Tag Archives: pet

Courage in My Cupped Hand

After several failed attempts, I finally got Mango to enjoy getting under the running water faucet in the kitchen today! The trick was to gently let the water run into my cupped hand so that he could drink it and then eventually walk underneath the stream of water from my arm, when he felt ready. After that, it was full-on birdie bath time!

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As you can see from the picture, he got himself really wet, and I was thrilled to be able to get his very first “wet birdie” picture. For those of you who don’t know, those are classics and the world of parrot ownership!

If you have a bird and you are having difficulties getting it to enjoy baths, try different approaches. Some birds will see a dish of water and jump right in. Others prefer a more creative approach, such as being offered a wet piece of a green, like kale, which they can roll around on. This also usually makes for healthy snacking for the bird! Using a spray bottle containing fresh water and misting your feathered friend is also an option. Ensure that your water is room temperature, and never spray your bird in the eye. Our cockatiel loves this approach, and it’s fun to watch him spread his wings and walk around as he is being spritzed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grapes Are Neat and Turning up the Heat

As Mango is settling in here at the perch, we are trying to make sure that he gets used to (and fond of) having fresh foods in his diet. Parrots, just like us, need fruits and vegetables in their diet in order to enjoy a good nutritional balance.

Here Mango is enjoying 1/2 of a grape. He ended up licking this more than eating it, so I cut it in quarters and he was able to chew it much more easily. In many instances, if your bird does not enjoy a larger piece of fresh food, you can make it smaller and they will readily eat it!

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Many bird owners also do not know that parrots can eat peppers (even the hot ones!). They have very few taste buds and are seemingly unaffected by the capsaicin in peppers, which is the chemical that produces the hot taste. Just to put this in perspective…

Birds may be able to eat peppers because they have so few taste buds: Chickens have just 24 taste buds, and pigeons have 37, Pidgeon says. Humans have close to 10,000 taste buds, and rodents and other mammals likely have a similar number…

-https://news.wisc.edu/curiosities-why-can-birds-eat-hot-peppers/

We haven’t given Mango the ultimate taste challenge yet (hello, Ghost Pepper and the like). Hower if you would like to see a fun pepper challenge, you can watch this one:

Hope everyone has a great week with their birds!!!

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Our Birds Get Sushi

In running a YouTube channel about birds, one always thinks about content. Content. Content. Content. What do I post about? What do my viewers want to see? What will make my stats get better? I realized, in my most recent contemplation, that I had sorely neglected sharing recipes with my audience. Bird recipes are so fun and often easy to do. Alongside a little research into what’s appropriate to feed birds, there exists an endless number of possibilities for birdie treat diy projects.

So this week, I decided to try bird sushi! I personally have a huge love affair with sushi, finding it both beautiful and very pleasing to the palate. Although I couldn’t fix my birds a lobster roll or a spicy tuna, I did find that there are several ingredients that birds enjoy which would make a really mean looking sushi roll. So I “rolled” up my sleeves and played around in the kitchen with some turnip greens, peppers, cucumbers, carrots and brown rice. Here’s what I came up with! The birds really enjoyed it, and you can check out our YouTube video featuring the birds eating their new treat and also ending with bonus footage of our conure inspecting some of the ingredients. Keep being creative out there!

Like Mango?

We spent a wonderful weekend at the Nashville Exotic Pet Expo talking about our YouTube channels and educating people about bird ownership and care. Of course it is very difficult to go to an expo and not fall in love with many of the animals represented there. Hence, our flock got a little bit bigger yesterday. Meet our new sun conure, Mango!

Mango is already proving to be such a sweet and smart bird, so we can’t wait to share more pictures of him with you and hopefully train him to do some fun behaviors as well, which we will share on our YouTube channel. Here are a few more pictures of some of the fun things we saw at the Exotic Pet …

Sexing Your Budgie

We’re so excited to say our new video is up on YouTube!  It’s about determining gender for a budgie. This can sometimes be a pretty tricky endeavor, so we hope you enjoy the little tips and tricks that we’ve added to the video along with a few surprises.  Check it out!

 

Blue Bird New Bird

Have you met Sango and Sprite? These two are the newest additions to our flock here at The Parakeet Perch! Although we easily figured out a name for Sango, we were stumped on Sprite, our first green(ish) bird! I say greenish, because, she’s actually got a mixture of blue and green on her abdomen. Here she is with Sango and you can see a bit of what I am talking about.

We ended up running a naming contest on our YouTube channel, and one of our viewers suggested Sprite. We love it! The name actually fits both her color and her bubbly personality. Sango, on the other hand, could have been named Scary. He came to us very shy and nervous, hyperventilating often when I would try to handle him or he wasn’t near Sprite. Thank goodness we got them in a pair! He is coming around, now that he’s housed with my other two male parrots who have shown him a bit of confidence. We can’t wait to see how these two birds turn out as they move towards adulthood. Check them and my other birds out on my YouTube channel, The Parakeet Perch!

We’re Baaaaack

Hi everyone!  Whew, it has been a minute since we’ve published much from the perch!  Over the last year, we have flown to another home and have been adjusting to changes in jobs and family.  However, 2018 promises to be bigger and better than ever for the birds.  Their new bird room has lots of space for add-ons, so stay tuned for some exciting new surroundings for the birds and some new additions of other kinds (shhhhhh…it’s a surprise).  Thanks for continuing to share our journey with us.  We love you all!

Siri, Sunny, Segoe, Sydney and Sophia

A New Perch and More!

How appropriate!  Just a year after filming our budgie cage tour of the Prevue Hendryx flight cage, we have landed a brand new cage for our birdies. Check it out in our newest YouTube video!!!

 

 

Meet Sunny

Whew, it has been a while since we’ve blogged here at the perch!  Busy schedules, a planned move to the city and new pets have all played a part in the absence, but we just had to take some time to share the exciting news.  We have added a new budgie to our flock named Sunny!  This little bird is full of fun and adventure, and we named her Sunny because she has a “sunny” disposition (you’ll see).

Here she is when we first got her…

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As you can see, she looked a little rough!  Notice how she sits low on her legs and doesn’t stand on a perch properly?  We adopted Sunny, and our avian vet thinks that she probably had a birth defect in her legs that was never taken care of when she was a young chick.  She may have also been picked on by other birds because her feathers looked so rough and misaligned.

Fast forward a few months, and look at her now!

Her feathers are looking much better, and she has a blast exploring things in her cage or flying around the bird room.  She has also become a really strong climber, has the cutest birdie swagger when she is walking along, and loves to hang upside down!

Stay tuned to our YouTube channel for upcoming videos featuring Sunny and the rest of our flock!

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