New baby bird care sheet

The cage needs to be large enough that the bird can turn around with wings fully out without touching the cage bars including the tail. Take in consideration that once toys are added, it will take up some space. Cage size also depends on how much time it will be outside of the cage like on a play gym or with you. A bird that will be inside of its cage for at least 1/2 the day, should be a little larger so that it will receive exercise. If you buy a used cage, it should be thoroughly sterilized. 

If the weather is hot over 98 degrees, you will need to turn on your car AC before bring the baby to your car. If it is cold out, you need to turn the heat on in your car and bring a towel or blanket to cover your cage or carrier from cold drafts. We would recommend a small transport carrier or cage. Birds raised in the house cannot be placed outside in cages or aviaries without proper acclimation unless the weather is in the 70s. 

WING TRIMMING

We trim most of our baby birds wings due to we have ceiling fans and other dangers. We recommend keeping their wings trimmed year round unless you are planning on professional "Recall" training. I have hand many customers who let their wings grow out and the bird took off.  If you take your bird outside, make sure it cannot fly in the house before attempting to bring it outside. All it takes is a little wind and the bird can get some lift. 

Your new baby bird should stay on a diet it was previously on until it becomes use to its new home. Find out what kind of diet the seller had it on. It's good to offer a variety of fruits and veggies. Some birds are on seed or pellets as its main diet. Changing the diet too soon can cause the bird not to eat and may starve. Any fresh fruits or veggies should be removed after 4 hours as bacteria starts to grow and will cause your bird to become ill. 

It's a stressful time for any baby bird when moving to a new home, new cage, different sounds. new people, new pets. away from their siblings or cage mate etc. Every bird handles the changes differently just as human babies do. It's important not to stress it out as little as possible. Temperature changes can also be a stress factor. If the seller kept their house at 77 degrees and you keep your house at 60, it can cause some chill vs versa with heat. Check on the new baby often to make sure it's eating regularly and drinking. Watch for the bird fluffing up a lot and sleeping more than usual. Some babies may whine off and on when just arriving home for the first day. Make sure that this is just a baby whine and not something more serious going on. 

Not all toys are safe. You should inspect it over to make sure no small parts could come off and the baby swallow it. Watch for loose string, rope and chains. They wrestle with the toys and might get it caught around their neck. Be careful when using rope perches to trim off any hanging lose strings. If the baby has a leg band, make sure nothing can hook on it. There are now hemp or rope nets for birds to climb. Use caution that your bird does not get entangled in these. 

Use caution when you have other pets in the house. Some dogs may appear to get along with the bird but when left alone or the bird gets out of its cage, things can happen. Cats if they don't kill a bird can be curious of movement and possibly jump on the cage causing a heart attack on the bird. Birds need to be monitored when around other pets. This includes other birds. Not all will get along. 

Most baby birds that are hand fed and just weaned should not bite new owners but this is not always the case. Some bite out of fear of new environment etc. One way to train it from not biting is to jerk your hand down in a downward motion if the bird is on your hand and looking like it is going to reach down and bite. This will cause it to lose some balance and be distracted from biting. Never hit the bird or flick it in the beak. Not only can this cause possible damage but the bird will no longer trust you.  If you would like it to learn to "step up" you push your finger under its belly until it puts its foot out to get up on your finger. At the same time, repeat the command to "step up."

This is a huge change for your new baby bird. In time, it will adjust to everything. But in the mean time, you need to put yourself in the birds position so you can understand it better and help it adjust. No one can predict how it will respond to its new home. It doesn't make a difference if the bird is a baby or a older bird. The change of environment will cause some stress in all. Some will not have any issues you handling it immediately and others may need more time. One might love the attention you give it to make it feel more comfortable, another bird might be a little more stressed. It is also important to make sure that it is eating and drinking water on a regular basis. 

Dark brown stool with any possible blood in it or very runny. However some diets can make it brown color but should be solid and have white urates in it. 

Crusty eyes or nostrils

Stool on the vent area where the bird potties from

Fluffed up and sleeping for longer than normal periods. If a bird fluffs up a lot it is due to fighting someone going on that is causing it to lose body heat so it compensates by fluffing up its feathers.

Sleeping a lot with both feet down. Usually when a bird is sick, it cannot balance and will sleep with both feet perched. A healthy bird would sleep with 1 foot up and one down. However some young babies don't know how to do this yet so shouldn't be completely alarmed, just monitor it for other signs above.

Birds should have some meat mass on the sides of its breast bone like the chicken breast you see in the stores. If the breast bone is sharp with little meat mass, something is wrong that the bird is not eating to maintain its weight. 

Scratching a lot: Can be caused from molting (getting new pin feathers in), mites (usually babies raised in outside aviaries) or other issues.

This cannot be trained in a few min or even a few months. Complications will happen that can cause the death of your baby bird. I have seen people with a years experience lose chicks to awful deaths from burning the crop, aspiration and even crop infections. The baby will bond to you the same if you hand feed it or not. It just takes a little more time for it to adjust. 

If you have young children, give the bird some time to adjust before children start trying to handle the bird. I have seen baby birds stressed out when being handed around a lot, then bite because of fear. You should allow one person at a time to handle the baby for lets say 15 min each. It is good to have the bird handled later by different family members so its more socialized. Some birds may tend to have a favorite in the family. 

We try to cover a lot of the basics  but we can't cover everything without writing a book. Each bird is different in its own way. There is no way for us to know what's going on after the bird leaves us. Your new baby is depended upon you to get information and the help you might need. There is several ways to contact us. We have our phone number and email address on the home page, we accept text only if you need to get a hold of us before 7 am or after 9 pm.. Calls can be made between 7 am to 9 pm. You can also use the "contact us" on here.