Cautions For What's Put in the Cage

by Dick Ivy, Education Director, Bird Clubs of America

Unconsciously perhaps, we put into bird cages items which can maim or even kill our precious ones. The way we feed and water our birds is a great concern. None of it will happen if we know of the dangers, or exercise more care. Let's consider each.

There are two ways to feed water:

1. by an open dish that slides through the door opening for convenience. Dish needs cleaning and replacement water at least once a day perhaps twice. Birds bathe in it, soak food in it, and drop feces in it. Bacteria grows. If the owner is busy or away, there is a problem.
2. by glass or plastic bottle hung on the side of the cage. The water stays cleaner, fresher, and needs less attention. Water in a dish, even a clean dish, grows more bacteria. Birds have good and bad bacteria just like we adults do, and our auto-immune system, if strong, keeps things under control. Get a bottle the size they can empty in a few days.

Water sources:

1. Well water may produce problems, such as excess iron, metals, perhaps bacteria, and treatment chemicals.
2. City water may not be better for the little systems of birds. 3) Distilled water perhaps is best, but green algae (common, not dangerous) may appear for the lack of chlorine. If you use the water fast, algae will not grow. In summer, a jellified residue of bacteria may be found in the lid of some bird bottles. I just bottle brush it out in hot, hot water, shake it with water in it, and refill with clean water.

Eating food: Find out how your species of bird eats in the wild, some on the ground, others higher up, and place the food dish there.

1. I like the screw or bolt-on types on the side of the cage. Very secure. Keep your bird from turning over the dish and not being able to get to the food, and starving. It has happened.
2. Whatever, do not place it under a perch, swing, or toy the bird hangs on.
3. Get a small enough food dish so that the bird doesn't poop in his food.

Grit, litter and newspaper:

1. The grit you buy for the bird should be digestible calcium, not rock gravel. Seed-cracking birds don't need rock to grind up the food. The acids in their stomach dissolve the food quickly. Doves are an exception to the rule. Cuttlebone or calcium grit is OK. Birds do not need sand gravel covers for perches to stand on. How'd you like to stand on rocks with bare feet all day? Those Parakeets don't need gravel paper on the bottoms of cages either.
2. Another danger added to cages is pretty-looking corncob, or ground up shell litter for the bottom of the cage. It is bacteria danger again. Just use calm-looking re-cycled newspaper under a wire on the cage bottom. If none, hubby can make one, with openings big enough for droppings to fall through. That way, you can check the droppings to see their consistency, and an early warning if the bird's droppings indicate a problem. Finches and Diamond Doves and some other small birds may not need wire bottoms in their cages.

Then there are cautions:

1. Toys with small zinc rings that licking birds (Cockatoos, for one) can transmit its poison or maybe get caught in a beak.
2. Some toilet paper or kitchen paper towel rolls are bad toys because of zinc content in the glues used.
3. Use 2x4s of untreated pine for perches for big birds. Small diameter branches of Crepe Myrtles or the store-bought smooth perches are good for finches. Apple or fruit trees need scrubbing, then drying. Don't use poisonous wild cherry limbs for perches.
4. Be careful of the string-type toys (usually for dogs). After or during chewing, the fine string can wrap around legs so tightly, they'll lose a foot, or accumulate in the bird's stomach to causes blockage and death.