The majority of us who breed birds also sell birds, and we occasionally even purchase birds ourselves.
The bulk of birds that are sold is likely to be young birds that have been reared to be pets or companions in a home or family. Some of them are young birds that have been reared to become adult birds in the future.
On occasion, we will also sell older birds or pairings that we have determined we do not wish to maintain. It’s possible that we are decreasing our breeding stock in order to cut down on the amount of work we have to do; alternatively, it’s possible that we are eliminating certain species from our breeding program in order to make way for another species.
In each of these scenarios, the birds are taken from a setting in which they are comfortable and relocated to a setting that is wholly foreign and uncharted for them. This is because the birds are either being sold or bought.
This is a significant turning point in the lives of birds kept as pets or for breeding, and it is important that both the seller and the buyer give it due consideration and make meticulous preparations for it.
Baby Bird
If a young bird gets the opportunity to spend an hour or more in a carrier multiple times with its bowl of food and a toy, this increases the likelihood that the bird will feel at ease while being transported in a carrier. Once this occurs, the carrier is no longer dangerous.
Young birds that have experienced the motions of being transported in vehicle travel with less anxiety. It’s possible that a young bird that is exposed to a range of toys will develop a preference for one over the others. The fledgling bird will have an easier time adjusting to its new environment if it is brought home with its favorite toy.
The amount of baby bird’s comfort level with its new owner can be increased by having the new owner visit the young bird on multiple occasions, but this requires the breeder to have the time and interest to do so.
Those of us who transport birds across the country do not always have this option available to us. Nevertheless, there are preparations that may be made on our end that will help the bird adjust more smoothly at first.
Caging
First, the size and number of perches within the enclosure should be appropriate for the species. It is important that birds have perches that serve many purposes; not only should they be able to perch there, but they should also be able to exercise their beaks and keep them in good form. Make sure that new bird owners are aware that they will need to find new perches whenever one of their old ones is destroyed. In addition to this, people need to be aware that they should clean the perch on a weekly basis at the very least due to the fact that the bird will clean its beak on the perch.
In order to make the bird feel more at peace, position the cage so that its back is against a wall. Birds that are kept in cages that are situated in the center of a room are more likely to become stressed. If the cage is located in a room where the residents stay up late into the night, make sure that it is covered at night.
Diet
The type of food that is provided on a daily basis, the amount of food that is provided, and the location of the dishes in which the food is stored are all essential factors in the effective adaptation of a new bird to its new surroundings. When the juvenile parrot is moved to its new home, it will choose to perch wherever it feels the most at ease, which is most likely to be the perch that is the tallest in the cage. Dishes with food and drink must be positioned adjacent to the area that has been selected such that the dishes are within the bird’s reach; for example, the bird must only bend down to pick up food from the dish. People who aren’t familiar with the strong instincts birds have for self-preservation might not completely understand why juvenile birds feel the urge to climb to the highest place they can find. Some people who are new to caring for birds put the food bowls in the bottom of the cage and then couldn’t understand why the birds didn’t go there to eat when they put them there. If birds do not consume enough food, they will lose weight, become weaker, and be more susceptible to infection from bacteria.
Even fully grown birds, when moved to a different enclosure or flight, may be reluctant to move down from a higher perch to a lower level in order to get their food. Put the bowls of food exactly close to the perch which is the highest possible point the bird can reach, and do this at least until the bird gets over the stress of the changeover phase.
The bird’s regular diet must include items that are identical to those that it is accustomed to eating, as well as foods that are cooked in the same manner, such as being sliced or diced into pieces of like size, sprouted, etc. It is important to provide the new owner with a page of information that includes specifics on the diet. After a few weeks, when the bird has sufficiently adjusted to its new environment, you can introduce it to other meals. Altering the diet of a bird at the same time that it is put into a new cage is not something that is recommended. Even the color of the food or water bowl might be upsetting to a bird that is going through the process of transitioning. Dishes that are brightly colored or made of plastic or ceramic can be startling to a bird that is accustomed to eating out of a bowl made of stainless steel. When it comes to young birds, the design of the bowl is also quite essential. Young birds do best in wide, shallow bowls as opposed to narrow, deep bowls. If you don’t prevent it, young birds have a tendency to drop their food outside the bowl, where they cannot retrieve it.
Quarantine
When it comes to bird ownership, this is arguably one of the requirements that are misunderstood the most. It is for the protection of both the existing flock and the new flock that a bird or bird be placed in quarantine. Each species of bird has adapted to its own particular habitat, and as a result, its members have developed resistance to the bacteria and viruses that they encounter on a regular basis. It does not matter where a new bird is obtained, how well it is cared for, or what the seller’s reputation is like; quarantine should be viewed as a very vital process.
The new bird is placed in a completely new environment that contains a wide variety of germs, both beneficial and harmful, to which it has never been exposed before. The bird is then crated and removed from its ecosystem. There will be some anxiety experienced throughout the process of moving to the new area. Depending on the nature of the bird, the differences in surroundings, and how the bird reacts to them, this stress could be quite little or it could cause a significant amount of upheaval for the bird. Because of the stress that the bird is experiencing, its immune system may become compromised, and it is possible that the bird is not in as good of physical health as it was before it left its natural habitat. In the event that the bird is not placed in a quarantine facility, it will be exposed to millions of new germs, and its immune system will be forced to work in order to combat all of these new pathogens (good and bad). Because of its weakened immune system, the bird will not be able to build an effective defense and may, in fact, succumb to a germ that, in a different setting and under normal circumstances, would not be pathogenic (cause disease) in this species.
The new bird now develops an illness and begins shedding large quantities of this now (new to him) pathogenic germ. Additionally, the new bird begins shedding large quantities of germs that the bird carried with him from his previous habitat. Because there are now millions of infections in the environment, native birds are being put in danger of contracting them. They have immunity to some of the germs, but the sheer volume of them is too much for them to handle. Some of the bacteria are new, and some of them are ancient. Now both old and young birds are falling ill, and the natural assumption is that the sickness was brought in by the most recent batch of new birds.
It should come as no surprise that the outcomes would be substantially worse if even one of the birds in question already suffered from a pathogenic condition.
If this new arrival had been adequately confined, his level of stress would not have been as high, and his immune system would have had more time to build up to the smaller numbers of viruses it had been exposed to. After a period of time during which the immune system is subjected to a series of mild challenges, it is able to construct immunity at a much more typical rate and does not become weaker. All of the birds engaged will benefit from and be required to successfully complete this progressive adaptation to their new surroundings. Germs are incapable of reading one-way signs.
🦜🦜 Click Images Below To Explore More Popular Bird Supplies on Amazon!! 🦜🦜
