Questions about pet parakeets - My brothers pets & he doesnt take care of them so I have to & Idk how.?

Question

My little brother has two pet parakeets that he has had for a few years. Well, he doesnt take proper care of them so I have to in order to keep them living. I change their seed, water, cage etc. but I honestly dont know if they need anything else, different seed, do their toenails need clipped? They are really long & curling under, is that normal? Is regular seed for parakeets ok? Should they be eating something else? Any info on these birds will be helpful, thanks!

Answer 1

It sounds like their claws are a bit long. You can get a sand perch that has a gritty texture. This will file the nails down naturally. They also need grit in their diet to help them digest their food. It needs to be kept in a separate dish. A cuttlebone helps to keep their beaks in good shape. These items shouldn't be too expensive and do not need to be replaced very often. The grit comes in a plastic container and should be near the bird food. You can feed them fresh fruit and veggies, but you have to experiment and see which ones they like.

Answer 2

A bird's nails do need to be trimmed regularly... some companies make perches to keep them short but from what I know they only make it so that trimmings are needed less often--they don't remove the need to trim the nails altogether--and certainly won't solve your problem at this stage. You should take your 'keets to someone who is experienced with nail trimming and they will trim the nails; if the nails have grown out then the quick (the living inner part of the nail that has blood in it) has probably grown with it, in which case the nails will need to be trimmed a little at a time so that the quick recedes, and the nails can be trimmed a little shorter each time until they are back to normal length. After that they will still need to be trimmed regularly--I recommend taking them to a veterinarian or bird groomer as they are experienced with trimming nails, but I'm sure they'd be willing to show you how to do it correctly if you asked, and if you can get someone like your mom to help you (it's hard to hold the bird and clip nails at the same time) then you may be able to do it yourself later on.

Regular parakeet seed is OK, but you want to try to get parakeet foods that have more pellets (pellets look like little bits of kibble in different colors) and less millet (the round pale yellowish seeds); a lot of pet bird seed mixes are made up of like 90% millet... but millet is basically bird candy, and like real candy with little kids it isn't good to only feed them candy. Pellets also have some added nutrients that seeds don't have.

Also feel free to let them try bits of veggie and fruit; this will help keep them healthy and provide them with nutrients regular seeds don't have. You can give them things like washed apple slices, peach or cherry (minus the pit), bits of broccoli or cauliflower or carrot, etc. Raw veggies are better for the birdies, and probably easier for you to give to them. Just don't let them have any sugar, foods with any added salt, dairy products, avocado or chocolate. Peanuts are iffy; don't let them have peanuts still in the shell as some molds that can grow on the shell can be dangerous to birds. There's a good list of some things you can try at http://exoticpets.about.com/cs/birds/a/p...

Hope this helps. I'm glad to see that you're looking out for the little guys.

Answer 3

Hi,

If their nails are curling round then you need to take them to a vet, but before you go to that expense then i would try getting one of the pumice perches or sandy perches to try and rub down their nails.

As for food well the normal parakeet seed will do, one thing is just to give them a bit of fruit and veg, the onlt things to stay away from are avocardo, chocolate and raw potato as all of these are poisonous to birds.

Answer 4

Your brother needs to be disciplined.

If you feed them and give them clean water daily, and change the paper on the bottom of the cage, that's most of it.

Answer 5

There are a lot of helpful sites on the internet.

You may also want to check out a bird forum

You might also want to check out a bird forum such as this one http://www.myjungle.net/forum that way you can talk to other bird owners, and bird breeders.

You can also go here http://myjungle.net and check out the bird breeder directory and see if there are any bird breeders listed near you.

Good luck

I am a mama of 10 sweet birds.

Answer 6

you feed your brother's bird that was nice of you to do that you could clean the cage out every month but dont do the cage out side coz i made a mistake and my bird flew away feed them oncce a day