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About Our Babies

Nursery

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We're lucky here at Bird Heaven Aviaries in the sense that we're blessed with some great parent birds. These guys do a marvelous job of rearing their young for the first few weeks of the little ones life. When the babies are between 2 - 3 weeks of age we remove them from the nests and bring them inside and into a temperature controlled brooder. We do our best to ensure that each baby is not alone and has another baby of similar developmental age to cuddle up to. We believe that TOUCH is very important for the young birds at this stage of their life as they don't have their parents to snuggle up to in the brooder. We usually provide soft cuddly toys for the babies to snuggle against also.

When they're old enough to leave the brooder, we place them in large plastic containers and drape a dark towel over 1 half of the container. We've found through observing our babies that having a dark area for them to retreat to helps them feel more secure with their surroundings. We never force the babies out, instead prefering to allow them to come out on their own accord to explore their surroundings. It's around this time that we start putting various soft foods in for them to try. We don't give them a huge selection daily intead we give them a small sample one day and a sample of different food the next. We don't add pellets or seeds yet.

Senegal Babies cuddling up to their soft toy

We also add various toys in the containers around this time as well. We don't put any wood toys just yet. We tend to focus more on small toys of different textures. that they can play and beak. toys with Veggie Tanned Leathers strips tend to go down pretty well with those babies who love to nibble.. Once the babies start showing signs of wanting to spend more time out of their cozy little hiding spaces we place them inside a play pen on our living room floor during different times throughout the day.. We have porcelain tile through out our house and place the playpens on throwrugs that are lined with newspaper and towels The play pens we use are the same in the photo below. I'll post more photo's of our babies in their play pens over the coming weeks.

When the babies are in these play pens they learn to perch on different perches we have for them  as well learning to forage for different soft and cooked foods that we have for them. We place the foods on baking trays covered with paper towels. It's around this time that we start to introduce other toys that have chewable bits of wood and other things on them. The babies get to spend plenty of time in these play areas where they can interact with each other as us myself, Michael & his children. Once they've learned to perch and are starting to climb up the sides of the playpen we take them and place them in what we call their weaning cages. These are just regular wrought iron cages that we use. They have plenty of toys and perches in them as well. It's in these cages that they're introduced to all the things they're introduced to before heading off to their new homes.

We line the base of these cages with newspaper and towels to soften the landing should the slip off their perch. Here in these cages they're given the freedom to explore their cage & all the toys that are provided for them. Of course they still get to spend plenty of time outside of their weaning cages. Once we know they are perching well we introduce them to the various playgyms we have around the house. They always have access to different foods that we wean our birds on.

Fledging

Here at Bird Heaven Aviaries the fledging period is very important in the birds mental development. We allow the birds to fly for at least 2 days before we start a gradual wing clip. We firmly believe that allowing the birds to fly and hone their landing skills really does help build up their confidence. During the breeding season it's not uncommon to see African Greys, Hahns Macaws, White Bellied Caiques, Afrcian Ringnecks and others flying around our living room at any given time. Of course their only flying around when supervised. We usually have playgyms set up at different sides of the living to allow the birds to fly from one side to the other. Because we have Porcelain tile throughout our house we have plenty of soft fluffy throw rugs around that provide a great soft place for the birds to land on.

Wing Clipping

Once we know that the babies have been flying for at least 2 days we start a gradual wing clip on them. We start by removing one primary feather from each wing, clipping one feather per wing over a 5 day period. Many people still insist on doing a traditional clip which involves clipping the primary flight feathers along the covert feathers. There are a few reason we dislike this kind of clip and refuse to use it on our babies. 1) it can leave sharp edges of the cut feather which can irritate the bird when they bring their wings in close. 2) Cosmetically it's not very appealling and can ruin the look of the feathers around the clipped one. The kind of cut we prefer and recommend is this. For diagrams on this kind of clip please click this link. Using this kind of clip we can Identify each individual feather and using proper bird clippers we clip each individual feather not far up from the base. By doing this there is not much feather left sticking out to aggrivate the bird.  By using this method we don't have to remove as many feather as you would doing a traditional clip.

Bathing Your Bird

Bathing your bird can be great for both yourself and your bird. Not only is it great for your birds feathers but it can also help forge a stronger bond between yourself and  your feathered friend. All the babies here plus our companion birds get showered daily. We shower our Companion's Ryley & Bandit daily especialli since African Greys and Mollucan Cockatoo's are prone to creating dust that can create problems for other birds in particular, Macaws that share their space. The dust can also cause problems for those of us that suffer from allergies.

At first when bathing your bird for the first time he/she may not enjoy it at all. Don't be discouraged as it takes most birds at least 3 or 4 baths before they realise it's a fun experience and something not to be feared. That being said it's up to us as their caregivers to make sure that bathing and showering is a fun experience. Here at Bird Heaven Aviaries we get all our birds use to the showers by placing them on a perch next to the shower whilst we are showering ourselves. We leave the shower screen door open so they can see what we're doing. One thing I do is goof around a bit. I will flick some water at them as well as flicking some back at myself. I also say stuff such as "Oooooh this shower is fun" " Does ( add birds name ) want to shower" . Lord only knows what the neighbours were to think should they look through the windows. Don't be embarrased to goof around. It helps your bird get use to the shower if they view it as a fun experience.  I've used these techniques with great success on our Companion Birds Rico & Bandit. Ryley came to us already knowing how to enjoy a bath.

Even though the majority of our birds enjoy being misted with water, some of our babies don't but would rather bathe themselves in a shallow bowl of water. We use different sized ceramic bowls depending on the size of the bird. Ceramic bowls we've found don't tend to tip over and spill the water.If you're using a spray bottle always remember to use a brand new one that has NEVER been used before. Some spray bottles that have been used before for things other than water may have chemical residue which can be toxic to your bird. How often should you bathe your bird? Depending on your schedule you can bathe your bird daily. If not every second day is fine. Try not to go longer than that without bathing your bird. It's just the same as us going for 3 days without a shower. Frequent bathing will help emliminate the itching that occurs when the new feahers molt through.