new baby female Scarlet I got for my male.  She was partly hand-raised but never fully tamed.  I had her out one day (just a few days after I got her) and she would not go back on my finger.  I could not get her back in the cage.  My dogs needed to be walked so I left her out while we walked.  When I got in, she was not where I left her.  Before I knew it, one of my dogs took off into another room.  Immediately, I heard a bird scream, and my dog had killed her, all in 5 seconds.  She was apparently walking on the floor.  At the time, I had never seen my dogs go after my birds.  I assumed naively that the dog just didn't "know" this bird and maybe didn't see me with it − but I was wrong − the attack was just predatory.

 

A few weeks later, my dog got my other adult male Scarlet Chested.  I'd had this bird for 3 years. He was hand-raised but never really became finger tame. I never wing-clipped him but I got used to letting him fly around my house. A problem I had with him was, once he was out, he would not go back in his cage until dark. So there were evenings where I had to go out and I had to leave him out of the cage. He was a good flyer and seemed to be "street smart".  I'd come home and he'd be back in his cage.  This went on for 3 years without problems.  But, a few weeks after the first incident, he must have pushed his luck one evening by walking on the floor where my dog could get him.

Now in retrospect, I KNOW I should not have let these birds fly freely in my house if they were not 100% tame.  And I know I should not have trusted the 2nd bird, after what happened to the first.  I stupidly though they left the 2nd bird alone because they "knew" it.  But my point is, my dogs never showed predatory behavior toward them − so I pushed my luck − trying to accommodate both pets, giving my birds free flight time and not forcing my dogs outside for long periods.  But, even after 3 years of no problems, this happened.  My conclusion is, you cannot trust dogs 100% around birds − and not for 5 seconds, when your back is turned.

I still have my 2 tame Bourkes but they "cooperate".  I can let them out for a while and they will go right back in their cages.  So now, the rule is the dogs are outside the house when my Bourkes are out of their cages.  Period.

I feel so bad about the whole thing and wish I had known better.

ANSWER:  Dear R--,

You have my condolences. When I was a kid, I had very tame banty chickens and three dogs. Everyone lived happily together. Then one day the family was away all day. When we got home, the yard was a mayhem of blood & feathers. One of the hens had hidden a nest and when the eggs hatched, the dogs got into it. She tried to defend her chicks and they injured her. From then on, the dogs tried to get to the chickens and we had to give them all away. Once they'd killed a chicken, they were ready to try again and again if they could.

I think once your dog killed a bird, it was more likely to do it again.

If it helps, I'll plan to do a blog on bird safety and use your experience in it. Very bad things happen. I have always had cats, but I've never allowed them (intentionally) to stay in the house with the birds unless I was right there too. Accidentally, I've left and thought the cats were all outside, came home and found one sleeping in the window seat or elsewhere. I'm very lucky...none have gone after the birds, who were all in their cages.

 

I never leave my birds flying free unless I'm there with them. I've had them fall behind pieces of furniture and all sorts of things. Even so, we've lost birds to accidents too. My sweetest, favorite young hen was on the floor a lot and I'd warned my husband to always look any time he entered the room while the birds were out. Did he step on her? No ... it was me. A baby fell behind the cages, made a lot of noise and I turned suddenly to go rescue it and didn't realize she'd walked across the floor to me ... That was my most horrible experience with birds ever. I still feel awful about it and it was several years ago. She'd paired off with another young bird and he still refuses any other hen. I feel like I owe him my loyalty and affection because of what happened to the hen he chose.

We also had a Splendid get away from my husband who was transferring them to another cage for me. He flew into a window and injured a wing. He could never fly after that. Another young Bourke flew into a window because I'd forgotten to close the drapes. He broke his neck and died.

 

Looking back, we have many more successes than failures, but it's the failures that are sadly memorable.

Our big dog, Chinook, lived with birds for 14 years and never threatened them either, but he did step on a baby chicken and break its neck. I don't think he intended to hurt it, but he was so big and it was so little. The smaller dog we have now is not to be trusted. I've been working with him, but he is a definite risk. More so than any of the cats we've had.

We only have one cat now and I've had baby Bourkes get away from me when I was hand feeding them and land on the couch in front of her. She freezes ... she knows she'd better not hurt them since I'm screaming at her to leave the bird alone. I think the little dog would obey if I was screaming at him too, but I try not to give either of them an opportunity to prove me wrong. However, if I wasn't there at the time ... it's very likely that either the dog or cat would take that opportunity to grab the bird and "play" with it, killing it.

At night all the birds are in their cages, and the cat is locked in the bedroom with us. I've never intentionally left any cat or dog alone with the birds. But, it has happened and I've been very lucky that nothing bad transpired.

I'm sorry for your loss. Try not to blame yourself too much ... we all make mistakes. It's part of being human and not divine. As you can see, I've made my share of them too. We do the best we can.

2^ND MESSAGE:

Dear Gail, Thanks for the kind note and sharing your experiences.  I still feel awful about it − sort of in shock − but I have no illusions any more − I simply cannot trust my dogs − and they are very loving to me and good dogs, otherwise − both were rescues.  I think the point you should make in your new blog is you can never completely trust dogs and cats with birds − and they can "change" after 15 years and suddenly kill − and it can take only 5 seconds.

My brother's children had aquatic frogs in a fish tank for many years.  Their cats seemed amused by them but never showed real aggression or even interest.  And then one time, after the cats had lived "peacefully" with these frogs for over 10 years, my brother's family came home one time and the frogs were out of the tank and ripped to pieces.  These were the aquatic type of frogs that never leave the water.  So apparently, one of the cats finally decided to go for them and fished them out of the tank and killed them.  It was a total shock to my brother's family. 

And another incident I know:  I am friends with an elderly Chinese American couple who had 2 pet chickens for many years.  I think these chickens were like 10 years old.  They were total pets − they came when you called them and even liked to be petted − during the day, when they were home, they let the chickens have the run of the back yard.  They also had an older ChowChow dog that was completely OK with these chickens and never attacked them. 

Well, finally, the old dog died and they got a new puppy of the same breed.  He seemed OK with the chickens − but they still didn't trust him.  However, one day there was an accident − somebody let the dog out without checking to see if the chickens were in their pen.  The new puppy killed both chickens all in about 30 seconds.  The couple were both devastated.  I worked with the woman and she always talked about her pet chickens − after this happened, she could barely talk about them.  They have chickens again but they stay in their pen now and the new dog is kept away from them.

Oh well − more sad stories − but maybe your future blog can help stop future accidents.

Thanks again for the kind words.

Mama Bourke Parakeet to the Rescue!

Our power went out yesterday at 4:30 p.m. due to high winds and probably a tree down on power lines somewhere. It didn't come back on until 9:45 a.m. this morning, and the temperature where the birds are was only 66 degrees Fahrenheit this morning. Colder than typical, but no drafts so everyone did fine.

 

Fine... Except for one near disaster!

 

Babies in a clean, new tissue box. Notice open door of cage.

 

I've been hand feeding three babies from Rosie and Pretty Boy since December 9. They're four weeks old and fully feathered, so I didn't worry about them getting too cold. They have a tissue box to huddle in and keep each other warm even though the power outage meant no heat source over night.

 

Last night I boiled water on a gas stove to mix Exact hand feeding formula and fed the babies via a reading lamp for my Kindle.

 

The "Mighty Bright" light for my Kindle. It was wonderful
for a power outage. Brighter than a candle and didn't flicker.

 

All should  have been well except that when I got up this morning I discovered that, after feeding the babies in dim light, I'd left the door of their cage open! The babies weren't in their tissue box or in the cage. I yelled to my husband, "Watch where you walk! The babies are out of their cage... And, where are the cats!?"

 

Now, the cats spent the night closed in our bedroom with us, but they came out to the kitchen with us at sunrise. We hurried the two of them back into the bedroom and closed the door; although I don't really think they'd have hurt the little birds. They know better and have always been very good, even if a bird lands right in front of them by accident. (It has happened in the past).

 

Mei-Ling is really rather bored by the birds, but I like
to remind her that they are to be left alone. She complies.
The babies in my hands are about a week old.

 

Immediately I retrieved one baby from under the kitchen table. Hubby found the next one on the floor between the refrigerator and the kitchen counter. No problem finding those first two and didn't expect a problem finding the third one. But it was!

 

We didn't have power yet and still very little morning light through windows. With bright flashlights we hunted high and low. The babies can fly...maybe not expertly yet, but they fly. After searching above, below and behind every nook and cranny in the kitchen, we went into the living room and then into the laundry room with the dog (he's behind a dutch door and they could have flown over the half door). When we couldn't find the bird, we started carefully moving furniture. After about an hour we'd looked everywhere we could think of. Then I got the bright idea that maybe Rosie could find her lost one.

 

I let her out of her cage. Rosie was hand fed and is very tame. If these babies had been from Cherry, who wasn't hand fed, this wouldn't have been possible. Rosie has been out several times when I've fed her youngsters. Their hand feeding began a week ago at three weeks of age. She's never tried to feed them while I feed them, but has stolen some Exact from them. She loves it.

 

Rosie flew to the cage where the first two now resided, still waiting for me to feed them until I could find their sibling. She called. I listened. Thought perhaps the baby would call back to her, but realized with so many other Bourkes in the house, I could scarcely tell one whisle from another. But, she could... She understood my request to her and went into action. She flew around the living room and back to the kitchen twice and on the third pass I was facing the cages when she flew past me with a baby flying right behind her! He had followed his Mama home. Where he was, who knows! But she led him home, God bless her. No doubt my prayers to St. Anthony and St. Mary helped too. (I'm convinced all the saints have a special fondness for birds). 

 

I let Rosie get into the baby cage with her young and she fed the wayward youngster, but not the other two. Perhaps rewarding him for coming with her. In short order, I heated water, mixed formula and fed all three with Rosie stealing bites in between as her reward.

So, all is well that ends well. Deep sigh.

Morning after rain and wind storm.

 

May none of your birds ever get lost, or if they do,

may you find them safe and sound with little effort.

 

 

CATS WITH BIRDS ... IT CAN WORK ... CAT TALES

Cats love to watch birds, and can be taught to leave them alone.

Many years ago, before I had a cat of my own, I visited a home with a big, beautiful, solid gray cat that slept on the sofa. On an end table next to the cat rested a cage with two cockatiels. I was incredulous that the cat didn’t bother the birds and asked if the cat had been raised from a kitten with them.

“No,” they said, “we got him as an adult from the animal shelter.”

“Why doesn’t he bother the birds?”

“He never has. He’s just a good cat.”

Since then we’ve had many cats and our experiences with them and the birds have been mostly positive. Here are a few that I hope you’ll find interesting and won’t be afraid to introduce a cat into your life…if you don’t already have one.

PAWS CAT: Possibly the worst experience—which wasn’t really so bad—was with Paws. He lived to be 19 years old and over time co-existed with many tame birds. However, when he was very young, we had a pair of white zebra finches in a bamboo cage in the family room. My two children at the time were instructed to never leave the cat alone with the birds. If they were leaving the family room, they were to take the cat into their bedroom with them and close the door.

Well…one day I went shopping and when I returned and opened the front door, I immediately heard “chee, chee, chee!” It was an obvious distress call from one of the finches. Somehow the bird had exited the hanging bamboo cage (never did figure out how), and Paws had him! There were white feathers everywhere. I yelled at the cat! I chased the cat! He ran under furniture! He ran from room to room! Always with the bird in his mouth, feathers flying!

White zebra hen & pied mate. Young in nest.

After what seemed like forever, with me chasing and yelling, he finally dropped the bird! It was limp and lifeless. I picked it up, carried it into the kitchen and gently dripped cold water on the edge of its bill. I don’t know what convinced me that it wasn’t dead…maybe because there were no visible wounds and no blood on the white feathers. I put the unconscious bird on the floor of the cage and left it there. The next morning, it was sitting next to its mate, singing and acting like nothing had happened. Still fearful, however, I gave our zebra finches to Magnolia Bird Farm a few days after the “cat event.” If I had kept the finches, I doubt the cat would ever have gone near them again.

One lesson I’ve learned about birds. They can knock themselves out and still recover, so don’t give up on them right away. For instance, hummingbirds often fly into windows, can appear dead, and still recover. Once a bird is stiff, you can figure it’s a goner…

*****



Black cats are usually intelligent and have a sense of humor.

PANTHER CAT: One of my favorite cats was sleek & black, named Panther. Our youngest son had a tame blue budgie named Skybird. He lived in a cage in our son’s room. Well, the inevitable happened. One day the bedroom door was left open. I heard a crash and rushed into the bedroom. The cage was on the floor, split apart from the fall. The bird was up on the curtain rod, looking down nonplussed. No cat to be seen. I leaned down to look under the bed and drug a cringing Panther out. In the middle of his black nose was a red divot. He’d put his nose up to the cage and been bitten. In leaping back, he apparently knocked the cage off the table. Bird was fine, and Panther never went near Skybird’s cage again. Later, we added another budgie and two cockatiels. They moved into the family room where both Paws and Panther ignored all four birds. By the way, that was the only time that sweet budgie ever bit any living thing. Smile.

*****

Blue Point Birman. Our sweet Barley-cat loved the finches.

BARLEY: This gorgeous blue-point Birman actually came from an animal shelter. He joined our family when he was five years old. At the time, we had two cages of white and pied zebra finches behind closed doors in our bedroom.

These were not the same finches Paws went for in his youth. By now, Paws was elderly and had long ago proven to be reliable around birds. It wasn’t long before we found that Barley was safe around them too.

Two successful pairs of zebra finches.
A pair is in each cage.

The cages were on hooks from the ceiling and he would stretch out on an inside window ledge and watch them. Now, this was a cat that could jump straight up and onto the top of the refrigerator from a standing position. His high jumps were amazing. If he’d wanted to reach one of the cages hanging near him, he could easily have done so, but all he ever did was watch them. They raised numerous clutches and none of the birds feared Barley. They were very used to being watched by his incredibly lovely blue eyes. I still miss him.

*****

This is really Muffin, Me-Too and Fancy in our window seat,
not far from cages of birds. The birds are family too, and left alone.

MUFFIN, RAGS & ME-TOO: These three black and white guys were all related, I’m sure. Two were strays from a nearby horse ranch that was sold for an apartment complex. Many of the barn cats were forced across a highway when demolition began. Neither the former owners or the new buyers seemed to care about rescuing the cats, and those of us who lived in adjoining neighborhoods didn’t know about them until several appeared in our neighborhood.

None were house cats, yet they weren’t wild either. Those who survived oncoming cars crossing the highway entered our adjoining housing development. Unfortunately, I saw several who didn’t make it. There were four I know of who found homes among kind people.

Muffin made friends with our old Paws cat, and eventually I was able to lure him in with food. He was a sweet guy who only wanted to please. I could even tell him to go get in his bed at night and he did! Scolding him once for looking at the birds caused him to ignore them from then on. Muffin’s brother, Rags, (as in the two Ragamuffin’s) survived on his own for three more years before we coaxed him in. But, he never got along with Muffin, so we didn’t keep him even though he ignored the birds and got along with our two small dogs. Two weeks after Rags left, Me-Too showed up, hungry and injured. He was a juvenile, very likely a son of Rags, although we had each cat neutered within a day or two of their arrival.

Me-Too, being young, quickly acquiesced to Muffin and they became friends. Me-Too (as in I’m here too), was always friendly and out-going. He never bothered the birds. In fact, we once made an 8-hour trip away from home and back, not realizing we’d left Me-Too asleep in a window seat inches away from several cages. He never bothered a bird, and probably slept the entire time we were gone.

*****

Pretty Fancy was a Snowshoe from the Animal Shelter.

FANCY: This pretty Snowshoe cat joined Paws and Muffin before Rags or Me-Too came along. She was a replacement for Barley when he passed away. She, too, came from an animal shelter, age unknown.

It was her blue eyes that reminded us of Barley that won us over. Again, she quickly accepted the birds as part of the household furniture. Speaking of furniture, it’s always been easy to train our cats to leave the birds alone and to stay off counters and table tops, but furniture is more difficult. We are regularly reminding most of them NOT to scratch the furniture, and to use their scratching posts instead.

Fancy, like Barley, was already de-clawed when we adopted her, so neither she nor Barley had an issue with scratching. I do believe both of them had overly sensitive feet, however, because of the de-clawing. Neither one wanted their feet handled or touched. I can only assume there was some discomfort from losing their claws, which also included most of their toes. Fancy, like most female cats, was quite a huntress. She caught countless mice and other small rodents. I never saw her with a bird or found a dead one though. I really believe being expected to leave the indoor pet birds alone can carry over to outside birds too…a very good thing.

MEI-LING: I have a special fondness for black cats, and when looking at a litter of black kittens, intending to adopt one, she chose me. I stood across the room and called, and she was the one who came. Ever since, she’s been my constant, loving companion. I love my birds immensely and they give me great pleasure, but I wouldn’t trade Mei-Ling for any bird, or even any number of them.

Mei-Ling currently lives with us. She is
one of my favorite cats of all time.

As a kitten she quickly responded to a scolding voice. As of this day, she won’t go near a bird unless I hold it up to her and tell her it’s okay to look at it. Once I was hand feeding a baby bird, fully feathered, that decided to fly and landed smack-dab right in front of Mei-Ling! I don’t usually put the cats outside if I’m only hand feeding. Well, Mei-Ling froze until I came and picked up the baby. She made no attempt to harm it. Although, I was also yelling, “No Mei-Ling” at her and she knew why. She has internalized that birds are “off limits” much more than the cats we adopted as adults. Mei-Ling will be five in May, 2011.

PATCHES: This pretty calico has been with us for four years now. Judging by her missing teeth we think she’s very mature. She appeared on our back porch one cold November. My husband tried to feed her, but territorial Me-Too chased her off.

A few years earlier we had moved to the country and knew all our rural neighbors and their pets and she wasn’t one of theirs. I thought she might have been dumped, but no longer believe that. I prayed for that pretty little stray for months before I saw her again. In January it snowed and I worried about her out in the forest all alone.

Then in March I saw her! It’s a long, spiritual story, but we were able to bring her home and heal her bloody ears (mosquitoes), get her wormed, shots, etc. Her stomach was bloated and I wondered if she was going to have kittens. We always spay and neuter. Because she’s so pretty and kittens are so much fun, I actually hoped she was expecting. I would have enjoyed the kittens without any guilt over it. Smile. However, Patches was already spayed.



Patches' favorite window seat viewing site. Our birds don't fear her.
There are four Splendids in this cage.



We soon learned she isn’t afraid to climb into a car’s trunk. That’s how I think she ended up away from her original home, wherever that was. If my niece hadn’t seen her behind the suitcases in their trunk one day, Patches would have ended up thousands of miles away before the trunk was opened again.

We call her Patches only because so many calico’s are already named that and we thought she might find it familiar. She’s used to it now, but in retrospect I don’t think it was her original name. I could have called her what I wanted to, which was my miracle cat, “Miry-cat.”

In spite of Patches’ advanced age, she too quickly learned to leave the birds alone. However, like Barley, she loves to lay nearby and watch them.

Patches was a stray we took in. She's not young, but quickly learned
never to scare the birds. She watches them without getting excited,
and doesn't harm them.

When I let the tame birds out of their cages, I always send the cats outside or into a bedroom with the door closed. One morning though I didn’t realize Patches was not outside…my husband had let her in and she was curled up on the couch. Normally, the birds come out for a flight of 15 minutes to a half hour. Rarely, maybe an hour of play time with me. Well, this morning, I sat down at the computer and let time get away from me. The birds flew everywhere, including all over me, around the computer, over and onto the couch. When I finally came out of my “computer daze” and realized I should put them away, it was two hours later!

I turned around in my chair and saw Patches. She looked at me, got up from the couch and leisurely stretched. Shocked I picked her up and took her to a bedroom. She’d had every opportunity to snatch a bird out of the air if she’d wanted to, even had them walking on the back of the couch just above her. She never made any effort to try to catch one…Amazing…If ever she were going to be tempted, the opportunity was there. Living wild in the woods for many months, she had to have done a lot of hunting. In fact, once I removed a chipmunk from her mouth and held her as it ran off into the woods, unharmed. Now, she leaves them alone too.

This white Budgie lived to be over 12-years-old. Despite how it looks,
the dog never hurt her...in fact they became quite friendly with each other.
Never leave your dog or cat alone with your bird, however.
It's best to ALWAYS be present, just in case.

 God bless cats & dogs. They can be trained.

Birds and Their Feathers: Selecting a Healthy Bird

Healthy Splendid Parakeets, Rainbow & Jewel.

When selecting a bird to add to your flock or as a pet…There is much to be learned by examining a bird’s feathers since feathers are a good indication of a bird’s health and well-being. Molting is a normal process where feathers are periodically lost and replaced with new plumage. I’ll attempt to identify the difference between a molt and when something might be wrong with the bird, such as disease or malnutrition.

One-week Rosie Bourke babies, pink tipped feathers
just starting to show.

Budgerigar parakeets (budgies) appear bald when they hatch. Bourkes and Splendids both have “natal down” covering them. Like any chick, it’s wet at first hatch, but quickly dries to become fluffy. These are actually downy feathers, those that provide added warmth by underlying the larger outside feathers in mature birds. A baby bird’s feathers begin to form in the follicles as the bird grows. These appear as darkened areas under the skin that are easier to see in larger birds than in small parakeets such as Budgies, Bourkes, Splendids and other small members of the avian family.

Feathers gradually protrude through the skin, encased in a sheath. The fuzzy tips of feathers soon begin to show through the end of the sheath. If you are raising Bourkes and have a mixed pair (one Rosie and one Normal), you can begin to recognize their future color at this stage. Rosies will show their pink at the ends of feather sheaths on their backs one to two weeks after hatching. You’ll also know their sex since color is sex-linked in Bourkes. Hens from mixed parents will be the color of their father. Males will be the color of their mother.

Rosie Bourke babies with some down still present.
No stress bars on them. Lines are color and fade as they mature.

Until their first molt, most young birds have the same color plumage as the hens of their species. This is especially true of Splendids. Males develop their scarlet chest after their first molt. However, even the rose color in Bourke males’ deepens and seems to become richer as they mature.

Sexing Baby Splendids: Although young Splendid parakeets look like mom at first, you can lift their wings and look for white bars on the bottom of their wings to help determine males from females. The undersides of the wings of adult Splendid males are all black. Youngsters with white bars (or stripes) under their wings are female. However, some have broken white bars and that makes identification trickier since they could be either sex. In my clutches, however, the hens have had solid white bars and the broken white-barred babies grew up to be males that later filled in with black after their first molt.

Close up of healthy feathers on a Rosie Bourke.

Healthy feather development requires adequate nutrition. If there is a disruption in the absorption of nutrients when the feathers are developing, stress bars may appear on the feathers. In this case, feathers may be a normal length, but with a line across them where areas on each of the shafts are empty of the colorful pieces that poke out and lock together. This can be caused by digestive disturbances, pro-longed periods of chilling, or the bird not being fed enough as the feathers were developing. They can appear as dark lines or white lines, depending on the color of the feathers.

If only one or two feathers have these bare areas, they are probably not stress bars. This can happen when a feather sheath isn’t preened off soon enough. What you need to watch for are continuous lines of stress bars.

Yet, a bird with stress bars may since have recovered and be healthy. If it's healthy, replacement feathers won't have the stress bars. If it is a bird you’re considering purchasing, you might want to wait and watch, skip that bird and look for another, or have the bird evaluated by an avian veterinarian before purchasing it.

Molting is caused when feathers are pushed out by new feathers coming in below them. A bird should never have bald spots because of a molt, and most birds molt the same feathers on both sides. The easiest way to recognize a molting bird is the feather sheaths you will see at the wings, tail or head. Lone birds will have more trouble preening these off than if you have a friendly pair. They will help preen areas for each other that they cannot reach, for instance, the top of their heads.

Damaged feathers also occur if birds fly into things, or from over handling. See my articles on safety.

As always, looks at the bird's eyes. They should be shiny and alert. Not half closed or watery. Also, inspect the bird’s vent. If feces have gathered there, the feathers around the vent are wet and/or soiled, that’s a bird to avoid as it may be ill. You don’t want to introduce that bird to your other birds. New birds, even apparently very healthy birds, should be quarantined for ten or more days before introduction to your others. If at any time, one of your birds appears ill, address the problem promptly and keep it separated from your others to avoid spreading the problem.

Warning - energy efficient light bulbs, especially dangerous to birds

I accidentally dropped an incandescent light bulb this morning. Thank goodness it wasn't an energy efficient bulb! The mercury in the energy efficient bulbs is dangerous to us & our pets. When broken, the mercury that's released can be especially lethal to pet birds. Disastrous!

I have 28 birds in the house right now, not counting eggs & babies in nest boxes. I'm so glad this bulb wasn't one of the energy efficient bulbs. I plan to stock up on incandescent bulbs before our gov't makes sure only the so-called energy efficient bulbs - that are not really energy efficient at all - are the only ones we can find to buy...

Dirty Electricity: It might be poisoning us. This video explains it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6K_xFVvsNDo

Recognize Dangers to Birds

If you allow your tame birds to fly free, be aware of potential hazards. Here are photographs of the hazards in our home that we try to stay aware of.

When we built our home, and chose the lighting fixtures, we didn’t keep birds. Now we do. To keep our birds safe, overhead lights with exposed bulbs like these are turned off and allowed to cool before we release any birds to fly. This includes when I’m handfeeding youngsters outside their cage. Some have been known to fly off even before all their feathers are in! All they need is the will, a few wing feathers, and a loose hold by me.

You should already know that hot stoves are a high risk. As a child, I remember my grandfather’s yellow budgie, Goldie, who had crippled feet from landing on his hot frying pan. She recovered, but her feet were never the same. Make sure all burners are off and cooled before you release your birds. Even though you might be in another room, if doors are open, they could fly anywhere!

Windows are the most likely risk to birds. We’ve tried to cover our windows with curtains or blinds so that birds won’t fly into them. However, the laundry room has a large window that isn’t covered. The master bath also has windows that are open, as shown. The frosted pictures help prevent wild birds from flying into them, but small parakeets like ours might decide to fly through the areas that aren’t frosted. I close all doors with access to either of these rooms before allowing any of our birds to fly free.

The biggest hazard in our home is two small windows in the peak of the living room. Covering them would be a problem. Fortunately, our tame birds seldom go up that high, but I’ve had youngsters head for them. We have a disabled male Splendid whose wing never healed correctly after flying at full speed into a window. We call him “Flip” because whenever he attempts to fly, he flips. He has lots of toys and sticks to climb, but it would be so much better if he’d never injured his wing. It happened on his first solo flight when he escaped while being transferred from his parents’ cage to another cage with his siblings. Now, he lives in a large cage with “retired” Bourkes and one other bachelor Splendid (who I’d like to find a hen for, by the way).

We have three cats and a big dog … any of whom could dispatch a bird in quick order. However, we’ve spent time training the cats and dog to leave the birds alone, and they do. Yet, we’re careful to never leave the birds alone with them over night.

Admittedly, we do run outside for a few minutes without any concern for the birds’ safety while cats sleep on a nearby couch or chair. We even forgot and left one of the cats asleep in a window seat once, and were gone from home for 8 hours with no harm done.

I honestly don’t think the birds would be at risk, but why take chances? Our cats and dog sleep elsewhere at night…away from any access to the birds.

It is important to train your pets to accept one another though. We’ve had three instances where a baby bird escaped from me and flew over a cat (or all three), even landing in front of one of them. When that has happened, our cats freeze. They know they’d be in trouble if they hurt the bird. Even the old stray cat we adopted leaves the birds alone. She appreciates being taken in. My kitties amaze me, but if animals love their owners (or fear reprisals?), they can be trained to behave as you want them to.

If you haven’t already, go through your home and identify potential risks to your birds. Better to be prepared. Luck and Love …

BIRDS & CATS

I grew up with birds and dogs. It never occurred to me that birds, especially small ones, would be safe around cats. In fact, I was stunned when I visited someone with two cockatiels sitting on an end table with a cat sleeping on a couch nearby. When I asked, they said the cat had never threatened them.

A few years later, my young son wanted a pet parakeet, or to be more exact, a budgerigar parakeet. We had two cats, and he promised to keep the bird behind his closed bedroom door. Skybird became very tame, but the inevitable happened. One day when my son was away, I heard a loud crash and rushed into his room. The door had been left open and the cage was on the floor, popped apart. The bird was sitting on a curtain rod, unhurt. Realizing what must have happened, I looked under the bed and pulled out a very frightened cat. I was about to scold him when I noticed a bloody divot in the tip of his nose … the cause of the crashed cage. He was one cat who never investigated the cage or the bird again.

Years later we added two cockatiels and another budgie to our household. The cats ignored them as if they were part of the furniture. When I put up two cages of zebra finches in our bedroom, our Birman cat would lie on the window sill and watch them. Over time I came to trust him and didn’t worry as he watched generation after generation of zebra finches grow and fledge close enough that he could have jumped onto the cage if he chose to, but he never did. It was entertainment enough just to watch.

Today, decades later, our three cats live in close proximity with over 20 Bourke and Splendid parakeets, as did others before them. They’ve never bothered any of our cages. They recognize the birds as part of the family. Recently, tending the feet of a young Bourke that had never flown before, it unexpectedly flew from my hand. On its first solo flight, the little thing landed on a couch directly in front of our black cat, close enough that she could have extended her foot only slightly and squashed it flat.

“No Mei-Ling!” I yelled at her, but I needn’t have bothered. Mei-Ling simply looked at the baby bird and did not move toward it or away from it. I quickly crossed the room and retrieved the bird, telling Mei-Ling what a good girl she was. It never hurts to reinforce good behavior.

When outside, Mei-Ling is quite a huntress. I scold if I see her stalking birds, so she doesn’t seem to do that anymore. Her main prey are mice and voles.

Our other cat, Patches, was already old when we took her in as a sick stray three years ago. She’s now beautiful and quickly learned that indoor birds are to be ignored. Since she survived on her own outside for several winter months, I’m sure she ate mice and wild birds, but she knows I don’t want her to bothering birds of any kind. Recently, she had a chipmunk and released it when I insisted she do so. It escaped, apparently unhurt. Either she will leave them alone in the future, or she won’t let me see her with one…

Every cat is different, so never immediately trust any cat to leave your birds alone. Spend time with them, scolding if they look eagerly toward the birds. Most are quick to learn that your indoor birds are off limits. However, at night our cats are not allowed access to any rooms with birds in them. I’ve become lax about going outside and leaving the cats indoors and don’t worry, but for prolonged periods, I don’t leave them alone with the birds. That said, we did take a trip last summer and were gone 6 or 7 hours and thought Me-Too, our male cat, was outside. He wasn’t. When we got home, we discovered him asleep in a window seat with access to all the bird cages. Nothing was disturbed and all was quiet. He probably slept the entire time.

Years ago, our old cat, Paws, was indoors when the cockatiels came out to play. Our male cockatiel dive bombed Paws in the same way mockingbirds will dive bomb cats. I’ve seen cats catch mockingbirds who did that to them and Paws certainly could have quickly dispatched the cockatiel rather quickly. However, Paws hunkered down and waited for us to remove the bird from the room. He knew he shouldn’t harm it, even though it was harassing him.

Each cat is different and some couldn’t avoid that sort of temptation. Whenever a bird is out of the cage, remember that it is more vulnerable to predation by a cat or dog. Keep that in mind and be careful. Our pet birds usually don’t come out of their cage(s) when the cats are present. Each cat and each bird has a unique personality. You’ll need to decide what’s safe and what isn’t for your pets.

If you want cats and birds … go ahead, but take the time to train your cats and never leave them alone with the birds until you are certain it’s safe. Best scenario is stay in the same room with them, or separate them when you’re not present.

Enjoy your birds and all other pets!

Temporary Housing for Babies

If you're hand feeding babies, you need to keep them warm. Fuchsia is in a small cardboard box, shown here. The top folds down to keep her safely inside. the bottom of the box has pine shavings, and I put a folded paper towel, napkin and/or tissue over the shavings. when I take her out to feed her, I can throw the "diaper" away and replace it with a fresh, clean one.

Baby droppings are very wet, so something absorbent helps. If moisture still soaks into the pine shavings, they can be "stirred" to help them dry while you're feeding babies. You can change shavings too anytime you want to. That's most likely necessary with multiple babies than with one.

Notice in the photo that there is an oil heater off to the side. In order to keep Fuchsia warm, we put the oil heater near her box. The rest of the house may be only 68 to 70 degrees, but her area stays much warmer. I taped her box to the table with duct tape so that it couldn't accidentally be knocked onto the floor since it sits near the edge where it's close to the heater. I often check the corner of the box nearest the heater to make sure it isn't getting too hot. As the day warms up, I turn the heater off, but turn it back on at dusk when the house starts to cool.

You don't want to "cook" or dehydrate your babies, but you do want them to stay nice and warm ... just as they would be if their mother was next to them. Once they feather, they are able to stay warm on their own, but before that they need extra warmth. I've found a portable oil heater nearby works perfectly.

Fuchsia will go into a cage as soon as she shows that she's able to fly. She will continue to be handfed after that, perhaps for another week, or even two.

Keep an Eye on Your Chicks, Part 1

By watching your chicks, you have a chance to catch any kind of situation before it’s serious. Checking babies daily is a good practice, but at least every few days or so.

The photo with this blog shows a young Rosie Bourke whose bands had become encrusted with bird droppings that attached to her bands. This doesn’t happen often, but it’s something to watch out for, particularly in a large clutch.

Our nest boxes have about an inch of absorbent pine shavings in the bottom. This usually solves that problem, and most hens leave the nest to defecate, so only baby droppings are a risk. However, some hens throw the majority of shavings out, preferring to nest on a hard floor in the same way that budgies do. (Budgie boxes don’t need shavings, and should have a round, shallow indentation in the middle of the bottom of the box to keep eggs from rolling away).

Our Bourke and Splendid hens choose where they want their eggs to be. Few choose the middle of the box, and are more likely to choose one of the four corners. Some like to be near the entrance and some as far from it as possible. Pine shavings, even if only around an area the hen cleared, will help keep the eggs together.

If you find a chick with excrement on its feet or under its tail, remove it quickly – especially under the tail. If he can’t easily defecate, you may lose him. It’s easiest to remove when it is soft and hasn’t dried hard, or built up over time. So, removing it quickly is important

Run warm water over the area to soften it and gradually “pinch” off dried excrement piece by piece until gone. In the case of this bird, she is sitting in a dish of warm water to allow the droppings to soak. That was easier and less frightening than holding her under the faucet. By the time I thought to take this picture, however, most of the material hardened around her bands had been removed.

She seemed to enjoy the warm bath. Afterwards, I carefully dried her with a towel before returning her to her nest box. This was also done in a warm house with NO DRAFTS.

Keep an Eye on Your Chicks, Part 2

Over the years I’ve saved several chicks by checking on them daily. In the case of one I’m feeding right now, I checked him three or four times a day before removing him from his parents. Here’s why.

Blush and her mate came to me after they’d had a clutch with someone else and their only baby died at about two weeks.

Shortly before that I’d acquired another pair from a woman who wanted to keep two of the babies from their clutch of three, but didn’t want more birds. She complained that the hen “scolded” the male loudly and it was annoying. Sure enough, the hen was a loud complainer.

I have extra males at present, so I put the noisy hen with another male. Immediate peace transpired. She likes him and they are now feeding three healthy babies, recently out of the nest.

Her mate, Chitter, I gave to Blush. They had four eggs and two hatched. When the youngest was just under two weeks, I looked in the box one morning and he lay dead on his back. That can happen for multiple reasons and usually we never know why. However, he had blood on his neck. He’d been pecked or chewed. His older brother was incapable of such an act (they can’t bite until they’ve been out of the nest for more than a week).

I want to point out now that this is the first time I’ve ever seen a baby Bourke savaged in any way shape or form. It had to be one of the parents. Had the baby flipped on his back, and they were trying to turn him back over? I wanted to give them the benefit of a doubt. Could anything else have done it, like a spider, maybe? A wild thought and not likely. We have three cats, so no mice or rats venture into the house, and even if they did, the cage bars are too small for any rodent to enter.

I noticed that the male Bourke had entered the nest several times. Now, with Splendids this is very common. The male helps the female feed the chicks in the nest. However, with Bourkes the male usually inspects the nest before she will enter, tells her it’s safe, and once she enters to lay eggs he is unlikely to enter it again. The male will feed the hen through the nest box opening, or she will come out and he will feed her (that way food fed the babies is processed twice and is very thin). But, he doesn’t go inside to help feed the babies. Once they leave the nest, he will help feed them.

Two days after the death of the smallest baby, I took the other baby out and inspected him closely as I’d done before. Under one wing, the fuzz had been plucked off and spots of blood were present.

It was apparent that he/she was at high risk and likely wouldn’t survive unless rescued. He’s now living in a small cardboard box on the kitchen table with an oil heater nearby to keep him warm. He was two weeks old when taken out to hand feed and is doing very well. He was hatched Oct. 2, 2009 and it was Oct. 16, 2009 that I began hand feeding him with Exact hand feeding formula. Currently, five times a day, and I don’t get up in the middle of the night.

The problem now remains, which parent is the evil villain? This mother did lose another baby in her first clutch, but circumstantial evidence doesn’t stand up well in court. Perhaps the male wants to mate again and one way to accomplish that is to kill the offspring. I say this because years ago, I had two pairs of zebra finches in separate cages. They successfully raised many babies until one male, after two successful clutches, decided to quit raising youngsters and started tossing his newly hatched chicks out of the nest.

At that time in my life, I didn’t know how to hand feed, or know that I could. Wish I had. The young they produced were beautiful white babies with dark saddles. I’d put the babies back in the nest, but he didn’t allow them to stay. He wanted to mate again and to do that, mom had to have an empty nest. Ultimately, he went to a pet shop. He was a pretty pied bird who did fine in a cage by himself, but he wasn’t good parental material.

Getting back to the problem at hand…Since this hen had a clutch with another male before the one who’s in there now, could he suspect these babies weren’t his? Male lions kill offspring that aren’t theirs, what about Bourkes?? This is doubtful because I’ve been able to put eggs from one mother under another and the adoptive pair raised them without a glitch.

As a child with an aviary of budgerigar parakeets, I had a few heartbreaking experiences. I was checking nest boxes and finding baby birds torn apart. I’d been advised that maybe one female wanted the box that the other one was in. So, I moved boxes in case one liked the box and other liked the location. That helped the first year, but when it happened again the following spring, I knew I had to find out who the murderess was.

I didn’t know who was doing it until I caught the culprit in a box that wasn’t hers. Sadly, the babies were already dead, and she had blood on her beak. My grandfather told me he had that happen once with his budgies too. He broke that bird’s neck. I wasn’t able to bring myself to do that and he didn’t live close enough to do it for me. So, she lived the rest of her short life in a small cage, separated from the other birds and little interaction from me.

With my current experience, I still don’t know which parent is to blame. If I had to guess, I’d pick the male. Maybe his first mate protected the clutch and that’s why she did so much scolding. At this point in time I’m not going to separate them. If they go back and start another clutch, I’ll be watching and am very tempted to take the young out at a week of age and start rearing them myself. To hand feed babies, the best time is when they are three weeks old, but I’ve rescued them as early as a day old.

But, that’s a story for another time.