Pet birds with behavioural problems normally have social problems too. There would be occasions when behaviour issues with birds can be brought about by lack of interaction with owners, conflict with other animals or just as a result of complaint. It is important to recognize the factors why birds are showing negative behaviour. By identifying the stressors you can take it out of the birds’ system.

Positive reinforcement is an impressive method which can be used to train and tame birds. Positive reinforcement concentrates on what birds want like food, a scratch, verbal praise, comfort and other similar things. Negative reinforcement, of course, is the opposite of this and is rarely successful in the long run.

Owls as Pets

Punishment never resolves the birds’ behaviour issues. To address negative attitude of birds, here are some simple tips you can remember:

• Show your dissatisfaction with your bird’s behaviour by facial expressions. Frown. Birds can pick up facial gestures and body movements. The way of showing dissatisfaction towards your pet bird is by your system movements. Maintain eye contact when doing this.

• There are bed owners who also suggest turning your back behind your birds or dismissing them. This would discourage them into doing bad acts.

• Some bird owners say that it can be effective to speak to birds with low but not loud voice. Tell them what they did was wrong. But be concise and short as feasible. Too much negative attention may have the down-side on your pet.

• Never hit a bird. Birds have fragile bones, physical force may injure them fatally. Also, bird abuse can likewise result to aggressiveness and viciousness.

• When disciplining your pet, never compromise their health. Examples would be insufficient food and water supply, neglecting the cage and even bathing them. This can result into deep emotional and physical injuries.

• When giving birds food as rewards for their good behaviour, choose some food which they would enjoy but rarely eat. It is in addition good to pet, scratch them as positive reinforcements. But be mindful of offering treats with too much sugar and fat.

Finches as Pets

There would be cases when severe aggression and viciousness is treated with mood-modifying drugs. When having problems with your birds you can confer with your avian behaviourist or your veterinarian. But any treatment is a waste of time inducing the bad behaviour.

Actually, it is essential to determine if the bad behaviour is brought about by medical condition. So if you have observed anything with your bird it would be preferable to bring them first to a veterinarian to make sure that medical issues are rejected.

Attitude cannot change overnight. So do not be upset if your birds are not showing improvements immediately after employing the mentioned tips. Similar to when disciplining children, consistency is the cornerstone when training your birds. Birds would realize what you would like to take place when you begin being in step with your method and ways.

Parakeets Pets

When disciplining your pet birds, it is essential to balance things. Obviously you wanted to correct bad behaviour, but it is as essential to reinforce of illustrate the good behaviour also. Birds react to training better when focusing on the good things, not the bad things.

This technique may require hard work, patience and love. It might take quite a while, but when you look at your happy pet bird, I think its going to be worth it.

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Imagine what it is like living in a cage? Chances are, you will feel bored after just a few minutes so you can probably understand how your pet bird feels like being locked the whole day. That is why to prevent them from doing anything harmful to themselves, you should know how to choose the right toys for them.

When looking for a toy, make sure that this is the right size for your bird. Small toys are not good for large birds because they could break this, swallow and choke on it.

swing is one of the best toys which is safe and suitable for both small and big birds. This will allow them to sway back and forth to pass the time.

If you feel to give your bird some exercise, it will be nice to put a ladder which will give them the opportunity to climb up or down.

Large birds like to play with puzzles and mazes. As an added incentive, see to it that there are nuts inside which they can get as a reward for being able to finish the game.

Let’s say your bird loves to pluck its feathers. As this can be harmful to them therefore preened toys are the best to give them. Almost all the preened toys are made of cotton fabric. The downside to using this is that type of toy is that it will eventually fray due to wear and tear.

When this happens, remove it immediately and have it replaced with a new one because the threads could tangle around their neck or toe.

An option to the preened toy made of cotton is the one made from feathers that are considered to be safer since loose threads will never happen.

Other toys you can give your pet bird include children’s wooden blocks, paper towel tubes and tongue depressors.

If one or two of the toys interest you and having more is better than having one or two around, you can create a play gym for your pet bird by buying several of these, putting it together and placing this inside their cage.

You should just be sure there is sufficient room so the bird can rest and do some other stuff when they don’t feel like playing.

Now that we know what toys are nice for the bird, it is important to know what toys are not safe for birds. These include mirrors or anything that has a reflective surface because this may make the bird bond to its own reflection thus no longer being tame and friendly to people.

Toys with small parts should never be given because they could swallow it and there could be fatal consequences. It should also not have any bells or split rings.

Your pet bird needs time to unwind and providing them with toys is one way to keep them from bring unhappy and bored especially when you are not around to be with them.

Most of these toys can be purchased from the toy store or grocery so will not have a hard time finding a few things to keep them busy until you get home. If you want toys exclusive for pet birds, try looking online and in other specialty stores. You must know that those toys that are solidly built are best to give them.

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A pet and the owner relationship does not just evolve around feeding and cleaning the cage, it is companionship and friendship which is based on loyalty and trust.  How can you build this kind of relationship, with your pet bird in this case, if your pet keeps on biting you? 

The key here is to understand your pet bird’s behaviourand body language.To understand their vocalizations is not possible for us, but we can understand their feelings and requirements through their movements.   Ability to communicate between owners and pets enable the owners to train, tame and care for them adequately.

Here are some bird movements and how we can interpret them:

• Flashing or dilating pupils can either mean aggression or excitement and pleasure.  When pupils are dilated pay attention to other movements like tail fanning or raised feathers and some growling, these are aggressive signs.  So beware of contact, you may get bitten.

• Purring, on the other hand, along with relaxed and puffed up feathers means that your bird is in a good mood.

When the bird click its beak, it indicates that some kind of threat it is feeling, but the grinding of the beak indicates that it is satisfied and feeling good.

• Biting reasons depend on the age.Especially during its “teething age” ,normally, a young bird bites anything.  An older bird biting is a sign of displeasure or aggression.

• Birds sneeze the same reasons human do, like exposure to dust, irritation, small bug and feathers on the nasal cavity.  An abnormal sneeze, which typically includes nasal discharge should be consulted immediately to a vet. 
• Head shaking is not associated with disbelief in cases of birds.  This means excitement or just seeking out attention.

• Quivering wings would should fear or being nervous.  Assurance is needed when talking to these kind of birds.  They should know that there nothing to be nervous around with you.

• Tail bobbing sometimes can be a sign of sickness or just singing. When the tail bobs while the bird breathes, then that could be a sign of sickness and should be taken to the vet. 

There would be instances when pet owners would be exasperated with their pets because of their bad behaviour.  There are many reasons why birds would act the way they are.  Hormones can be responsible if your bird is displaying negative characteristics. 

Birds mature too! Just like people, they would undergo a stage where they would sexually mature.  During the stage where they begin to be sexually mature, birds begin to be very sensitive.  This stage differs on the bird size.Generally, big birds will have this on their fourth year.  While, smaller birds would experience this on their twelfth month.

Also, observe your pet birds if something is bothering them.  If there are some items in the house that are starting to bother them then remove it from the space. Birds are sensitive to routine, some changes on it can be stressful for them. Also, paying enough attention to your pet and letting them stretch their wings more through exercise are great ways of improving bird behaviour.

Pet birds are extremely rewarding and wonderful companion, it is important to display or show the understanding and patience.  In every relationship, understanding is the key.  So does in animal and human relationship.

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People adopt pet birds for different reasons. There may be some who find feathered friends extremely relaxing and love the colourful plumage. While, there are others who take interest on the ability of some birds to adapt human language.  

Pet birds can be both those common and domesticated breeds of birds.  People have taking care of birds since three to four centuries ago.  These birds graced numerous kingdoms and palaces before it entered out living rooms.

So, if you are thinking of getting a feathered friend and unsure about what to pick out, there are some considerations that you have to think about.  This would include ability to handle additional financial obligations and taking care of a pet.  Birds are not easy maintenance pets, unlike what most people think.  They are social animals who need attention from their owners.And you will be surprised to know the facts of their life span!

If you have fully considered taking care of a bird but indecisive  of what kind you can take care of, here are some information about the most popular bird choices: 

• Parakeets – this bird can also be called a Budgerigar or sometimes Budgies.If you are a new bird owner, such kind of birds are most ideal since they are sociable towards each other and to humans.  Their size range from small to medium making it easier to care for compared with big birds.  Their life expectancy is about 12 to 14 years. But they tend to be noisy sometimes and destructive of their surroundings.

• Cockatiels -  are  birds members of the parrot family making them capable of learning human words. Ther are also pretty much advanced in their singing and whistling capabilities. They are also very much capable of copying sounds like  a car alarm, ringing phone or other bird calls. There are different colors for these birds and can live up between 15 to 20 years.

• Canaries- are also very popular birds.Those pet owners who cannot give maximum attention to their birds for them these kind of bird is ideal.  These birds pay little attention to humans and prefer to live in small flocks.Approximately 10 years would be their life span. What‘s great about canaries is that they sing beautifully.  Male canaries have richer voices than females.

• Lovebirds – these birds are ideal if you live in a place where you are very close to neighbours who do not want too much bird noise. These species normally remain quite and their norma life span is from 50 to 70 years.  They are also part of the parrot family. Some pet owners would rather have a single lovebird rather than a usual pair, so that the bird can bond more with the owner than the other bird.

• African greys- are said to be the most intelligent of the birds, especially in terms of their vocabulary.  This intelligence is why it is important for an African Grey to have a lot of stimulating toys around their cage. The average life of this kind of bird is 50 to 70 years.

But not all pet owners are happy with having domesticated pet birds.  There are pet owners who prefer exotic birds which are usually from countries in Asia, Africa or Australia. Most of pet owners would choose birds from the parrot family since they would have very delightful colors and can show supreme intelligence.

But when importing birds from other countries, there are important regulations and rules which should be followed.  Smuggling birds in countries can have an effect on the number of birds in their natural habitat (which sometimes lead to endangerment) and worse health for the birds and humans too. 

Serious diseases happened in the United States because of failure in undergoing the proper procedure for bringing exotic and wild birds in the country.  Examples of these diseases would be avian flu or the exotic Newcastle Disease. 

When bringing in a bird in the country, make sure that you birds have been checked by veterinarians and avian experts for diseases.  They should have a health certificated from the veterinarian and at the same time the permit issued by  the government. Most cases of aviary disease and their outbreak can be traced to birds who have entered the country by illegal means. 

There are many options when picking out the right pet bird for you.  Regardless of its breed, size, or appearance, the most important thing is to take into consideration is that they would be around for a while.  So make sure to pick the bird that you can enjoy, because they are not just commodities that you can throw away if you no longer want them to be around.

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