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.

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.

Adopting a pet bird can be exciting but caring for a bird can be different than caring for other pets such as cats and dogs. Whether you are adopting an Amazon parrot, a cockatiel, a lovebird or parakeet, birds need special attention. The bird can be a wonderful and interesting pet and as long as you know how to care for it properly, your feathered friend can give you decades of enjoyment.

The most important thing you need to do is be sure that you’re new friend has a proper cage. You need to select a cage that is the right size for the bird. A large parrot will need a pretty good-sized cage, but a parakeet can exist in something smaller. Be sure to buy the best cage you can afford for the safety of your bird and convenience of cleaning. Along with the cage be sure to get some bird toys and other accessories.

Of course you’ll need to feed your pet bird and you want to consider giving them a healthy diet not just bird seed. Many birds love to eat the same types of foods that we do but some human foods like chocolate, avocados, mushrooms and onions can make your bird sick or even kill him so you’ll need to be careful what you do feed him. Typically, though, you want to give your bird a varied diet so he gets all the nutrients he needs to be healthy.

You also need to think about bird proofing your house so that you bird does not become injured when he is out of his cage. This means making sure he can’t fly out of windows or doors or hurt himself by flying into the glass. Also be careful when you’re cooking you know what your bird landing in a hot pot of soup! Please consider throwing out your Teflon pans – the fumes from the Teflon can be lethal to birds.

Before you bring your pet bird home be sure that you have a good avian vet that you can take your bird to for routine checkups or if he starts to get sick. Birds can be very fragile and they don’t show their sickness until they are very ill so we need to keep a close eye in your feathered friend in order to keep them in tip top shape.

Whether you end up with a pair of chattering parakeets, a shy cockatiel or large parrot, a pet bird can be a wonderful companion that will keep you amused and delighted for many years.

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Skwaaack!

David