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One fun trick that you can teach most any bird very easily is too played dead. In order to do this you need to get your bird used to having his back and head area touched. Spend some time accomplishing this and once he is very familiar to being touched here you can approach the trick in this manner. Have your bird perch on one hand and then take your other hand and cup around his back while cradling his head between your thumb and forefinger gently. And then, ever so gently tilt him over onto his back. At first he’ll probably struggle and if he does you should set him back upright immediately but gradually he’ll get used to this tilting and you can increase the angle and amount of time you leave on his back. After awhile he will be perfectly happy to stay on his back and thus, play dead.

Once you’ve taught your bird to play dead, you can expand on this trick by teaching them to tuck himself in. Once you have your bird in the “play dead” position cover him with a small piece of cloth and give the command “good night”. Then you can encourage the bird to take the cloth in his beak and pull it a little higher. This actually might be natural and your bird might even do it right off the bat without any encouragement.

Another bird trick that’s always fun is the ring toss trick. Birds naturally love to throw things so you simply need to harness and reinforce this behavior. Start off by just encouraging him to throw the rings. When he has this down start working with him so that he tosses the rings onto a dowel or stick of some sort. An offshoot of this trick is to teach your bird to shoot hoops. You can use a small ball and make a little basketball hoop out of a ring fastened to a dowel. The two tricks are very similar so what’s the bird learns one he will probably take together quickly.

No matter what type of bird you have there is sure to be a bird trick that suits your bird’s intelligence and personality and that you and he will have fun performing over and over again. Birds are naturals at doing tricks and they love to do it because it keeps the mind busy. Working with your bird to teach him tricks is a great way to spend time with your feathered friend.

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Knowing that your new bird was coming, you should already have his cage and accessories waiting and ready. Be sure to put the cage in an area that does not get too much traffic or have a lot going on. You don’t want him to be isolated and away from the family, but you also don’t want a lot of stuff going on around him that can startle and confuse him. Choose an area that he can interact with the family but won’t be startled by sudden movements or loud noises.

Take your bird to an avian veterinarian to make sure he is healthy and get him on a schedule for checkups. The bet will check for contagious diseases, bacterial infections and worms. If you have purchases the bird from a reputable breeder all this may have been done - find out what veterinarian your breeder used and check to be sure your bird is in tip top shape (you might even continue using this vet if you don’t already have one of your own).

Your pet bird can be a bit nervous the first few days and if he doesn’t start eating after a day or so, offer him some spray millet. This stuff is like dessert for birds and this will surely tempt him. If your bird is a newly weaned baby and he keeps making a squalling noise, he may require some hand feeding for a few days.

Pay attention to your new bird, but don’t overwhelm him. Spend no more than ten minutes a time with him. You might want to leave him in the cage for the first few weeks, but if you let him out and he continually flies away and you end up chasing him, put him back in the cage until he calms down. The constant chasing is stressful for birds.

Having a pet bird can be a great experience, just be sure you acclimate him to your home and family properly and you’ll have a new friend that will give you joy for many years.

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The first thing you must consider is the type of bird that you will be adopting. Long tailed birds like parakeets and cockatiels will do best with a long cage in order for him to get the proper exercise. It’s ideal if your bird can fly from one side of the cage to the other. Lovebirds and some parrots like the Senegal parrot or any bird that is more stocky in body will get their exercise by climbing around in the cage so these types of birds prefer a cage that is taller than it is wide.

If you are getting a baby bird, you might consider starting off with a smaller cage and then having a larger one ready for when your bird “grows up”. The reason for this is that a small baby bird might feel lost inside a big cage and might have trouble finding his food and water dishes especially if he is a hand weaned baby used to special attention. Having said that, however, you do want to buy the largest cage you can for when your bird is an adult.

One thing that is critical in a bird cage is the spacing between the bars of the cage. Obviously, you wouldn’t want a cage with bars that the bird could fit between! A wire mesh cage should have holes smaller than the size of your birds head. Some birds, like cockatiels, will stick their head through one hole and then stretch their neck in a U shape and stick their head into a different hole instead of simply pulling it back out of the hole they stuck it in in the first place! Obviously you don’t want this to happen so you must consider size when buying these types of cages.

Along with size and bar spacing you want to look at the cage tray. You will be pulling this out to clean the cage so you want to make sure this will be easy and that there is something to prevent the bird from escaping through the bottom. Also, make sure the tray is deep enough - all the debris from your birds food like seed shells and discarded fruit will be down there and you want to be sure it will all come out with the tray. Speaking of which, birds can be pretty messy and just scatter their seed debris wherever they want so you want to be sure your cage can also be fitted with an apron or base of some sort to stop seeds from scattering on the floor.

The last thing you need to consider in a bird cage is the perches and cups. You can always buy different perches but you want to make sure you can situate them at different levels and that it will take perches wide enough for the feet of the type of bird you are buying. Be sure the food and water cups are easy to get to without opening the cage (they usually have their own little doors you can slide open). If the cage is for a large parrot, you might want to make sure the cups bolt right to the cage as these big guys are known to toss their dishes around when they can.

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When choosing toys for your bird, however, you need to take some considerations in mind to be sure you get toys that are a good fit for the type of bird you have. One thing to consider is size. A toy designed for a small parakeet might not be safe for large parrot because his more powerful beak can break off pieces that he might ingest. Alternately, a large parrot toy might hold little interest for small parakeet who won’t be able to use it properly.

The smaller birds like swings and Olympic rings and will actively swing on them having a grand old time. The bigger birds don’t seem to take to swings as much but some of do enjoy them. Ladders are always a popular choice no matter what size bird you have it if your cage has room for them please do include them.

For larger birds a great bird toy is a puzzle or maize toy - especially the ones where you can put something inside and if you fill it with their favorite nut it will really keep them busy. They also like toys that have knots which they can exercise their strong beaks by unknotting and generally any toy where they have to use their mind to figure out how to use is a good choice.

Some birds naturally like to pluck and these birds can enjoy toys that can be preened. If you busy them with these toys they will spend less time plucking out their own feathers. You can buy preening strips made with cotton fabric that will keep your bird busy. Keep a close watch on the toy though if it becomes frayed you want remove it right away so that the bird does not become tangled in the strings.

Birds are much like small children and so it’s no surprise that the play gyms are a very popular toy with any bird as long as you get a size that is suited to the type of bird you have. You can get gyms that are very elaborate with all kinds of things or just ones that have a simple ladder and swing.

As mentioned, birds do become bored easily and that’s why you want to get your pet more than one bird toy. In fact, don’t put all the toys in the cage at once - save some out and when your bird becomes bored with the ones you’ve given him then you can switch up the toys he has with the ones you’ve set aside. Give the ones he’s been using a good cleaning and set those aside until you becomes bored with the ones you just gave him. This way he’ll have an endless supply of new toys for his constant amusement.

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Years ago, pet birds dined predominately on bird seed, but over time bird lovers have realized that a diet of only seed is not healthy. It’s still OK to give your bird seed, but you must also supplement his diet with other foods. Some seeds are better for your pet bird then others - for example millet and safflower are preferable over sunflower but if you do feed him seeds, make sure that they don’t comprise more than 30% of his diet.

For parrots, you might consider feeding them brown rice and beans. I know it sounds like something you might have on Friday night, but your bird might like to join you if you do. However, keep in mind that this can be a bit messy and don’t leave the food in the cage for more than an hour as it will go bad.

Today, there are pellets that are specially formulated to feed pet birds. These pellets are made to have all the nutrients that your pet needs to be healthy and theoretically could be the perfect bird food, but doesn’t that sound boring? Plus the pellets are processed and no substitute for what a bird might eat in the wild. Just like too much processed food isn’t good for us, it isn’t good for our pets either.

The food you can feed your pet is probably a mixture of everything. Some seeds, some pellets, some fruits, some vegetables. Put a few food cups in the cage so that the fruit goop doesn’t get on the seeds and spoil them. Add in some nuts, beans and brown rice and your bird will have a buffet of food to choose from! Remember, though when adding the fruit, rice, beans and vegetables that you should remove them after an hour so that they don’t spoil.

Getting nutritious bird food for your bird might sound like a lot of work but it doesn’t have to be. In fact, many people feed their birds just what they are eating! Simply prepare your supper and make an extra plate for the bird. Just remember that some “human” foods can make your bird sick or even kill him so never feed your bird junk food, chocolate, avocado, apple seeds, salt, mushrooms, onions, persimmons or anything with alcohol or caffeine.

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