How my birds live have improved since joining

[Arama]

So prior to joining the forum its not like my birds had a terrible life. They had a cage, food, the basic set up I suppose you could say. Well since joining I have learned so much that I am now providing them with a great cozy life. I will list what has changed since picking up my new found knowledge.

1. Diet We went from a basic diet of seeds and bird greens to a much more nutritionally healthy food for them. Egg food(home made)romaine lettuce, broccoli, corn, apples of various flavours and grapes, cuttlebone and spray millet. I also added some vitamin supplements to ensure the best health possible.

2. Decorating the cage. I noticed a lot of people having gorgeously decorated cages so I set out in search of fake vines(it was full on winter here). You wouldn't believe how hard it was. I searched the dollar stores, and some craft stores but the variety try had was unsafe with little bits they could bite off. I ended up getting a bunch from my friend. They added so much to the cage and well the birds loved it. They hide in it, perch in it, and well try to pull it apart. I also went on a stick hunt to provide some natural perches for them. So far I've added two and removed the wood ones that come with cages.

3. Space. The initial cages that was recommended by the store clerk was to small based off of the recommendations on here. We all know cages are expensive so I hit up kijiji in my area and ended up getting a great deal on what I believe everyone refers to as a flight. It was over 2x the size of the recomended cage at the pet store. It's like a mansion compared to what they had. It cost me $40.00 and I extensively cleaned it using recommendations from the forum. I did discover it was missing the cage bottom that seperates the birds from the droppings/papers I put down there. I've half fixed that problem by using the bottom piece from the smaller cage to cover a portion of it. I'm still working on a better solution.

4. Behaviour. I'm not going to sit here and list that I ve learned as it would take all day. I had many questions that some really awesome an informed people answered which helped me maintain the peace in my flight. You all also helped teach me about what's involved once they lay their eggs and how I needed to be prepared.

I'm sure there's a whole lot more but these were the first that came to mind. I just want to say a huge thank you to everyone on here for helping
Me and answering my questions and giving me advice. You all are so great. I also wanted to share this in new to the hobby so that new members can see just how helpful this forum is. It's great to be apart of this with others who share the same passion.

Trisha

[Sheather]

Happy your birds are doing well!

On the issue of the grate, I don't like them at all and they're not necessary. A change of papers daily means nothing builds up and my birds like to hop and peck on the smoth cage floors.

[lovezebs]

Arama

Glad to hear that the Forum helped you to help your birds be happier and healthier.

Same as Dylan (sheather), I dont like the grates at the bottom of cages. I always think how hard if would be on our feet, if we had to walk bare foot on something like that. I cover the grate with newspapers, and cover the newspaper with a layer of paper towel (to make it look more esthetically pleasing ).

~Elana~

[Arama]

Well that's interesting to know. I guess I will remove it and just change the papers more often. I use flyers as well there's no shortage of them here.

Trisha

[Atbird]

I too hate grates because they get so dirty and are hard to clean...which defeats the whole purpose of the grates. I use the free newspapers from the library and I layer about a weeks worth so that I only need to remove the top layer every day. Every week the cage gets a thorough cleaning.

[delray]

Arama I'm very glad your birds have changed for the better! This forum is truly thr best!!

[lnlovesorange]

I started doing that after reading this, putting the newspapers on top of the greats, I know my birds like it better because they can hop around, and they dont' WASTE so much millet, when it spills it doesn't fall through the grates, so then they go peck at it after which is nice, BUT my birds aren't used to the LOUD paper sound so close to them!!! So they get a little nervous when I have to pull the paper out and they are still in the cage!!! So I started to try to only do it on Free fly time so they don't have an aneruism...<~ however you spell it... BUT my birds are much happier and seem to like it much better... DUmmy me, always wondered why they never went to the bottom of the cage... well like lovezebs said, I wouldn't be walking down there either on those greats, and especially (GOD FORBID) when I had the baby zebs their legs would go through it a lot, cuz they were learning, and I would PANIC when I saw that, as i was soo afraid their little foot would get stuck!!! (i totally get why birds are such freaks, i'm such a panicker, i taught them well) LOL But thanks for this post everyone!