Why is it important? Studies have repeatedly shown that birds in smaller cages are more likely to suffer from:

• OCD-like behaviours
• Obesity

Some Notes On Cage Sizes

I have taken data from two sources: the Queensland Aviculture Code of Practice 2010 and the Victorian Code of Practice for the Housing of Caged Birds. Most birds are social animals, and keeping them in twos or fours is considered better than alone. Therefore, sizes for multiples have also been included.

For each, I have used recommended sizes for outdoor cages. These are perfectly suitable indoors for smaller birds like budgerigars and cockatiels. Where possible, I hope you can exceed these dimensions, or allow your bird some free flight in the house every day.

Outdoor cages need roofs and one solid wall faced into the prevailing wind. All cages also need perches made out of natural sticks in a variety of sizes, placed where they do not impede flight.

Bird Cage Size Chart

Dimensions show minimum floor areas, which are better as long rectangles rather than squares. All measurements are in cm.

*The minimum dimension in any direction of any outdoor aviary/cage should not be less than 60cm.
**The minimum height to the top of any outdoor aviary/cage should be at least 1.5m above ground level to allow birds to escape from predators. The Queensland code of practice stipulates a 180cm height outdoors.

Do Budgies Like Big Cages?

Sometimes, the transition for a bird used to tiny cages can be slow, but all birds adapt well. Enjoyment is improved by enriching the environment with natural plants and forage items, water or dust baths and toys. Wing clipping should not be done for birds in cages where flight is possible.

I’ve personally kept Bourke parrots in a flight aviary. The enjoyment I received from watching them sing and play is something I want all bird owners to experience.

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By Andrew Spanner BVSc(Hons) MVetStud, a vet in Adelaide, Australia. Meet his team here.

• Keep the animal calm in a large, dark and quiet box
• Use gloves and a towel for handling if necessary
• If not possible, or for bats, call Fauna Rescue first
• Take them to the nearest open vet for assessment
• There will be no fees or charges

Now dive deeper…

While out recently, my phone buzzed. “Hey mate, can you help me with an injured duck?” I couldn’t, but I told him where to take it. “Cheers for the info” came the reply, and I thought no more about it.

The next day, while walking the dogs, there was the duck, still there.

People don’t help wildlife because they think it’s difficult or expensive. Nothing could be further from the truth.

How To Take Care Of Injured Animals

To report injured wildlife, just follow the advice for the species you’ve found:

• Sea birds, seals & dolphins
• Bats
• Ducklings
• Koalas
• Birds
• Kangaroos
• Possums & all other animals

Marine Animals

Sea life, from sea birds to dolphins and whales must be handled by the Australian Marine Wildlife Rescue & Research Organisation. You can find their contact details here.

Call first, as generally they do not want you to touch the animal unless it is in immediate danger. AMWRRO will usually come out to you.

Sick or Injured Bats

Do not pick up bats. They can carry a lyssavirus dangerous to humans, and only vaccinated and trained handlers should touch them. Read more about Adelaide’s bats here. If you find a bat on the ground, call the Fauna Rescue Bat Hotline on (08) 84861139.

Duckling Rescue

In springtime there are lots of ducklings hatching and many end up separated from their mother. If this is the case, call the Duckling Hotline on 0412 810 345.

Koala Rescue

There are quite a few organisations promoting koala rescue in Adelaide. It’s a very emotive area and I’m sure they all put in amazing efforts.

1. Fauna Rescue Koala Hotline 1300 562 527
2. Adelaide and Hills Koala Rescue 1300 562 529
3. Adelaide Koala Rescue 0413 185 771

Like with all wildlife, but often forgotten with koalas, human contact is stressful and should be kept to a minimum until carers arrive.

Sick or Injured Birds

Being able to pick up a bird is usually a sign that something’s wrong. However, young birds that have just feathered and left the nest will often end up on the ground, with the parents watching nearby. If they seem OK, place them out of harm and observe from a long way away so that the parents feel it’s safe enough to come back.

If nothing happens after a few hours, then it’s OK to pick them up. Call Fauna Rescue on (08) 8289 0896 to arrange a collection. An ideal transport box for a bird should be:

• between 1.2 and 2 times the length of the bird
• half as wide as it is long
• tall enough for a bird to stand if needed
• padded around the sides with bubble wrap or crumpled tissue paper

Most adult birds are best taken to the closest vet for assessment, as they are likely to be sick or injured. Your vet will do this for free. Keep them warm, and if there’s any delay and you need to offer food, be aware of species requirements. The bird at the start with the long curved bill is a New Holland Honeyeater. These, like lorikeets eat soft fruits and nectar not seed.

Note the location as some birds are highly territorial and must be returned to the exact place. If you find a bird of prey, call Fauna Rescue quickly for advice on how to reduce feather damage.

Injured Kangaroos

Most injured kangaroos have been hit by a car or caught in a fence. Some of these will be impossible to move. In this situation, there are two options, and one or the other should be able to send someone out:

1. Fauna Rescue on (08) 8289 0896
2. RSPCA on 1300 4 777 22

If you find a recently killed kangaroo, check the pouch for young. If you find a live joey, contact Fauna Rescue for advice.

Possums & Other Sick & Injured Animals

Most possums we see are male brushies in very bad shape, due to a variety of diseases and territorial competition. However, we also see road injuries and dog attacks in both sexes of all species. It’s mostly a good idea to take them your nearest vet, who of course will do it gladly for free.

The vet will then decide what needs doing, and who to call. Click here for your closest Adelaide vet on evenings and weekends.

When picking up Brush Tail Possums (pictured at the start) and many other native animals, be careful as they can bite hard. Wear thick gloves and use a towel to bundle them into a box. Most native species are territorial, so please note where you find them in case they can be successfully released.

Note that for stray domestic species, especially cats and dogs, you will need to contact your local council or vet for advice. Read more about lost dogs & cats here.

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By Andrew Spanner BVSc(Hons) MVetStud, a vet in Adelaide, Australia. Meet his team here.

The reason for this is a lethal combination of inexperience and the falsely optimistic advice you get online. There nearly always comes a time when someone says to me, “no-one told us this before.”

It’s not that they always regret getting chickens. It’s just that I often see an entire first flock lost in the process of acquiring ‘chook wisdom’. Who wants to go through that?

So this isn’t a care guide. You can read one here. This is a realistic walk-through of the traps, pitfalls, oops moments, disasters and hurdles facing new chicken owners. So that you don’t have to experience them yourself.

Let’s start with the chickens themselves: you have two decisions to make: which breed and how old.

Choosing Commercial Breeds

If you get ISA Brown or HyLine from the local fodder store, you’re buying a commercial layer. They are cheap, easily available and give a rapid return on investment by laying an egg a day. They’re also usually vaccinated against Marek’s and the respiratory diseases.

They say chickens are good to teach kids about life and responsibility. But no-one sees the next thing coming.

Commercial breeds only usually lay for one or two seasons before developing egg peritonitis, a side-effect of their abnormal rate of lay. And by now, most people who thought they would be able to make a tough decision when the time came find that they have fallen in love with their quirky new pets. Yes, love.

So the ‘trap’ is having a flock of 2-3 year-old pets that the kids named, and knowing that one by one they are dying of a treatable illness. You either treat, euthanase or watch a slow and unpleasant death, but it’s a loaded choice. The best treatment is a combination of antibiotics and an expensive hormone implant every 6 to 12 months.

You end up making good friends with your vet so that they won’t lay! These were often the same chickens bought to make use of the leftovers and get some free* eggs. Those that go down this path appreciate the irony of the situation.

Choosing Heritage Breeds

Heritage breeds like Australorp aren’t free of problems either. They rarely get egg peritonitis, but might only lay every second day, and have long broody spells. They’re also harder to find. But their bigger problem is disease.

Vaccinations are sold in thousand-dose vials for commercial flocks, and are out of the reach of most small-scale breeders. Commercial breeders also keep their sheds under permanent quarantine.

Buying heritage breeds is a bit of lottery. Most of the time, things go well, but I’ve seen a whole flock go down with ILT, and many, many with chronic mycoplasma. You can read the signs and consequences here.

So the ‘pitfall’ is getting diseased chicks or pullets, and suffering the eternal consequences of high losses and poor health. The trick to reduce the risk is to buy all your chickens from the same place at the same time, and then keep a closed flock.

Do not succumb to the temptation of getting one from here, another from there, and a third from a friend. Each time it’s like spinning the chamber and pulling the trigger.

But we’re not finished with chickens yet.

Choosing Point Of Lay vs Chicks

The ‘oops moment’ is getting a flock of roosters. This mostly happens because someone optimistically told you they were good at sexing day-old chicks. Which, as it happens, is a whole profession of its own.

If you get chicks, you have a long time to wait before eggs, and you need someone to take back the roosters. Some sellers make this part of the deal.

Buying point-of-lay chickens avoids you having to get rid of the roosters. Yes, someone still did it, but it wasn’t you. You just can’t keep a rooster in urban areas for obvious reasons, like neighbours’ sleep.

Buying heritage breed chicks adds the substantial risk of Marek’s disease devastating the flock. You’ll be unlucky to see this nasty tumour-causing virus if you buy older pullets.

Predators

The ‘disaster’ is losing the entire flock to a fox. Which mostly happens due to a combination of disbelief and less-than-obsessional security.

While walking the dogs recently I stopped to tell a new home owner her chooks were in danger. It gave me no satisfaction in being right when they disappeared a week later. Around the same time some friends lost all their chickens when a fox worked out how to open the feeding chute.

A fox digs, climbs and can fit through any hole the size of its head. I advise to keep gaps under 10cm but it’s possible to have none at all if you buy or purpose-build a coop. In the city, foxes rarely come out at daytime, but by nightfall all chickens need to be securely locked away. Yes, foxes can work simple latches too.

No one ever said of an animal: “gee, they’re a lot dumber than I thought.”

Care & Management

The last ‘hurdle’ is hopefully the one you’re already aware of: the time and commitment needed to keep chickens properly. For the right person, this doesn’t seem like a hurdle at all, it’s part of the reason you got them.

I’ll say no more here other than to direct you to our page on keeping chickens that also covers things like the ideal coop and council regulations.

It’s easy to get romantic about chickens in the backyard and I don’t want to put you off. Anyone who has them will tell you how much value they bring to a family and a home. I admit that as a vet I’m more likely to see what can go wrong, but I’d rather have you too careful than full of regret.

If I haven’t managed to put you off then you’re probably ready to take the next step!

* You probably already know by now that you can’t feed chickens on kitchen scraps alone. More about that can be found in our guide to feeding chickens.

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By Andrew Spanner BVSc(Hons) MVetStud, a vet in Adelaide, Australia. Meet his team here.

There are two ways to clip wings. The lazy way and the right way. Vets have known this for a very long time. Why is it then that I rarely see a bird’s wing clipped properly? I keep seeing birds’ wings I can only describe as butchered, and injuries as a result. It’s time bird handlers and breeders got on board.

Why Clip Wings At All?

It seems like a cruel irony that if an animal has the incredible gift of flight, we take it away. However, even I as a bird lover can understand why it’s necessary at times. I would much rather see birds able to fly but sometimes it just isn’t safe.

If birds are kept in a secure aviary, there’s no need. In fact, I believe that a minimum length should be at least two wing beats just so flight can happen. Find minimum sizes for budgie, cockatiel and parrot cages here.

However, if a bird is free-flying, and especially if a shoulder-sitter, it’s just too easy for something to go wrong. A stovetop can be left on and a bird can land on it inadvertently. A door can be left open and a bird can be spooked and fly away. Once out, they will surely starve.

How To Clip Wings

Wing clipping is really feather clipping: even the wrong way shouldn’t cut into living tissues. That’s in contrast to pinioning where the wingtip is amputated. This is only appropriate for breeding & conservation programs.

Anyone doing either form of wing clipping needs to be able to recognise a blood quill. Many times I have sent birds away who have these immature feathers with instructions to return when they have matured.

The Wrong Way

I call this the asymmetric clip. What you do is you hold out one wing, grab a big pair of shears and make one cut across the base of all the primary and secondary flight feathers. It creates an ugly clip like the one pictured.

It’s not the ugliness I object to, it’s the asymmetry. When the poor bird tries to fly, one wing generates lift and the other doesn’t, tipping the body and causing uncontrolled descent.

Birds with this wing clip crash heavily and frequently. The pictures show the typical chronic wing and keel wounds seen in most pet birds who have been cut this way. What’s more, as new blood quills grow, they have no protection from other feathers and are easily broken. Blood loss can be fatal.

The only good thing to say about this style of clipping is that it’s very effective and long-lasting at preventing flight.

The Right Way

This is the symmetric clip. It requires removal of the primary flight feathers equally from both wings until flight at full power is no more than a controlled descent. A successful trim usually ends up with either two or three outer primary flight feathers. The coverts and secondaries don’t usually need cutting.

The trick is to test-fly the bird and keep removing feathers until the desired result is achieved. That should be a soft landing on the feet. The disadvantage of this clip is that flight can be regained earlier. However, it’s still often only necessary to do once a year after each moult.

The symmetric clip takes patience and finesse, like most things done well. I can’t show it to you well enough here, but a vet will be more than happy to teach you in person.

Though my advice is: leave it to a vet. It’s not that expensive, we can handle birds without injury and with it comes a good excuse for an annual checkup.

Have something to add? Comments (if open) will appear within 24 hours.
By Andrew Spanner BVSc(Hons) MVetStud, a vet in Adelaide, Australia. Meet his team here. The information provided here is not intended to be used as a substitute for going to the vet. If your pet is unwell, please seek veterinary attention.