Safety and Quick Tips

Safety & Quick Tips

Answers to Questions about Teflon Toxicity in Pet Birds

Do you have Willow trees in your area? Our birds love fresh clippings from willow trees ... greens included! We trim up a "bunch" and just tie them to the cage with vegetable tanned leather strips or natural sisal

Pinecones are a great way to add foraging, shredding and chewing fun to your parrot's life! Find clean pinecones (preferably away from car pollution and free of mold or mildew). If necessary you can wash them and air dry. Give them free choice to your parrots as a foot toy, tie it to the cage with vegetable tanned leather strips or natural sisal or put a couple into a lunch bag, twist the top and hang in their house to encourage foraging. You can also dress them up by spreading some peanut butter on them and rolling in seeds. Plain or dressed, our parrots' love pine cones!

Supplements: If you have difficulty getting dry (powdered) additives into your parrot, try spreading a favorite food on a cookie sheet (like cracked walnuts, pistachios, brazils, etc.) and very lightly spray them with a product like Pam then lightly sprinkle the additive on top. Viola ... powders will stick and hopefully end up INSIDE your parrot!

Seed: DON'T REFRIGERATE SEED to keep it longer! Freezing or keeping it in a plain brown bag or 'breathable' poly bag should be a sufficient means of storage in most climates. Larvae is healthier than mold. Invisible mold will grow in a matter of a day or so in the refrigerator.

Raisins: Raisins are coated with a sulfur compound as an anti fungicide when they are produced. It is easily removed by putting the raisins in a pan of boiling water for about an hour. You need not continue to boil the water, just add the raisins and remove from the burner. (submitted by valleygifts@chartermi.net)

Beta Carotene Snacks: Supplement vitamin A (beta carotene) by using a small jar of carrot or sweet potato baby food, spread on whole wheat bread or cooked grain pasta. Even older birds who've been on horrible diets seem to this it's a treat!) (submitted by staylor7@cox.net)

Chopsticks: I also have a suggestion for cheap foot toys. Here in Vancouver, there is a bounty of sushi restaurants and Chinese eateries. Horton (Citron Cockatoo) loves the paper-wrapper disposable wooden chopsticks from these places. First, he unwraps them, then he separates the 2 sticks, then he chews on them. After he separates them, he almost invariably drops one while he chews on the other. I use the dropped one to skewer fruit & vegetable chunks for him. (submitted by Laura, Vancouver, BC) Note: We took Laura's advice and added them to our foot toy page!

Fruit Fly Remedy: Take an empty, clean plastic soda bottle and cut the top off (about 1/3 from the opening). Insert the top (the portion that looks like a funnel) going down inside the other half of the bottle. Pour about an inch of vinegar into the bottle. The fruit flies can't resist the sour smelling vinegar and once they get in, they can't get out. Inexpensive way to get rid of those pesty insects! (submitted by Marcy, Austin, TX)

Do you have a hint or tip that you'd like to share with other parrot lovers? If so, please email it to us and if we use it ... we'll give you a free gift in with your next order!

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This page was last updated on 11/25/2024

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