Not true! Keets love cuttlebone. It doesn't really do much for 'trimming the beak' which is what they're sold for, but they love to chew on it, and it does get them extra calcium and other minerals that are good for them. It's grit that they don't need and shouldn't have. Birds that hull their seeds don't need peppbles in their crop to help break it down. Birds that swallow their seeds whole- like my diamond doves- DO need grit to help with this process. Some parrots have been known to eat so much grit that it fills up their crop, or otherwise turns into a huge hard lump and blocks things up and is generally bad for them. My cockatiels and keets never had access to it, but enjoyed the cuttlebone. The doves have a mix of a couple brands of grit, and once a week, I'll sprinkle a little on Sam's food, because he's not a seed eater at all.TxCat wrote:a cuttle bone (which I have since learned they don't/won't use)
since they are not native to the US, it was most likely an escape- or possibly even a release (I HATE HATE HATE HATE when people do that shit). Birds are capable of flying hundreds of miles in a single day, so your ads may not have reached the owner, or the owner saw and didn't care.They don't migrate over Colorado so we speculated it was either blown off course or had escaped someone. We ran ads for it but no one ever claimed the bird.
Cringes all around. and this, folks, is why different species of parrots should never be kept together. I saw one of those animal psychics on TV one day- a family had an amazon and some other smaller parrot, a quaker I think, and informed the psychic that the birds lived together in the same cage and 'loved' each other. But the Quaker had pulled all his belly feathers out. The 'psychic' told them that the quaker just wanted to know the owners still thought he was beautiful. I cussed her out and changed the channel- the poor quaker was all kinds of stressed out living with the larger, more aggressive Amazon and needed its own cage! GRAH!He lived with the budgie for a while, until they fought and the budgie pulled out a bunch of his feathers and he cracked the budgie's beak. Then they got separate cages and he went into one of those awful round things meant for display on a tottering three legged stand.
I rescued a keet from one of those cages. She was an 8 year old albino who kind of glowed blue- she was gorgeous. Poor thing had been in that cage her whole life. She couldn't fly forward, only vertically. When given out of cage time, she would fly up until she hit the ceiling, and then just bump across it until she got where she wanted to go. All the other keets would fly happy laps around the room.
'Drafts' are actually not that bad for birds. Sometimes, the germs or smoke they may bring in can be, but a bird who is otherwise healthy and fed the proper diet and such will not 'be killed by a draft'. Birds are generally prey animals- even the birds of prey are not at the top of the food chain- so they are extremely good at hiding signs of illness. You really have to know what is normal, and be aware of even the smallest abnormal behavior. Sadly, the most common cause of keet and tiel death is actually starvation- their seed cup looks full, but it's just empty shells on top and they can't get to the seeds underneath. That's part of why I started going with shallow dishes. The bird may have been old or sick. I would be more willing to blame smoke and soot being blown down from the chimney than the actual draft the bird was getting.We don't know why he died, but one day he just did. Then my Ma moved the budgie's caged to clean under it and left it in a draft in front of the fire place all night long. The bird was dead the next morning.
Just don't keep them in the same cage! Zebra finches are ... I won't say aggressive, but they can be cheeky- like house sparrows. They can pick on other species of finches. Most of the other species of small finch can be housed together just fine and they'll get along great. Canaries can also be territorial and a bit aggressive, again like a sparrow, but they can get along with smaller finches. I had a huge cage and kept many species, including two male canaries and zeebs and a bunch of others and they did fine- as long as there weren't any nests available. When I offered nests, the zeebs became territorial over them, and would even kill the eggs and nestlings of other birds. The Canaries had been brothers, and it's usually best if two males are not kept in the same cage because they may fight. The brothers though, had their dominance dispute, and then went on to live long, happy lives together in the aviary with all the other finches.Once I've had these guys a few years, I plan on adding zebra finches and one of the medium parrots (I adore green cheeked conures and sun conures and I like the cockatiels). We have the room and the means to take care of them; it's only a matter of saving the money for the proper cages, toys, and other needs.
When I had my sparrow, I knew he would most likely pick on my finches, and I knew that keets and house sparrows have similar personality types- so I had Tseebit living with them until he had a cage of his own after the keets were gone.
The diamond doves I keep as a flock to themselves because the finches tended to use them as 'personal fluff dispensers' and that wasn't very nice to the extremely mellow doves. (please note- pigeons and many larger doves can be aggressive)
You will be amazed at how well they will learn to climb the vertical bars too!The bars are all vertical, so the birds won't be able to climb unless we install perches and ladders.
I've heard of birds doing this, but I have never experienced it. Birds seem to be extremely good about not swallowing things that arent' food. At least, keets and tiels in my experience are. Keets especially are gnawers and will help make their nesting holes just right by chewing the wood, so it would make sense that they'd be good about spitting stuff out again. I can't vouch for any larger birds.and the clappers on the bells are all the solid kind that they can't pick off and swallow.
The younger they are, the easier it is. They tend to be even more curious, and not set in their ways, so the conversion can take as little as a day. With my older birds, I think it helped that the flock already knew how to use the bottle, and they picked it up from them.These guys are young --- some of them aren't quite fully fledged --- so it's entirely possible they could learn that. It seems to me it would take care of a lot of potential mess (I've been told they like to bathe in their water supply and that they can't help pooping in it if it's an open dish...ick!)
My diamond doves learned from my finches who the zebra finches taught because of their curiosity. My parent doves taught their kids, and the dad and daughter I have currently taught the new pair I just added. The new guys were using the bottle in less than a week.
I think everything I listed, I bought at Petco. A few things may have been found at Petsmart. Try the associated websites for those stores if you have to.We can get the Lixit brand from our local Petco! (Mail order is always a mess because of the rural route and if you can't get into your PO box, they tend to send things back).
That looks interesting, but I'm not sure I'd be able to find one locally. Until we can --- you know we plan on upgrading to better and better the longer we have them --- I'm thinking the ceramic ones they have at the store work well. They look sort of like the cockatiel bath you linked to but without the perch. The books I have say to set the food dishes (multiples, at least one for each bird, in different locations) on the bottom of the cage. These have that wide curved opening so they can get into the dish and a shallow cupping at the bottom.For food dish- I loved this model for the keets.
I have HEARD of people giving their birds cottage and hard cheeses... but I refuse to. I can't imagine it being good for them. Birds are not mammals, they never drink milk. They are lactose intolerant.One of the books says once a week they should be fed a few tablespoons full of cottage cheese mixed with other things I can't remember. How odd? Another friend occasionally gave hers fresh sardines and other small fish, but I thought these guys were primarily seed and fruit eaters?
The fish... I can understand a bit more, I'm sure wild budgies may eat a few insects, but they are mostly seed eaters, with a few greens and fruit thrown in.
My keets enjoyed a bit of Zupreem pellets- fruity flavored ones, and the cockatiel LaFaber pellets. For some reason they preferred the larger size of the cockatiel ones over the parakeet sized ones. LaFaber is a bit expensive, but very worth it. It was recommended to me by some bird knowledgeable folks, as well as a couple of vets. Most bird experts will tell you that the pellet diets are the best thing for birds, because it's nutritionally complete.
BWAHAHAHAHAAA!!!! That is SO true. Sam knows that "Leave it!" means "put it down and hop away or Mom'll make me go back into my cage... which is boring. Soooo... I'm going to leave it for a moment, and then go back to it, and then play a round of tag when Mom gets up to yell at me again! HA HA!"I've discovered that saying to a raven, "Please stop breaking stuff" just doesn't work.
Suggestions ranged from Wall Street Journal to the local Jacksonville Times-Union but in the end the New York Times won because it has the most pages and we'll only have to buy one every few weeks.
Did that book ever even WATCH a keet? Sure, it takes them a bit to learn how, but they'll get it.
I have a lot of experience in dog behavior, both solitary dogs and dogs in pack situations, and a little bit of knowledge in dog training and dog health care. So if you have any questions, I can try and answer them to the best of my knowledge. 
