Author Archives: wenbirds

A birds with too much fat deposits is an ill bird

The pet bird is too fat that you can even see the fat deposits developing on the chest and/or abdomen. It can be considered as a bird disease. The fat swollen under the skin and may look like a tumor, but you can even see by your eyes that is fat actually for the skin of the birds in the chest is semi-transparent. The accumulated fat will affect birds’ health very much on the heart, liver, kidney, cardiovascular system and movement, and may cause birds die suddenly.

The treatment for a fat bird:

Increase the amount of exercise. Adopt a big bird cage to allow more movements, better to let birds fly in the room for a while with windows and doors closed. Offer a lighting condition in the early evening to let birds exercise longer than before. Don’t put a single bird in a cage. Two or more birds lives together will increase their movements due to interaction.
Dietary restriction. Reduce the amount of food supply so that the birds will not have fun by eating too much, feed common bird foods that contain high protein, but stop temporarily supplying bird seeds that contain lots of fat, offer fruit slices that will help birds in digestion.
Surgical Extraction. If the birds represent too fat with big fat tumors that cannot be eliminated by exercise and dietary restriction. We need to take surgical to remove the fat blocks.

Enough exercise and a scientific dietary formula are also necessary to prevent fat birds before the fat problem.

Treatment for brids diagnosed with gastroenteritis

The birds with gastroenteritis will appear inactive and lethargic, often try to defecate but the dropping is little and sticky, the anus area is often stained with dropping. When it becomes serious, rectal prolapse happens and bleed from butt, the bird will lose its weight quickly and die finally.Treatment: Clean the bird cage and water cup thoroughly first. Move the bird with cage to a warm place, tube-feed 0.5~2 ml 25% glucose water two times a day (one piece of salt particle should be added into the glucose water). 0.2~1 mg furazolidone is supposed to be added into the glucose water if the sign is serious. There days later, double the furazolidone to 0.4~2mg. You can put furazolidone to the water cup of bird cage, remember stirring to dissolve the furazolidone completely. For rectal prolapse caused by gastroenteritis, use salt water to clean anus area, apply with erythromycin ointment, and push the prolapse back to its original position, apply with erythromycin ointment around the anus two times a day, better to dissolve some cuttlebone powder into the drink water. If the prolapse goes out again, put it back again, then put the bird upside down and drip 1~2 ml chloramphenicol eye drops into the anus and hold the bird in upside down position for 5 minutes to let the chloramphenicol drops goes inside the anus.

: rectal prolapse of bird caused by gastroenteritis

Preventation of gastroenteritis: Feed birds with weak red tea or a bit mashed garlic will help birds resist gastrointestinal disease.

How to feed a baby parrot

What to feed a baby parrot

You can make by yourself the runny food for baby birds by mixing the below with water.

Dog food and/or chicken food and/or human baby food
A little human nutritional supplement

But due to the baby birds’ immune system isn’t fully developed. excellent hygiene is required when handling the replacement food like dog food and chicken food. Baby rice cereal is OK, but some baby formula containing lots of zinc and/or sugar should be avoid.

For your convenience and the best result, a commercial hand-feeding formula is mostly recommended.

Hand-feeding formula for baby birds

After the food is decided, you still need an eyedropper or a disposable syringe with plastic tip for gently pushing the food into a baby bird’s mouth.

Disposable syringe for baby birds

Prepare the food for a baby parrot

Determine quantity of formula and water based on the water-to-solid ratio according to the age of baby birds or the package instruction if there is such a detail, the runny food should be very thin for a new born, the solid levels should be increased with the growth of the baby.

Put the formula into a bowl, pour hot water into the formula, mix and stir well, wait until it cool to the temperature range between 100 and 108 degrees Fahrenheit or according to the package instruction.

Prepare food for baby birds

Feed the baby parrot

Put the baby parrot on an easy-to-grip surface like a cloth or a tissue paper, if it’s a newborn, you need to grip the bird gently with a support to its head, use the tip of the eye dropper or syringe to touch the top side of it’s beak to elicit the feeding response, extend the tip a bit deeper when the baby parrot open its beak, then release the food slowly to let the baby swallow the runny food.

When the baby grow up with feathers, make the food not runny but humid, put the food into a small bowl placed before the parrot, train the parrot to eat food by itself.

Hummingbird Feeder Reviews – 5 Popular Feeders

When choosing a hummingbird feeder, some points need to be considered.

The nectar is easy to go bad because of the sugar. You need to clean and refill the feeder very often. So the feeder should be easy to disassemble and clean.
The feeder should have a bright color (better to be red) because hummingbirds get used to drink from colorful blossoms.
Better to have perches for the hummingbirds to rest. The hummingbirds are hovering when drinking at wild fields. But they rest if you are providing perches. Perches can help hummingbirds save energy.

After take these 3 points into consideration, also confirmed that the feeders are popular because many people have already used them and rated high scores. I am sharing my reviews of 5 popular humming feeders as below:

1.Aspects HummZinger HighView 12 oz Hanging Hummingbird Feeder

This is a basin-style hummingbird feeder. Its cover can be easily removed, so that the bowl can be cleaned quickly. The bright red cover and 4 flower-shape feeding ports attract hummingbirds from a long distance. The ring perch gives the hummingbirds a rest even when they are drinking. The built-in moat blocks ants from accessing nectar.

2.Aspects 407 Jewel Box Window Hummingbird Feeder, 8-Ounce

It’s also a basin-style feeder but it can be mounted on the window glass with 2 suction cups to take the beautiful birds close to view. It features red cover and 3 flower-shape feeding ports to attract hummingbirds. The structure is easy for cleaning and filling. The good design is that it has a anti-ant moat and this moat can be removed to reduce the feeder size when you don’t have an ant issue. A perch around the feeding ports is providing a rest for the hummers.

3. Perky-Pet 203CPBN Pinch Waist Glass Hummingbird Feeder with Free Nectar

This inverted-bottle type feeder attract hummingbirds with its red base and 4 flower-shape feeding ports. It’s inexpensive but full-functional: built-in bee guards covering the feeding ports, the moat filled with water on the lid is blocking the ants and four perches for the birds to rest.

As a common sense, the hummingbird’s feeder need to be cleaned and refilled often. This feeder features a wide mouth and a detachable base that make it easy to clean.

A free 1.3-ounce packet of instant hummingbird nectar concentrate is included in the packing. With water added, it would turn into 8 ounces of nectar, that means you can use the feeder right after you get it.

4. First Nature 3090 32-ounce Hummingbird Flower Feeder

It’s a cheap, simple but very practical hummingbird feeder. The feeder made of durable polymer features bright red body to attract hummers, ten yellow flower feeding ports allow feeding more hummingbirds at the same time, a big capacity of 32 ounces, a s-hook and a round resting perch. The dent on the lid serves as a ant moat when filled with water.

Wide-mouth and two-part bases make it easy to clean and fill nectar.

5. Handheld Mini Hummingbird Feeders

The window feeder is not the one to makes you be closest to the lovely wild birds. This handheld mini feeder makes you experience the delight of feeding hummers by hand! There are two ways to make the hummers drink the nectar from your hand: Way 1. Put a standard hummingbird feeder first to attract hummers, when the hummers get used to drink in your gargen or at your window, stretch out your hand with the mini feeder; Way 2. Put several mini feeder on your windowsill to attract hummers, then use your handheld feeders when the hummers are familiar with the feeders and the environment.

How To Make A Hummingbird Feeder

Before starting DIY your hummingbird feeder, we need to know what kind of food the feeder should hold while the the hummers drink nectar and eat bugs. We can catch bugs and let go the bugs where the hummingbirds appear to search food. But it’s hard for DIYers to make a bug feeder to the hummers. Actually we just need to feed our hummers with nectar, they can hunt bugs for protein after they get energy from the nectar. So the feeder we are making for hummingbirds is just to hold liquid (nectar). Such a feeder is usually a bottle (better to be a glass wine bottle that is easy to get) with a tube stopper (feeding port).

Bottles are easy to get, many used empty wine bottles can be good tanks for the sugar water. The other important part is a tube stopper to stop the leakage and with a tube serve as a feeding port. We need to buy this tube stopper because it’s cheap but hard to make by ourselves. It just cost us very little money to get a tube stopper that features anti-leakage stopper and red flower-shape feeding port to attract hummingbirds.

Bottles are easy to get, many used empty wine bottles are the good tanks for the sugar water. The other important part is a tube stopper to stop the leakage and with a tube end serves as a feeding port. We need to buy this tube stopper because it’s cheap but hard to make by ourselves. It just cost us very little money to get a tube stopper that features anti-leakage stopper and red flower-shape feeding port to attract hummingbirds. Some people would use common metal/plastic tube and glue to make a tube stretch out of the hole made on the bottle cap. But the tube is not that attractive to hummingbirds as a commercial tube stopper and the glue would dissolve into the nectar after a long time under the sunshine and may be poisonous to birds.

Please note that the bottle feeder as above is really ugly that I downloaded from a tube stopper seller on amazon.com. Actually the feeder can be very beautiful and fashion if you have some good-looking wine bottles.

How To DIY Bird Feeders

If you have many lovely birds around your garden or backyard, you want a try to feed them, so you need to buy some bird feeders. But if you don’t want to spend much on the feeders by now or you just enjoy doing it yourself, making a bird feeder may be a good idea. Considering a bird feeder is just a container holding food to feed wild birds, it’s actually a very simple DIY job.

A clear plastic drink bottle with 2 or 3 sticks going through as perches.

Prepare a clear plastic bottle, some wood or metal sticks go through the bottle and act as perches. Make some small holes above the perches as feeding ports (The distance between perches and holes is according to what kind of bird you are feeding). Filled the bottle with bird food and hang it out in your backyard.

A glass bottle serves as the food container and the base of a plastic bottle serves as the dispenser

Cut off the bottom of a plastic bottle as the bird food dispenser. Fill a glass bottle with bird food and put it upside down with the bottle opening go to the dispenser. Make a “L” stand with wood or hard cardboard to fix the bird feeder. Nail the bird feeder to a post or affix to the window with adhesive.

A wine bottle with a tube stopper for hummingbirds

Now it’s about making a feeder for the hummingbirds. Hummingbirds drink nectar and eat bugs. Usually what we can feed hummingbirds is nectar (water sugar). We need a bottle to hold the syrup, and a feeder tube stopper that plugs into the opening of the bottle and serves a feeding port. The stopper is cheap and you can buy it on amazon.com, the feeding end is red flower-shape attracting hummingbirds.

Bird Feeder Types

Bird feeders are used to attract and feed the wild birds in your backyard or garden. A good bird feeder should have a strong structure that can withstand bad weather and small animals like squirrels and cats, it should be assembled, installed and cleaned easily. But these are the basic knowledge to choose your right bird feeder. To have more variety of birds to eat and have fun in your yard, you may need to provide some different kinds of bird feeders to suit different bird species. You will actually find some bird species like to use one kind of bird feeder more than others. So, to have more fun with your wild birds, you need to have an idea about bird feeder types.

Tray Feeder

: Tray Feeder

Tray feeders are the simplest bird feeders, these trays with bird foods attract the widest variety of seed-eating birds like pigeons, starlings, grosbeaks and sparrows. Tray feeders are usually offering no protection against rain and strong wind. Rain may sprout the seeds or foster fungal growth on the bird food. The wind would blow the bird food away or make the food everywhere in your yard. So some drainage holes would be made on the tray to let go the water and have high surrounding edge to stop the food inside the tray. Please be noted not to put the food full of the tray, otherwise the birds would also make the foods out of the tray to be everywhere of your yard. Just fill food at half of the tray every one day or two.

Tray feeders can be suspended under a tree with wires, or put on the ground. Better to have a roof to resist weather.

Tube Feeder

: Tube Feeder

Bird feeder in the form of a hollow tube can not only keep the bird food dry and clean, but also stop quirrels from stealing the bird foods. You can choose the size of the perches under the feeding ports according to the birds species that mostly appear nearby. Small sized perches are for small birds like sparrows, titmice, chickadees and grosbeaks while larger species like grackles and jays are excluded. The feeders are filled with nyjer seeds or larger seeds dending on the size of the feeding ports. Also, you should choose big or small tube feeders according to the quantity of the birds that would go to your yard/garden. A small model cannot handle lots of birds, but the big model would have some bird foods left and kept a long time to sprout or foster bacterial growth when there are only several birds.

Empty the old bird foods first before adding new food inside the tube. The old foods may be there in the bottom for a long time and spoil.

Suet Feeder

: Suet Feeder

Suet feeders are usually constructed with wires in a form of cage with seed cakes inside that are mainly for woodpeckers, nuthatches, chickadees, titmice, jays and starlings. Such a feeder stucture helps to keep squirrels and cats out. Suet feeders can be nailed or tied to a tree trunk / a post, or suspended under a tree.

The metal wires come with some saftey issues. The sharp ends of the wires should bended and hiden. The metal wires are better to be coated with plastic in case the birds’ tongues or eyes stick to the metal. Avoid using mesh onion bags to be suet feeders which would be possible to entangle the birds’ feet or toes and lead to the birds’ death.

Nyjer Feeder (Tube Feeder and Thistle Sock)

: Nyjer Feeder

Nyjer feeders are especially for goldfinches, pine siskins and redpolls. There are mainly two forms of nyjer feeder: tube feeders with tiny feeding ports and “thistle socks” for birds cling to extract the seeds. The nyjer feeders are simple but with a big capacity of seeds, this is good for the area with lots of finches. But when it’s a rainy day, the seed would become very wet and you need to take the seeds off before raining or replace the wet seeds with dry seeds in case of spoiling. Another good point for the nyjer feeders is that the squirrels are not interested in nyjer seeds.

Hopper Feeder

: Hopper Feeder

This kind of bird feeder is really a luxury one for wild birds, it looks like a “house” and protects bird food fairly well against bird droppings and bad weather like raining and snowing. Hopper feeders are attractive to most of the feeder birds, including sparrows, finches, cardinals, jays, buntings, grosbeaks and chickadees. The hoppers can hold lots of seeds that feed the birds for a few days, this is really convenient for the owner. Squirrels like to find foods in hopper feeders, you need to have a squirrel baffle installed on the feeder if you don’t want to feed them.

Window Feeder

: Window Feeder

Window feeders are made of clear plactic and affixed to window glass with two or three suction cups. This kind of feeder make us able to view the beautiful birds closely. Window feeders attract finches, sparrows, chickadees and titmice. It’s convenient to access the feeders for filling and cleaning. The owner may need to place a paper or something else under the feeder on the windowsill to take the brid droppings.

Chinese Bird Cage Culture

The Chinese bird cage culture has been hundreds of years. In China, especially in ancient time, owning a good bird cage is the symbol of social status of the rich men or the high officials.

The bird cage culture was quiet different in South China and North China before.

In south China, a bird cage is usually made of bamboo because of the humid condition. The shape of a cage is mostly square with a domed top. It’s more exquisite comparing with the workmanship of North China. The hook is swivelable.

In North China, due to the dry condition, a bird cage can be also made of wood and rattan. The shape of a cage is mostly round with a flat top. People like to decorate the cage with gold, silver, jade, gemstone and even ivory. The cage is usually luxury but very sturdy. The hook is usually not swivelable.

But nowadays, the Chinese bird cage culture is not that different between the North and the South. Most of the cages in traditional styles are combined with the advantages of the North and the South.

The below is an exquisite traditional Chinese bird cage with lots of woodcarving jobs by a modern Chinese.

These are some antique Chinese traditional bird cages.

DIY a parrot breeding box

When your pet parrots are going to breed, they need a nest that they can hide in and feel safe to have eggs to hatch. We usually place a nest box inside the cage or affix the nest box to the cage if the cage is not big enough. We call this nest box as a breeding box. The breeding box is very simple and easy for us to make it by ourselves.

Know the design of a parrot breeding box

There are two popular types of parrot breeding box: “:” and “..” as below diagrams:

Parrot breeding box of type “:”

Parrot breeding box of type “..”

From the above diagrams, we can see the basic theory of a parrot breeding is to have two chambers, one is activity room or just a channel, the other chamber is for breeding. We put nesting materials, such as rolled oats and/or wood flakes, into the breeding room as a soft bedding for the birds and eggs. There should be a door to the breeding chamber for us to inspect inside. The entrance hole should be aligned with an opening of the bird cage when affixing the breeding box to the cage with two sets of bolts/gaskets.

Actually the breeding box can be small with only one chamber and be placed inside the cage. But the breeding box with two chambers and the breeding chamber is further inside the box will make the parent birds feel safer, and the lighting and noise will affect the breeding birds less than in the box with only one chamber.

Usually type “:” is more popular than type “..” because the nesting materials in box of type “:” is not easy to be push out by the birds.

DIY the breeding box

Do the calculations and measurements.

Determine the size of the breeding box according to the size of your birds.
Calculate how many pieces of plywood are needed for a breeding box.
Measure and mark lines on a large piece of plywood that we can cut along the lines to get the exact wood pieces to assemble the box.
Also remember to mark the holes on specific wood pieces according to the diagram. The hole on the breeding chamber should be high in the middle position in case the baby birds climb out of the box.

Cut the wood pieces and make holes.

Make sure the cuts are clean without splinters that may hurt the birds.
The wood piece with entrance hole should also have two bolt holes to be drilled. Two bolts and gaskets will be installed to affix the box and the cage together.

Build the wood pieces into a box with a hammer and nails.

Hammer the nails entirely into the wood pieces, no any tip exposed to hurt the birds.
The nails should be stainless steel or nickle plated in case any possible lead poisoning.

Affix the box to the bird cage.

Remove some wires of the cage with a metal cutter to have an opening to align with the entrance hole of the box when they are affixed together with the bolts and gaskets.