Selecting Cage Accessories For Your Parakeet
Now that you
have selected a cage for your pet bird, picking out a logical location
in the home is vital, not only for the bird but the family as well. The
parakeet will be most satisfied if it can feel like it's part of the
family. With this in mind, the ideal places would be the living room,
family room, or dining room.
Your new pet
bird will need some cage accessories such as food and water dishes,
perches, and toys. When buying dishes for your parakeet, you should
purchase several sets so that feeding cleanups are quick and easy. Food
and water dishes should be open and not hooded because parakeets are
often reluctant to stick their heads into hooded feeders. Rather than
eat from a covered dish, some birds have been known to starve to death.
Check your birds food dish daily to make sure that it has seeds rather
than empty seed hulls.
Selecting the right toys. When choosing toys for your pet bird,
keep in mind a few safety tips. First, select the right size toy for
your parakeet. Smaller birds will usually be intimidated by larger toys
and not play with them. On the other hand, larger birds can easily
destroy small toys designed for smaller birds and hurt themselves in
the process.
Perches: When selecting perches for your bird cage, buy two different sizes so your pets feet won't get tired of standing on the same diameter perch day after day. A 1/2 inch diameter perch is the recommended size for parakeets. So, try to buy one 1/2 inch and another one slightly larger i.e. 5/8 inches to give your bird a chance to stretch its feet muscles. Since birds spend most of their lives standing it's important to prevent foot problems such as bumble foot and sores.
Toys: Toys that are unsafe include brittle plastic toys that can easily be shattered into small pieces, lead toys that can be cracked open to expose dangerous lead, ring toys that are too small to climb through or jingle type bells that can trap toes and beaks. Some toys you can make to entertain your bird is to string some cheerios on a piece of vegetable tanned leather and run a string through a toilet paper tube or an empty paper towel roll. Some birds may be leery of new items in their cage, so you might want to leave the new toys next to the cage for a few days until the bird gets used to it.
Play gyms: Since your parakeet will be spending most of its time in a cage, letting it out from time to time for exercise is essential, not only for its physical well being but also mentally. A play gym can be just what your parakeet needs. There are a variaty of play gyms available that have ladders, perches, swings and toys. Or, you can go with a simplier set up with just a T-stand that has a place for food and water bowls and a couple of eyescrews in which to hang toys. You can even build a play gym yourself with a little bit of tool skills.
As with the cage, you will want to place your parakeets play gym in a safe place away from ceiling fans, open windows, other pets and household dangers.