Promoting your bird's good health!
Practices that I employ on a regular basis.
I am often asked about my care regimen for my flock. Throughout my previous newsletters I have included bits and pieces of this information, but decided that I should put them all together in one newsletter edition. It goes without saying that I do not have any formal veterinary training, but you just can't help but learn a few things with years of research and practice.
About the care of your parrotlet, or any bird for that matter, I have a few habits that I think serve to promote a healthy life for my birds, besides keeping a very clean cage environment. A clean environment can not be over emphasized for the welfare of your pet.
Here are several additional practices that I swear by:
1. One thing that I do, is put a drop or two of unfiltered apple cider vinegar in my birds drinking water when I change it daily. The apple cider vinegar helps to prevent yeast infections and promotes healthy gut function. The Apple Cider Vinegar needs to be "unfiltered", (with the "Mother"), so that it provides beneficial enzymes.
2. Another habit that I utilize, is filling a container with tap water and letting it sit out, uncovered, for about 12 hours before giving it to my birds. This allows time for the chlorine to evaporate while still leaving the minerals that are found in the water. Needless to say, I refresh the water in the container daily.
3. I give my birds a probiotic in their water once a week to promote healthy immune function and combat stress related illnesses.
The probiotic that I like is: Probiotics Plus from VET1 Labs. I get it from allbirdproducts.com - Here is the link.
https://allbirdproducts.com/collections/vet1labs
4. I provide my birds with a product called "Herb Salad". This product is a mix of medicinal herbs that birds can forage for in the wild, but can not do so in captivity. They pick through the "salad" to find the things that they need. I keep a dish of this available for them at all times in their cage so they can eat it as needed.
Here is the link to the source where I buy my "Herb Salad". The owner of this small business is a long time bird acquaintance named Laraine. Here is the link:
https://ladygouldian.com/Herb-Salad
5. If a bird appears to be ill, (sitting on cage floor, no energy, feathers fluffed up, etc.), here are some steps you can take immediately:
a. Move him/her to a smaller hospital cage. Place a heating pad under half of the cage. Placing the heating pad under half of the cage allows the bird to get as close, or far away, from the heat source as they need. Staying warm when ill takes a tremendous amount of energy on your birds part. Giving them this additional warmth can be the life saver needed to get your baby's health back on track. In addition, I like to provide a lamp whose bulb shines down into the cage. I place the lamp so that my bird can feel the warmth from the light provided. One important factor to consider when providing a heat source, whether from a lamp and/or heating pad, is that you also need to provide a shaded, cooler area to which the bird can retreat if desired.
b. I start adding an antibiotic to my bird's drinking water. It is critical that there be only one drinking source since if given the choice, your bird may not drink from the water with the antibiotic in it. This may leave you believing that your pet is getting the antibiotic, when in fact, it is not. Since your bird may be dehydrated, you can give them several drops inside their beak via a syringe to assist them. Be careful not to squirt this, or any liquid, down their throat, since this can be aspirated into their lungs and cause pneumonia. If you are not comfortable with this process of using a small syringe to administer this medication, simply dipping your bird's beak into water with the antibiotic may be enough. Usually, when ill, they will not provide much resistance to this action. The same all allbirdproducts.com is my source for medications such as this. Doxycycline is a good all purpose antibiotic for many respiratory illnesses. Again, here is the link:
https://allbirdproducts.com/collections/vet1labs
5. Find a good avian vet prior to confronting any illness for your pet. This may be a harder task than you would imagine since most vets do not specialize in avian veterinary medicine.
*Please note that I do not have any educational background in veterinary science but provide this information solely through my own research and personal experience in keeping and raising my own parrotlets.
** Also, I do not receive any compensation for any recommendations. My own personal experience with these products motivates my recommendations.
