Question by Glass Gecko: How can I care for a love bird that may have eaten styrofoam?
There was a love bird flying around my grandma’s old folk’s home that was quite tame, so I caught it and brought it home. Unfortunately I think it had been chewing on a styrofoam plate being used to water plants on my grandma’s room’s balcony – how can I best care for this bird? How do you reintroduce a love bird to a caged life? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Best answer:
Answer by Oni
Most of the birds that I know who chew on things like styrofoam, paper, and cardboard do not actually ingest it. They just tear it up. The odds that he actually ate the styrofoam are pretty slim. Otherwise, there is a chance he’ll pass it and a chance that he gets very sick. Watch out for any and all signs of illness, and at the very first symptom get him in to see an avian vet!
Signs of illness include: constantly sitting fluffed up, being unable to perch, sitting at the bottom of the cage, being lethargic, loss of appetite, vomiting, diarrhea, discharge from the eyes and nose, and disorientation.
The first thing you’ll want to do is look up lovebird care to make sure you have a properly sized cage, toys, and dietary requirements. A properly sized cage should be at least 20x20x20 (roughly), toys shouldn’t be too large, and a healthy diet consists of pellets, bird friendly fresh foods (learn what’s toxic to them!), and only about 10% pellets.
You’ll want to take the first few days slowly. The move home is a very stressful for a parrot, and odds are good that he will want very little to do with you for awhile. During this time, it’s a good idea to sit a few feet from the cage and talk to him.
Talk sweetly and softly. SMILE! He might not understand your words, but he will understand your tone and your expression. As he appears to calm down over the days/weeks, start slipping him treats between the bars into his food dish. Once he seems comfortable with you doing this, try to open the cage door and slip him the treat.
The chances are that he will run from you the first time. Do NOT attempt to catch him. Just slowly and deliberately move your hands to put the treat in his dish and then remove your hand and close the cage door. Over time if you keep doing this, he’ll learn that you’re a sweet talking, smiling source of treats and will eventually stop being so frightened of your hand.
Once that occurs, try to get him to take the treat from your fingers. After he seems comfortable with doing that (can take days or weeks), you can start trying to teach him to step up.
There are plenty of good resources out there on the web that offer advice for training. I recommend you start searching. Simply typing “lovebird care and training” into Google will get you to most of them with ease.
Keep in mind that parrots are not easy pets. They require a lot of time from their owners to socialize. You will need to be able to devote at least four hours a day to your parrot’s social needs. ESPECIALLY after you’ve managed to tame and train him.
Please feel free to contact me with any other questions you may have. If you do your research and proceed cautiously and gently with him, you should be just fine. ^_^
Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!
Tags:bird, Birds, Care, eaten, Love, styrofoam
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