Make Your Own Avian First Aid Kit

There are so many things that can happen to your bird in our day to day existence and being prepared can save your bird(s) life. Every seasoned or new bird owner should have an avian first aid kit available at all times for emergency care of your bird(s). There are many kits that you can buy online--just do a Google search on the term avian first aid kit, and you'll get lots of results.

What if you don't want to spend your hard-earned money on buying an avian first aid kit that is offered online? Why not make your own? It is not that difficult. Some items you may already have in your home to add to a basic kit.

First of all put together a list (perhaps on an index card) of emergency contacts and keep it with your kit. Your list or card could include your vet's emergency number, a complete medical history of each of your birds including their ages, and the number of a local poison control hotline (in case your bird ingests something harmful), Another thing to consider is adding the phone number of a friend who is also a pet bird owner or someone you trust.

Secondly, you will need something to house your kit items. If you decide to make your own, you can use anything from a 1 gal. ziploc freezer bag to a small tool box, a document case, a small tackle box or an art supply storage organizer. It's up to you. Whatever you have around that would hold the contents you purchase.

Here are things that I recommend you add to your kit, most of which you can find locally. The links are to examples I found online, but other brands will do:

• 1 - bottle Styptic Powder (for toenail & blood feather bleeding only)
• 1 - pair scissors (to trim feathers or cut bandage tape--I use the Fiskars double thumb scissors 5 in. length, stainless steel. They also work for cutting threads or small strings that become wrapped around a toe. A pair of small medical scissors would work as well.)
• 1 - pair hemostat 5" locking forcephttp://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41ybE0TOLwL._SY450_.jpgs (to remove broken blood feathers)--I found a pair for $1 at a local flea market.
• 8 - cotton swabs (to apply apply ointment or creams prescribed by your vet)--Q-Tip purse pack of 30 or generic brand works well if you don't have any on hand)
• 1 - bottle eye & skin flushing solution, 1-8 oz. (to flush eyes or wounds)
• 1 - roll 1/2" x 2 1/2 yd. adhesive tape (to secure bandages)
• 1 - pair latex gloves (for personal protection)
• 1 - 1" x 6 yd. sterile gauze bandage to (wrap wound areas)
• 2 - iodine antiseptic swabs (PVP) (for sterilization)
• 2 - antiseptic towelettes (to clean wound or hands)
• 2 - pks. 2" x 2" gauze pads (to apply to wound area)
• 1 - anti-bacterial hand wipe (for personal cleanup)

This is by no means an extensive first aid kit to cover all emergencies, but will get you started for minor emergencies until you are able to take your bird to your vet for emergency care. Other items to keep on hand for emergencies are a travel carrier for transportation to a vet. I found a small animal carrier at a garage sale for $2. I cleaned and sterilized it, and it works great. The next is a towel to restrain or secure your sick or injured bird.

Keep your emergency kit near your bird room so that you can get to it immediately.

Conure Care: What To Do and What Not To Do

What To Do

• Give your bird(s) a lot of love, time, and patience.
• Consider subscribing to Bird Talk magazine. This is a helpful source of information on caring for pet birds.
• Wash fresh fruits and veggies before giving them to your bird and give him/her fresh food and water every day.
• Allow your bird to bath frequently at least a couple of times a week and daily if possible. My bird prefers a bath taken in a small 5-6" wide (2-3" high) bowl of water (room temperature).
• Teach your bird the "up" and "down" commands. Although with green cheeks, they don't always wish to obey the "down" command. They sometimes grip their owner's finger even tighter when one gives the "down" command or try to scramble up your shoulder.
• Take your bird for regular well-bird check-ups with a certified avian vet. Also consider keeping an Avian First Aid Kit in your home and check out NetVet. 
• Consider purchasing a book on basic bird care and one on avian first aid.
  
• Clip your bird's wings when the primary coverts grow out and trim your bird's nails when they get long and sharp. If you are not acquainted with these procedures, please have a professional do it for you; it is fairly inexpensive to have done.
• Dismantle and clean your bird's cage completely, including toys and perches, with hot, soapy water to which a cap full of liquid bleach (like lemon Clorox) has been added. This will clean and sterilize the cage to provide a safe environment for your pet.
• If you have a single bird, consider leaving a radio on during the day when you are away at work or school to keep your bird entertained and allow some supervised "out" time for your bird when you are home.
• Research a bird species, like green-cheeked conures, that you are interested in before you buy one to determine if it is right for you. 
• Visit Birds n Ways' Library of Articles/FAQs which has a listing of excellent bird care articles too numerous to reference here.

What Not to Do

• Never buy a bird merely for its color, buy a bird on impulse, or for the sole purpose of expecting it to be a talker (and then be disappointed if it is not).
• Do not lose your temper or get frustrated with your bird or its behavior. Birds, like other animals, are in tune with their owner's emotions and will react accordingly.
• Do not use teflon or other coated cookware (fumes from overheated pans can kill your bird if heated past a certain temperature). Some irons and hair dryers also contain teflon-like products. Update: One reader pointed out in her comment that there was an article in ConsumerReports.org in 2007 called "Nonstick Pans are Ok in New Tests." In the article, they didn't mention testing them with birds though, so I would still be cautious.
• Do not keep your bird shut up in its cage all the time. Birds have feelings too and will be extremely unhappy if shut up constantly and may develop behavioral problems as a result. During the week, spend at least an hour a day interacting with your bird and more on weekends.
• Do not feed your bird avocado, chocolate or foods full of sugar, fat, salt, or an all seed diet.
• Do not use soaps or other chemicals directly on your bird or use aerosols, paint, or other chemical products around your bird(s); they have very delicate, sensitive respiratory systems and could die from asphyxiation.
• Do not place your bird directly by a heater or place your bird in direct sunlight without providing a place for him/her to be in the shade (sun/heat stroke could occur). Do not place your bird near an open window or near an air conditioner as birds are susceptible to upper respiratory infections.
• Do not let your bird chew on jewelry, metal or painted buttons, dried paint, metal or plastic blinds, treated wood, etc. (paint and costume jewelry, especially, could contain lead; and wood can be treated with harmful chemicals).
• Do not walk blindly into bird care without knowing how to care for them.
• Do not let your bird's nails get too long as they can get caught in frayed ropes or other toys in its cage or let your bird's primary coverts completely grow out. Free-flying birds can accidentally escape through an open window or door, fly into windows, mirrors, water boiling on the stove or a hot frying pan, or land in the commode and drown. 
• Do not let your bird's cage go uncleaned as mites, bacteria, old food, and feces can adversely affect your bird's health.

Conure Diet: Taking Care of your Conure's Nutritional Needs

So, you've found yourself the brand new owner of a Green-cheeked Conure, a member of the Pyrrhura family of birds (Pyrrhura molinae). Now what do you do?

A cute little green cheek (just-weaned) was added to my flock back in 2002. Below is some information that a new owner might find helpful in providing a proper and enjoyable diet for a new green cheek or other small parrot.

Keep in mind that you need to make a concerted effort to make your conure's diet more well-rounded and healthier, so even the pelleted diets need to be supplemented with a variety of other healthy foods. I recommend keeping pellets in their cage at all times, to offer them seeds more as treats, but supplement their diet with fruits, vegetables and other healthy items from the list below.

Vegetables

Peas in the shell or thawed frozen peas, broccoli, corn (fresh or thawed frozen corn), green beans, cooked and cooled limas, yellow or green squash (baked), carrots (raw or cooked), red or green peppers, cucumbers, greens (such as chopped spinach or other greens), cooked pinto beans, cooked lentils, cooked white beans. Please note that is important to let cooked food cool thoroughly before offering them to your conure, otherwise they could burn their tongues and crops.

Fruit

Apples (mine's absolute favorite!), blueberries, cut-up oranges, tangerines, bananas, pears, grapes, peaches, melon (minus the rind), strawberries, mangos, papaya, plums, cherries, etc. Always remove seeds/pits from fruit before serving.

Starches

Cooked brown rice, cooked pasta, baked or boiled shredded potatoes or yams (note that corn/peas are also starches).

Other

Pellets (Roudybush, Forti, Zupreem and others), a good seed blend such as Kaytee's Conure/Lovebird Forti-diet (if the Kaytee conure blend is not available in your area you could substitute a cockatiel blend), spray millet, sprouted seed, Lafeber's Avi-cakes, a mineral block or cuttlebone, multi-grain cereals that are low in sodium, sugar, and fat.

My green cheek is partial to the Forti seed diet and the Zupreem Fruit Blend for cockatiels. Neither my conure nor my tiels will eat the yellow banana-shaped Zupreem fruit pellets. He seems to like the orange and red ones the best. For some reason he puts the green ones in his water tube. He likes avi-cakes and will occasionally eat the mini Roudybush pellets that the cockatiels like.

Food Preparation Shortcuts

As a working woman and head of household, I do not always have time to spend cutting and chopping in the mornings or evenings, so I started doing a few shortcuts. Cook up batches of the following items separately: cooked peas, carrots, corn, green beans, lima beans, brown rice, pasta, yams, acorn squash, potatoes, pinto beans, lentils, white beans, pasta, yams, acorn squash, shredded potatoes, and brown rice. Rinse the batches well, cut them up as needed, and freeze them spread out on a cookie sheet so that they do not stick together.

When the items are frozen, the pan is then removed from the freezer, and its contents broken up, placed in ziplock freezer bags, and dated. The same procedures works well with a cooked mixture of pinto beans, lentils, white beans and split peas. In addition, it is easy and fairly economical to purchase a bag of frozen mixed veggies (carrots, corn, peas, green beans & limas) when they are on sale and keep these in the freezer as well.

Then, as needed, open the different bag mixtures, take out some of each, place in a microwave dish, add a little water, and pop everything into the microwave for 2 minutes or so or until heated through.

Dump the hot mixture in a colander, run some cool water over it, so that it isn't scalding hot, and give your bird about a 1/4 cup serving dish of the mixture. They REALLY love it! Your bird will probably make contented little noises when she/he eats and have a mess on his/her beak afterward--not to mention the wall, floor, etc.

Cook enough of the mixture to last for a couple of days and keep it in the refrigerator. Also treat your bird with fruit from the list above. I use the term 'treat' when it comes to fruit since green cheeks definitely have a sweet tooth, and when fruit is mixed into their regular food dishes with the vegetables, they rarely eat the veggies! I found that it's wise to give them fruit at a different time than they are given vegetables. But it is important to provide fruit as a steady part of their diet.

It is equally important to thoroughly wash fresh fruits and veggies that you give to your birds. Any fresh or cooked food that you give your bird should be removed from their cage after an hour or so, otherwise it tends to spoil (bacteria) and is not good for your bird.

Foods to Avoid

Absolutely no chocolate, avocado, coffee or alcohol no matter how much they bob up and down and beg.

• Chocolate is poisonous to animals and birds.
• Avocado is poisonous to birds.
• Dairy products - there are mixed opinions about dairy products. I read an article that mentioned that parrots are unable to properly digest dairy products. Another source mentioned that it causes diarrhea. I made a personal choice not to give my birds dairy products.
• Caffeine should be avoided. Soft drinks, coffee, etc. Coffee, especially, contains some of the same elements as chocolate.
• Alcohol, a well-known poison with documented side effects, is a big NO! I personally believe that anyone who owns a pet should never give their pets alcohol. I often see idiots posting YouTube videos of animals they have gotten drunk and thinking it is so funny. Makes my blood boil!
• Avoid junk foods - anything that is high in fat, salt, and/or preservatives. An occasional bite of pizza crust is okay. Humans already have enough bad habits in regard to these foods but you don't want your conure to become a junk food junkie.

Housing Your Green-cheeked Conure

The HOEI (18.3" x 18.3" x 22") cage is an excellent cage for smaller conures and gives them plenty of room to move around. They are difficult to find these days, but a cage similar to this would work fine for your pet. The cage that you select should have 1/2" to 3/4" bar spacing. I would suggest putting newspaper (cut to the cage size) in the bottom of the cage for adult birds; make a stack of about 10-20 papers high and then just remove the top soiled paper every day as conures tend to be messy--both their food and stool. However, if your conure is still a baby, being hand fed, and lives in the bottom of its cage, newspaper would not be a good choice.

It is necessary to give your bird fresh water every day. All food dishes, glass water tubes, etc. should be washed in hot, soapy dish water with a capful of liquid bleach--lemon Clorox is good--added to the water to disinfect the dishes at least twice a week if not daily (also a good idea to clean their wooden perches and all their toys as well in this solution making sure that the perches and toys are rinsed well and dried off before putting them back in the cage). The entire cage should be dismantled and cleaned with the same solution at least once a month. [Also see article How Clean is Clean?]
 
It is important to provide a variety of different perches for your bird, so that their feet do not get sore from being in the same position all the time. Some suggestions for mixing and matching are: 1/2" wooden dowels (untreated), Comfort perches, small or medium Booda cables, natural manzanita perches, and a small (3/4") cement perch to keep their nails dull.


The site owner suggests that one purchases (or makes one's own) play area for your bird as conures need a lot of "out" time from their cages when you are home and can supervise. For your bird's safety and to better train your bird, make sure your bird's wings are clipped first by a professional; your bird's nails should be clipped by a professional as well since windows, large mirrors, food cooking on your stove, commodes, etc. can endanger your bird's life). If kept in their cages too much, some green cheeks can throw temper tantrums that you would not believe! Green cheeks also need a wide variety of toys to play with to keep them entertained (but don't overstock their cage with toys so that they have no room to maneuver!). 

In addition, rotating toys every week or two will help keep them from getting bored. The owner's bird enjoys playing with toys with knots in them that they can unravel and hand-held toys. They relish playing with large buttons, and a favorite is a soda bottle cap. They especially like rope toys that they can swing and climb on (and hang upside down from!).

What To Do If Your Conure is a Biter

Have a problem with your parrot biting you? You are not the only one. I have had three different parrots who enjoyed biting the crap out of me. Learn to look for what kind of mood they are in before handling your bird.

If their irises are mere pinpoints, if their wings are jerking a bit, if their head and neck feathers are puffed out, or if they are chatting angrily to themselves, stay away. I have avoided many bites just from watching their mannerisms before handling them.

There are a number of reasons that parrots will bite you. I highly recommend you view the video playlist below from YouTube and read the articles provided about this problem behavior in parrots so that you can prevent bites and regain your parrot's trust.

• Burgess, Alyson. "Why Does My Bird Bite Me So Much?" About.com.
• "Correcting Bird Biting Behavior," drsfostersmith.com.
• "Exotic Bird FAQ: Why Does My Bird Bite?" thetrueparrot.homestead.com.
• F., Ann. "Success With A Biting Pet Bird!" Winged Wisdom (Feb. 1998).
• Hallendar, Jane."To Bite or Not to Bite - That Is the Question," Pet Bird Report.
• Hines, Ron. "How To Tame a Wild or Aggressive Parrot," 2ndchance.info. 
• Johnson, Anne. "Once Bitten...... Twice Shy," Winged Wisdom (June 1997).
• Mandis, Kathleen. "The Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde Syndrome."
• Margison, Becky. "Why Does My Bird Bite?" Petfinder.com.
• Nash, Holly. "Bird Biting: Why They Do It and How to Correct It." Peteducation.com.
• "Pet Tips: Stop Biting Birds," essortment.com.
• "The Biting Bird," Quakerville.com.
• Tucker, Kelly. "Ouch!! Bird Bites," Winged Wisdom (March 2000).
• YouTube videos to watch.
• "How To STOP Green Cheek Conure Biting and Make Them Listen To You."
• Wilson, Liz. "Biting Parrots: Why They Do It and How To Control It," UpAtSix.
• Wilson, Liz. "Don't Take It Personally," UpAtSix.
• Wilson, Liz. "Facial Bites, Nozzle Nuzzling, & Tummy Kisses," UpAtSix.
• Wilson, Liz. "Biting: The Great Power Game," The Grey Play Round Table.

Print Resources (try requesting via interlibrary loan):

• Athan, Mattie Sue. "Beyond Biting," Bird Talk, 16 (Sept. 1998): 62-71.
• Blanchard, Sally. "Biting: Getting Past the Fear," Pet Bird Report, 9 v. 2 (Feb. 2000): 6-10.
• Blanchard, Sally. "No More Biting Birds," Bird Talk, 9 (Oct. 1991): 109-115.
• Blanchard, Sally. "Parrot Psychology: Cheeky Grey Cheek," Bird Talk, 6 (Mar. 1988): 26.
• Blanchard, Sally. "Parrot Psychology: Minimize Biting Behavior," Bird Talk, 17 (June 1999): 68-69.
• Blanchard, Sally. "Stop That Screaming!, Nippy Fits, Do You Dislike Your Bird?" Bird Talk, 12 (Apr. 1994): 118-123.
• Blanchard, Sally. "Why Birds Bite," Bird Talk, 11 (Mar. 1993): 68-72.
• Chamberlain, Susan. "The Big, Bad Bite," Bird Talk, 23 (Jan. 2005): 26-35.
• Davis, Chris. "The Biting Bird," Bird Talk, 12 (Jun. 1994): 32-38.
• Davis, Chris. "Heart to Heart: Why Does My New Bird Bite," Bird Talk, 20 (May 2002): 22-23.
• Doss, Joanie. "Biting the Hand That Feeds Them," Bird Talk, 13 (Oct. 1995): 106-109.
• Dorge, Ray. "10 Ways to Avoid Bird Bites," Bird Talk, 15 (May 1997): 80-83.
• Micco, T. & M. "Why do Birds Scream and Bite?" Bird Talk, 4 (Apr. 1986): 25.
• Moustaki, Nikki. "Turn Down the Volume," Bird Talk, 20 (Apr. 2002): 50-59.
• Thornton, J. "Taking the Bite Out of the Bird," Bird Talk, 6 (May 1988): 16.
• Wilson, Liz. "Take the Bite Out of Biting," Bird Talk, 19 (July 2001): p. 30-39.