Parakeet Health
All You Need to Know About Parakeet Health
If you are a new pet owner, it is important to learn more about parakeet health to ensure that you can detect an illness and react quickly when your little bird falls ill. This article will give you a brief overview and explain possible symptoms.
It is useful to know that when your parakeet falls ill, it will try very hard to hide any pain or other symptoms. This is because when they live in nature, their fellow parakeet companions will exclude them and leave them behind when they are not fully functioning. While that may seem cruel, it is the truth - and your parakeet is going to appear healthy. But an attentive observer will detect a disease fairly quickly: Your parakeet may blink a lot with its eyes, sleep a lot, and may be unusually quiet. Generally spoken, any unusual behaviors can indicate an illness and even a new pet owner can usually understand when something is wrong. As soon as you notice a change, you must seek medical attention. While you should always be worried about parakeet health, it sometimes turns out to be false alarm. However, it is always better to check things out and avoid a long-lasting damage.
If your beloved pet suffers from a disease which has long-term effects or causes temporary disabilities in the parakeet, health arrangements become very important. Sometimes the bird will be unable to fly for a while, or is partly paralyzed or may even be unable to hold its balance. If it falls a lot it can seriously injure its head or fracture bones.
You should ensure that your parakeet cannot climb up too high in the cage, which you can arrange by blocking space with wood or a plastic board. Also, you may want to switch from poles and install grids instead - that way the bird cannot fall anywhere. Furthermore, the floor becomes important because a temporarily disabled parakeet may fall very often and has to be protected. We normally use sand to cover the floors, but that can already be too hard when the little one falls. To soften the floors, you may put a little hay on top of the sand or layer the floors with foam material. Whatever you choose- it has to be renewed regularly. But even a disabled parakeet does not want to get bored, so if you block out some of the cage you may want to consider buying a different one which is not too high but rather large in length. That way you can create a safe playground - a happy parakeet will heal and recover much quicker!
As for toys, make sure that your parakeet can reach everything without putting itself in danger. Part of parakeet health is entertainment and company, and although you may be worried about other birds annoying the ill one or toys injuring it, you cannot completely isolate it. However, it is best to remove any bathing items (like bird 'tubs') because a weak and ill bird may actually drown in there. Better options are little water dispensers and water sprayers. While most toys can remain in the cage as usual, remove all swings.
As mentioned earlier, parakeets need company. It is never advisable to keep them in singles - always have at least a pair. Especially if the two (or more) parakeets have known each other for a while, there is no reason for concern even when one of them is weak and fragile. A lonely parakeet will not only take much longer to recover, but it may actually die of loneliness.