Ohno Emmi might be sick! Help please!

[Eric&Rebecca]

I have birdie grass LOL! Its a little tub with a holder that you put water on and it grows out cress, alfalfa spouts and all sorts. They eat it or adorn it around the cage and sleep in the remenants or put their head in the centre and shake their heads to stroke themselves. I think there's one on Zooplus website..

[Pajarita]

I put tree branches with leaves and buds for the parrots to eat and to perch this time of the year and I use evergreens in the winter -I even buy an extra Christmas tree in December and place it in a metal stand smack in the middle of the birdroom (the little ones love to hide between the branches). I also cover the floor with alfalfa or orchard grass to promote ground foraging, put rocks for them to clean and hone their beaks both on the floor and the platforms hanging from the ceiling and, about once a month during the warm months, I put a large flat pan of organic soil on the floor and throw seeds in there to germinate (the budgies ADORE dirt and often take beakfuls of it and carry it around). They have two fluorescent tubes of good quality full spectrum light (Ktemp 5500 and CRI of 94 or higher) and one of UVA/UVB and these plus the yellow paint on the walls make the room look sunny even in the grayest of winter days. Even the handicapped birds in cages get real branches with leaves and everything. Birds were meant to live in trees and I am convinced they have some kind of an atavistic memory of what their environment should be and are happier when it resembles nature...

[KimberlyAnn]

E&R, that sounds like a great idea! I think my mom has a sprouter, I will have to look it over! Is it easy to rinse the grass?

Pajarita, that sounds like birdie HEAVEN! My mother is up at our family cabin and is bringing me home Madrone and Manzanita tree limbs for perches from our land. Hopefully, she will be up for cutting a BIG branch so I can make a tree! Lol

[Eric&Rebecca]

I use the mister spray to clean it and then wipe it down gently with a piece of kitchen towel. My 'grass' has cress, alfafa, small bean sprouts and I think minature lambs lettuce. It's more of an enrichment and foraging things.

I'm going to have a look around for the wild blueberries Parajita talks about. My family live near an organic fruit farm in kent and they grow all sorts of things, I might pop down and see what they have in their produce.

[Strawfrawg]

I haven't had time to browse this section in a while...glad Emmi is okay!

I've grown chilis inside with no problems in medium light (windowsill that only gets good sun in the morning). My vet says the rest of the plant is a no-no.

Since cinnamon came up, he also says no cinnamon for Senegals...I haven't seen that anywhere else. I know it's okay for at least some species. He's been right on the money so far with what foods will have what effect on droppings, though. He is really into avian nutrition...owns six different species right now and experiments a lot, and he is always giving out photocopies of new articles he's found.

[KimberlyAnn]

Cinnamon...there are two types. Common cinnamon...hard sticks with 2-3 layers when rolled up and real cinnamon...softer crumbly sticks with many rolls and very expensive. I just read how the real one can be beneficial, but the common one can bother some birds, but really help others. I guess just like tomatoes. It depends on the bird. Still reading up on it though!

[Pajarita]

My birds have had cinnamon once a week for the last 20 years or so and none of them has gotten sick over it. And I really don't see how they could as it's an excellent immune system booster - but you do have to use it in small quantities (I put 1/3 teaspoonful in the nine ladlefuls of their breakfast food which is a pretty big bowl of it) and it has to be the 'real' cinnamon (from Ceylon) and not the 'fake' one from the cassia trees (that one has larger amounts of coumarin which is the 'bad' thing about cinnamon).

[Eric&Rebecca]

I've heard different species have different tolerances to cinnamon and other spices but then all different species require different levels of everything so that's not new. Like Parajita, I've added this to my birdie bread and never had a problem... I worry about Garlic... I've heard good and bad things about garlic...

[wdlodge]

I'm thinking about growing my own chilli plant for the birds. Perhaps they'll like the actual chillis too

Both my birds (Parrotlet and Senegal) love dried red chillies. I buy them from the store, but to grow them yourself would be great.

[Strawfrawg]

Good information re cinnamon. Thanks for that.

Pajarita, I'd really like to do some of the things you're doing with soil and plants but I'm concerned about using the wrong things. I have a list of bird-safe woods and plants, but if you wouldn't mind I'd love to know what varieties you use so I can copy...at least then I know I'll be using safe things. Thanks in advance for any help you can give me!