Natural Care for Animals of All Kinds

One of the things that excited us about growing our own food was the fact that we were going to have food from our own garden and meat from our pigs and chickens without the added hormones and chemicals. While it is true that we didn't have to add chemicals, there were a lot of chemicals we didn't think about that come into play on a regular day. For example, the horses have flies that bother them, the donkey constantly has a scratch from something, the garden has bugs that have to be attended to, and then there is the de-worming of all the animals. So in the hopes of trying to have a chemical free home and toxic free family, we started looking into other options for our little farm.
When we first started the farm 7 years, we started with chickens. We actually hatched our first chicken in an incubator in our kitchen (it was a 1st grade science project). It was so neat watching the baby hatch and then raising more chicks one by one. One thing that I did not know about the chickens was that they are so fragile. One time we bought a couple of very unusual chickens from a sale. We were so excited about the them. We got them home, set up their pen, gave it food and water, and went to bed. The next morning we came out to feed all the animals and low and behold the chicken was dead! I couldn't believe it. I started researching to see what would have happened. I came to learn that chicks tend to get stressed out very easily. Over the years we have had some chickens get an upper respiratory issue and then die. We have bought all kinds of medicines to help the chicks to get past the sicknesses but nothing helped. so we decided to look into natural care for the animals. What we discovered was that essential oils were getting great results for people and animals. So about 2 1/2 years ago, my family started using essential oils for our support. We started with our family and the cats and dogs. The oils worked great on the fleas and ticks as well as for helping an unset pet calm down and relax. Next, I found that chickens could truly benefit from several essential oils as well. We  used lavender to help them relax and Thyme to help those respiratory issues.
The pros for use essential oils outweigh the cons to me. I have used a variety of them on all of our animals including the horses and donkey. I knew I would not go back to store-bought cleaners, pet care products, or bug spray when my best friend called and told me a very scary story about her little dog. She had gone to the store and bought a collar for her dog and soon after putting it on her she began to act really funny. She could not walk and could not get up and down on the chair. In a couple of hours the dog was paralyzed. When she went to the vet, he told her this was one of the side effects of the chemicals in the collar. I have totally loved our toxic free home and farm. We now, very quickly and easily make our own bug spray, spray for flies, and spray for the scratches on the animals. I have actually saved money because all the products I use on the animals are safe for my family as well. I can make one bottle of bug spray and put it on the kids before they go out to keep flies and gnats away and then take that same bottle to the garden and spray the plants and get rid of all the aphids and beetles. I love my oils and I don't see life without them.

Bird Feeding - A Big American Hobby

Did you know that there are millions of Americans that feed wild birds on a regular basis? According to the Fish and Wildlife Service, there are 83 million Americans that feed wild birds for a variety of reasons.

People feed wild birds to bring beauty to their outdoor spaces, for therapy or relaxation and for educational purposes for themselves or others. Some put bird feeders in their yards, hang them from trees, and put them on fences and in gardens or patios. Wild birds can be fed in your gardens or patios anytime of the year.

The Fish and Wildlife Service estimate in the spring there are approximately 10 billion wild birds in the United States and in the fall approximately 15 billion wild birds. This large increase in the fall is due to the fact that all the babies will have hatched.

Of those that feed birds, approximately $3 billion a year is spent on bird food by backyard hobbyists. They also spend $800 million a year on accessories for birds such as bird houses, bird baths, bird feeders, and other birding accessories.

There are all types of feeders. Here are just a few examples of the types of feeders that are available. There are also many more varieties of bird feeders constructed of many different materials.

    .Suet feeder
    .Open hopper
    .Single tube feeder
    .Twin tube feeder
    .Free standing feeder
    .Circular bird feeder
    .Liquid feeder
    .Fruit feeder
    .Platform feeder
    .Ground feeder

There are different types of feeders in relation to the types of birds you are trying to attract and the region of the country you are located in.

For example, the Blue Jay, can be found in almost every state in the country depending on the time of year. Blue Jays like a variety of feeders and a variety of bird food.

The types of bird feeders Blue Jays prefer vary in size and type. They like tube feeders, covered platform feeders, suet feeders, large open hoppers. They also like to eat on the ground to forage for whatever they can find.

Blue Jays like to eat seeds; safflower seeds, black oil sunflower seeds and hulled sunflower seeds. Here is a list of some of the other foods that Blue Jays enjoy to eat.

    .Cracked corn
    .Fruit
    .Mealworms
    .Milo
    .Millet
    .Peanuts
    .Peanut hearts
    .Suet

There are all types of bird seed and bird food available on the market today. It is best to know, as in our example, the Blue Jay, the types of environment for housing and the types of food they prefer. Most feed stores that also sell bird see will be able to help you with the types of food and feeders for the birds in your region of the county.

With so many types of birds in the United States and so many regions of the country, there is always opportunity to add a bird feeder to your outdoor gardens or patios, anytime to the year. It is educational and fun. Buy a bird feeder today!

Happy Birding!

Training Your Parrot

Parrots are great pets for the family. you will notice very quickly that these breads of birds are very intelligent and quick learners which makes the training very easy and exciting for the trainer.

You must never forget that birds with great intelligence can easily get bored with their training, this means as the training instructor you must spend the time needed to make your parrot feel content with being in your presence.

This will include both time and patience to correctly train your bird. by taking your time and being patient you will create a bond with your parrot that will last a lifetime.

By following a few very easy steps you can easily start the training for your bird. First thing is when you start your training session always take the bird out of the cage and find a small quiet area away from the cage. This will make it much easier for your parrot to stay focused and devoted to the task at hand.

The next step is to eliminate all distractions in the training area. Distractions in the training area will cause your parrot to get sidetracked and will result in a poor learning session. make sure you turn off the stereo,cell phone and TV.

Remember this, Parrots are like raising your young children. Training sessions should be small periods of time, Parrots have very small attention spans so take your time and always be patient.

Another thing to remember choose your session time around the bird's daily schedule. One of the best times to start a training session Is right after a meal, Your bird will be content and pay attention to what you are teaching. Always compliment your parrot, The more the better. Parrots really appreciate being complimented.

OK now this is very important, In the beginning of your training if it does not seem to be working at a level you wish it was. Never let your parrot see your stress level If you get mad and show your stress level to your bird, This will cause a undesirable encounter for the parrot which will in return cause a focus and learning problem in future training sessions.

Now its time to teach your bird a new trick. If you use a treat to compliment the trick your bird will remember this and start to work for the treat. Another thing you should always remember is: Not just birds but all animals respond to training session better to compliment compared to punishment or yelling at them. Always avoid yelling or punishing your bird even when they are performing a trick wrong.

Ignoring bad conduct is always the best thing to do when in a training session with your bird. Parrots do not understand a unfavorable offer or punishment. So this being said understand that if you decide to respond to your parrots bad behavior this may in fact be taken into view from the bird as constructive attention. This in return will cause undesirable conclusions to the training sessions.

Also remember your parrot will always love food and treats for compliments, but always try to praise worthy conduct and promote play around time. otherwise, you will have a problem getting your bird to perform or participate in training tricks when a snack or treat is not offered.

Repeating the tricks over and over again is very important to being successful in the training of your pet. The more you repeat the better your parrot will get. Just keep repeating these training steps over and over, And in time your parrot will learn the tricks and it will get easier for your bird to complete the trick. This general instructions concept will work for easy tricks as well as advanced talents.

For instance start out with a easy trick like having your parrot sit on your finger on demand. Use only 1 Keyword for each trick, And use the keyword every time you practice the trick. Remember never force or push your bird to train. If your bird seems to be tired or uninterested in training, Immediately stop the session and start the training session at a later time.

As time goes on and your parrot starts to learn tricks and commands you can start moving the training area closer to the bird's cage. As the confidence builds in your parrots unique skill they will begin to perform more and more in the household as well as there own bird cage.

Parrots learn amazingly fast in almost all cases. Not only by repeating training sessions but by just listening to sounds around them. So be careful what you repeat around them because chances are you will hear your own words sometime in the near future.

Just remember a few important things training a parrot requires a lot of patience and time. To make the partnership worthwhile you have to exchange love and take the time to understand your bird. With love training and proper care you can and will end up with a well trained bird and friendship that will last a lifetime.

How to Create a Homemade Bird House

A bird house can be a real treat for your children if you are planning to build one this summer. These shelters for birds add an elegant touch to your backyard. Moreover it can be painted or decorated with glass mosaic windows which will make the little house look even more beautiful. Other embellishments such as flowers can also be used to give it a whimsical effect. Mostly, wooden houses are made to rest on a post. In order to flaunt your creativity, you can also choose to decorate and paint the post on which the house stands.

Bring your kids along and make a homemade wooden house that your children will love. Here's a 4-step guide to creating a wonderful addition to your house.

Step 1

First and foremost, you should find a good stencil of either flowers, butterflies or other crafts that you think would go best with the exterior of the wooden bird house. Also, pick some exterior paints and a strong exterior sealer to give your bird house the protection it needs.

Step 2

Once you have decided on the stencils, secure them on the exterior of the wooden house using painter's tape. Next, apply paint on your stencil brush and dab lightly in its open areas. However, if you are using stamps for decoration, apply the paint directly onto the stamp and press it firmly on the exterior of your bird house. The outlines can then be done using a template and filled in with craft paints.

Step 3

After the exterior is complete, the next step involves making the roof for the wooden house. The roof can either be made into a shingle or metal roof. There are two ways of doing this. The first and also the easiest way to it is using a sheet of copper; however, if you want to make it look more neat, you can use craft sticks which need to be neatly cut and lined to form the bird house roof.

Step 4

Then come the windows for your birds' shelter. To make it look grand, make use of mosaic windows. In order to give it more detail, stick to it tiny pieces of broken ceramic or porcelain tiles. If you are up for a more creative touch, make a themed house. For instance, use sea shells to make a beach themed wooden bird house.

4 simple steps and your homemade bird house is ready to attract purple martins finding a comfortable shelter. If you find the process time consuming or difficult, you can choose to buy a ready-made purple martin house which would be a great option. There are many online stores that offer a wide variety of Martin houses to choose from.

Catching Birds

Every morning we prop the door open with a chair to let the cat go in and out for a couple of hours. We call this her exercise time and she is usually in and asleep under the bed before I remember to close the door. A couple of days ago, a very small bird got trapped in our lanai when the door was still open. The bird was very frightened and kept hitting the screen in its attempts to get out. Carefully I herded it towards the door until it found the open space and quickly disappeared from sight. I heaved a sigh of relief.

Although this was a very small bird (a sparrow? I'm not good at bird recognition), the Florida birds I'm most familiar with are the larger shore birds. We live next door to a wildlife preserve, 487 acres of inland waterways, walking and biking trails, native plants, small animals and birds which often make their way next door to our area.

Every day, we can feast our eyes on blue herons, roseate spoonbills, white egrets, wood storks, ibises, ospreys, hawks, cormorants, pelicans and (sometimes) eagles resting on our lawns or fishing in our man-made lakes that are stocked with fish. When I walk in the late afternoon, I often take binoculars along to get a better view of the birds that are just out of eye sight. I never tire of watching them.

Birds have been in our life and even in our house since our middle daughter was in grade school and we were living in California. She fell in love with the smaller tropical birds that you see in pet shops. The first bird was a cockatiel that was hand raised and very tame. He loved to sit on heads and shoulders and once he chose to do this to a TV repairman just as he bent over the back of our TV set. I heard his scream from the other end of the house. I don't know who was more frightened, the bird or the repairman.

Our daughter had two parakeets in a cage in her room. One, Marco, was very tame and could be let out for short periods. One day she called and asked me to bring the two birds to school for show and tell. Obediently I picked up the cage with the two birds and headed for the car. But when I placed them on the driveway to retrieve the car keys from my pocket, the cage door swung open and Marco flew the coop. Horrified, I watched him until he settled in a large tree by the corner of the house. I waited a few minutes, then decided I'd better take the remaining bird to school where our daughter was waiting,

At school, I handed her the cage, mumbling something about Marco's absence. But after the show and tell was over, I knew I had to tell her the truth. She burst into tears and asked to go home to look for him.

When we returned to the house, I was surprised to find that Marco had remained in the tree but on a much higher branch. I pointed him out to our daughter and when I saw her sad face, I knew what I had to do. I retrieved the extra birdcage from the house and loaded it with bird seed. Then, cage in hand, I started to climb the tree. I'm no athlete and climbing trees was never something I did well (even in my prime) but I was determined. With help from a step ladder, I reached a V in the tree and when I looked up, I saw Marco watching my every move. Carefully I maneuvered to the next protruding branch and, when I looked down, I knew this was my limit.

I balanced the cage on a branch above me, door open and hoped the seed looked good to a hungry bird. Marco cocked his head, looked at the bird seed and looked at me. He hopped down to a closer branch. Fifteen minutes later, he came a bit closer. My legs were cramped, my back hurt and the ground was much too far away but my daughter's tearful face at the bottom of the tree kept me going. Marco moved again, his eyes on the cage. Then - bang- he was in and I secured the cage door. My grateful daughter took the cage from me and I carefully made my way down the tree, very happy to feel the ground beneath my feet.

Unfortunately, this wasn't the last bird escapade. About a year later, my daughter decided to raise finches to sell to pet stores. We constructed an aviary in the back yard and soon it was occupied by dozens of finches. But our building skills left something to be desired and a few weeks later, we discovered at least half the finches had escaped through an opening in the screen that had come loose over the door. The escapees were flying overhead and perching on top of the aviary. I remembered the method I had used to trap Marco and thought maybe it would work again.

I grabbed the old birdcage, filled it with seed and then surveyed the yard. There was no tree to climb but there was a small one to hide behind. I tied a fishing line to the cage door and left the cage in front of the tree. Then I released enough line to get me behind the tree. I kneeled down and pulled the line taught so the cage door was wide open.

It didn't take long before the first finch hopped over to the door, enticed (I hoped) by the bird seed within. As soon as he hopped in, I let the fishing line go and the door swung shut. After I returned the finch to the aviary I repeated the exercise again and again, until we had most of the birds back in the aviary which, by now, had been patched up.

However, the birds were only part of the menagerie. We also had two dogs, a cat, a rabbit, two chickens and one duck. A friend of ours would bring his son to our house to visit because the child thought our yard was the zoo! And he might have been right.

When we moved from California to Syracuse, New York, the aviary had to go but the pet birds - one parakeet, one cockatiel and an African grey parrot - came with us, in addition to two dogs. We traveled by air to our new home and created quite a stir at baggage claim when the three crates holding the larger creatures rolled down the belt. I hand-carried the parakeet and cockatiel in a small cage. They, too, startled other passengers with their small vocabularies: hello, how are you, good-bye and cockadoodle-doo.

A year later, when my daughter left for college, we found a wonderful new home for the cockatiel and parakeet with a woman who had an equally tame female cockatiel. The last I heard both cockatiels spent most days riding on her shoulders and the parakeet followed close behind. The African grey parrot got sick and, when I learned that the veterinarian treating him had a room at home just for her parrots, I offered her ours in return for the bill. It was a win-win but most of all, I knew the parrot had a good home.

I'm very happy now to enjoy the birds in the wild and at a distance and to pet other people's dogs when I pass them on the street. My husband and I presently have close contact with only one cat - she is more than enough to take care of (and sometimes, too much!). But the zoo years - along with our children's childhoods - were precious and the memories will be there forever.

Food for Aquarium Fish

Fish like all animals require food. The food they eat should contain all the ingredients necessary for healthy growth and wellbeing. Too often, owners give only one type of food to fish.

This results in deficiencies which result in stunted growth and other abnormalities.

Healthy fish should be vigorous in motion, bright-colored with proper proportions. Examine your fish regularly for any signs of poor nutrition.

To provide proper nutrition, it is first necessary to understand the dietary habits of fish. Some fish are carnivores (meat-eating). Some are herbivores (plant-eating). While most fish are omnivores (eating both plant and animal food).

Carnivorous fish need a protein based diet. These include dried worms, shrimp, etc. Herbivorous fish require plant-based food. Examples are Spirulina, peas, etc.

Hence, try to find out the natural food for the fish you keep. There are different types of fishfeed available in the market. If you have a community aquarium, it is best to add a mixture of animal based and plant-based food.

Adding natural plants to the aquarium gives a source of food to herbivorous fish.

Another reason for poor nutrition among fish is the wrong of choice of type of fishfeed. Fish feed can be broadly categorized into floating food and sinking food.

Choose the type of food depending on the fish you have. Surface floating food will not be accessible to fish living the middle regions or in the bottom. These fish will become malnourished. Sinking food which slowly sinks to the bottom gives a chance to these fish to have food.

Hence, provide a combination of floating and sinking food to your fish. Ensure that the food are in proper size. Small fish with their small mouths cannot handle big chunks of food. These fish will go hungry.

When food is added to fish. The food may float in the surface of the water. This makes the food available to surface fish which stay in the surface. However, there are many species of fish which do not come to the surface.

These fish will not get food. Hence, when feeding it is necessary to choose your food depending on the fish you have. Sinking Food is a special type of food which sinks once it is dropped into the tank. This ensures that middle level fish also get a chance to eat.

There are different types of sinking food depending on the rate of sinking.

If you have nocturnal fish, drop some food before switching the lights off. This will ensure that the fish which forage at night will be able to eat.

Flaked Food is fish food which has been made into flakes. The food is mixed and then extruded or heated which produces the layers known as flakes. Flakes are very popular among hobbyists. Virtually all types of fish food can be made into flakes. flaked food

The flakes are small in size and usually float in the water. This gives time for the fish to eat them. The Flake are usually fortified with minerals.

The size of the flake should be suitable for the fish. Small fish may not be able to eat large flakes.

Flakes usually come in sealed containers. They usually have a best-before date.

Store Flakes in a cool dry place. Moisture and light should not be allowed to reach the flake foods.