Pet Care
While TLC Pet Hospital does not currently see avian patients for examinations and care, we do offer a wing trim and nail trim service. The information below is provided for informational use only.
To help you locate an avian veterinarian in your area, please click here to visit the Association of Avian Veterinarians website.
Handling
When handling a bird the most important thing you have to do is give them the respect they deserve. All birds are different and will tolerate different levels of handling. They can give you a very painful bite and some of the larger birds can seriously injure a person. On the other hand, very small birds can also very easily pierce the skin and draw blood with a bite. Every bird has a different personality and will let you know when enough is enough. A pet bird owner has to be aware of subtle signs that a bird gives before biting. Give the bird the space and respect it deserves.
With new birds, it may take a bit of time before being able to handle it the way you’d like to. Depending on its past, it may never fully trust its owner. Either way, it’s important to take things very slow with a new bird. It’s most likely frightened and needs time to adjust to its new surroundings, routine, and flock, meaning you and other members of the family. Try to stick to a routine; feed at the same times every day. Talk quietly and softly to the bird as you are feeding. Do not make any quick or harsh movements when around the bird. A good thing to do is take a few hours out of the day, sit near the bird’s cage and read a book. Reading it out loud, quietly, will get the bird used to your voice. This will also allow the bird to realize that you aren’t going to hurt him or her. Leaving the cage door open will allow it to come out as it pleases rather than you trying to grab at the bird while it flaps around trying to get away. Doing this will only cause a fear of your hands and will lengthen the time it will take to tame your bird. It can take weeks to months to tame a new bird but doing so in small steps will help tremendously and will allow your bird to go at its own pace.
Once your bird is adjusted to its new surroundings and you are comfortable with beginning hand taming your bird, you can start with the step up command. Many birds will do so with just the use of your fingers. Use your index fingers like a ladder and tell the bird to “step up” to each new finger. Placing your finger against the belly will many times cause the bird to step up out of instinct. If the bird is still afraid of the hand, or you do not trust the bird to not bite you just yet, you can use two perches in place of your fingers. Once you both trust each other more, you can move up to the use of your fingers.
Petting a bird can be both good and bad. With a new bird, petting on the chest is the best place to start. Birds kept as pets are prey animals and are always aware of what’s going on behind them. Petting a bird on the back can be frightening and cause the bird to not allow any kind of petting. However, once a bird is completely comfortable with you and its surroundings, it may allow and even enjoy petting. The downside to petting in certain areas is that it can stimulate certain hormones and lead to hormonal and behavior problems such as chronic egg laying. Try to keep petting limited to the head, neck, and chest areas.
There are those birds that do not require any handling at all. Finches and canaries are among the birds that would prefer to live in their flight or large cage with no handling done by their owners. Handling this type of bird only encourages stress and should only be done when absolutely necessary; for nail trims, vet visits, etc. This isn’t to say that no finch or canary has been hand tamed. The most successful attempts at doing this are with those birds that were hand reared from the beginning. Otherwise, these guys do best in a flock of their own.
Once the bird is tame and trusts you as much as you trust it, it should be allowed several hours a day outside of its cage. No bird should be forced to live in a cage all hours of every day. Birds should have a minimum of 4 hours per day outside of the cage, preferably more.
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