:animal news
FIVE
Incredible
Owning a Bird
With their beautiful plumage, enchanting song and cheeky personalities, birds can
make wonderful pets. If you are thinking of getting a pet bird, here are a few things to
consider:
What Kind of Commitment Can I Give?
While a bird may not be as demanding as other pets, they still require time, maintenance and social interaction on a daily basis. If you have limited free time, then finches
or canaries (kept in pairs) or other independent species would be better than a parrot
species, which would need socialisation and company to thrive. In addition, some of the
larger parrot species can live to 50 years or more so you have to commit to caring for
the bird over its entire lifespan.
What About Cost?
When adding up the cost of a bird, don't forget to allow for equipment, such as the
cage, food, toys and vetinary care.
Especially with the larger parrots and exotic species, pet ownership can get very expensive.
How Much Noise Will it Make?
Many of the parrot species are extremely noisy and it is impossible to prevent natural
behaviours such as screeching.
What About the Housing Arrangements?
The cage should always be as large as possible. The bird needs to be able to spread
both wings out, up and turn around without touching the sides of the cage. For larger
birds, such as parrots, height is probably more important than width. For smaller birds,
the length of the cage is more important as they get their exercise from flying within
the cage. Check also that the bar spacing is appropriate for the size of your pet bird.
What Do I Feed it?
Birds need a varied diet to thrive. As well as dry seed sold in pet stores, fresh green
seeds, flowers, fruit, vegetables should also be included in your pets diet.
Will it Have the Right Personality?
What do you want from a pet bird? If you want a pet bird that will learn to be "cuddly"
then a cockatoo could be for you. If you are keen to teach tricks and want your pet to
mimic speech, then a parrot-species would be ideal.
Source: www.saferpets.co.uk
48 | www. h e rmagaz i n e . c o. nz
ANIMAL
FACTS
The KANGAROO, the national
animal of Australia, is one of the
Australian continent. A new-born
Kangaroo can be about just 1 inch
(size of a lima bean) in length.
The HUMMINGBIRD is not only
the smallest bird in the world but
the only one that can fly backwards.
They also have the fastest wing
beat and heart beat.
If you cut a STAR FISH into several
pieces, every piece will become a
new star fish. A star fish can also
change its gender according to its
needs.
The BLUE WHALE is the largest
and the heaviest known creature
that has ever existed on the earth.
A blue whale's tongue weight as
much as an elephant.
DARWIN'S BARK SPIDER is an
amazing species of spider that produces the toughest silk. Its density
can be four times greater than
steel. Web created by them is the
largest in the world ranging from
900–28,000 cm.
Source: factsnmyths.com
