its not just a matter of tossing in some budgie mix every few days and changing their water daily and viola.... done their are many things to consider
eg, do the birds have access to natural sun light ,what type of floor you have ...dirt ,concrete ,wood,lino,tiles just to mention a few things people have been known to use
are the perches dowel or natural branches do you have mouse wire or normal 10 ml wire meshing
covered flight non covered flight ?
all of these things come in to consideration with the maintenance and care of your birds .
but i will go into feeding latter for now i want to discuss
aviary dos and dont's that i learnt along my way :)
When i first built my aviary/flight i was so happy with it i thought it was great ...until i had birds dying and i couldn't work out why
so off to the vet i went with 7 birds the vet crop washed and sampled the poo and then told me i had a bout of coccidiosis something id never heard of before or come across
At the time i only had a few show birds around 7 they rest were pets and i hadn't started breeding the show type for showing purposes
the vet gave me baycox and told me to treat birds and clean flight out and to re treat them in 6 weeks twice more then every 3 months after that to be sure i had knocked it on its head
so that's what i did
i cleaned out flight walls to floor re sanded it and everything i had a dirt floor at this time my flight was open and their was nothing to stop rain getting in
As time went on i still had odd birds die with same symptoms as the coccidiosis however when i took more random birds to vet he gave them the all clear
i was stumped so i called the vet in for a home visit it only cost $150.00 that was with samples crop washes and he was able to advise me on what i was doing wrong
turned out i was doing a few things wrong and this was the cause of my birds deaths :(
Firstly my aviary was facing the worst way ever possible for Melbourne weather ...west the rain and wind was coming straight into the aviary and blowing a gust of wind whirling it around and chilling the birds
chilling the birds m very new to me id bred budgies from age of 12 and never ever had birds die of chill in all the years i owned them
however i was told that it was the different feather quality that affected the birds this way that the bigger birds had less down and lesser feather tightness being unable to keep warm
so first thing i was told to do was face the flight north
then i was told to close it off on both sides so as a draft can not be caused
then their was the matter of the floor
i was told to concrete or tile floor so that if the floor got wet or damp i could wash it off and prevent the onset of cocidiosis showing its head again ,as the bug needs to become warm and high humidity along with dirt floor is best quickest surest way to incubate it ,so with all that information i went to work
the aviary was to be moved and modified
before modifications in 2008
the pic beside is of my pets and few show cull birds before i decided to breed for showing
that was the beginning of what has become now
Avalon house .
THE CHANGES
when i was told i had to change my flight i really wasnt sure what exactly i was ment to do
first thing was i had to move it and turn the direction to face north
this would get the best day light and stop the west rains and wind from blowing straight in
i had to make side door panels and floor the whole shed but with what ?
as im renting concreting floor is not an option
i decided to by paves
first of all my shed has 33mil thick stainer steel meshing on the whole floor pop riveted to the shed ,this is to prevent mice and foxes and other animals snakes so on getting in from underneath
the dirt floor had to be scrapped out down to this messing so we could even move the shed
we then had to make wheels to attach one one side as so we could direct and steer the whole thing as taking it down and putting back up was not an option we could use due to time and the floor being pop riveted to the shed (this made it very hard )
so the wheels were attached and the move began
i decided to place the flight close to the house and in a place i could get to in the wet weather and sit and look at my birds in the warm weather so the end of my back porch seemed a great spot for it
it was summer and id only been in the house for 6 months and never experienced a winter here
so un aware of what winter would bring the flight/shed was moved where i then added side doors and shade cloth to keep out wet and for mean time while i saved my penny's i had to just re sand the floor
but at least the doors were on
as time went by and rain and storms and warm weather started my birds were getting ill again i knew it couldn't be the floor as it was never wet or damp and i cleaned it fortnightly with new sand
but something was killing the birds
so another vet trip i took a dead one for autopsy this time as well
turned out my birds were getting pneumonia from the condensation of the roof dripping on them and they were getting damp in early hours and drying off by time i was coming out in morning
this seemed very un rel so i went out 4am on morning and yep exactly what was happening the birds were all wet and fluffed up
i had to fix this but what
the vet said it was due to the cold nights and hot summer days warming the shed quickly and that lining it was the answer
so what to line it with ?????
everyone i asked said wood untreated house pine
so thats what i did
i finally had saved enough for my flooring and had enough wood supplied to me via a friend to fix my shed
so the job was done the flight was lined and floored
it was ventilated ,draft proofed , water proof mouse proofed
fox n snake proof and i thought i had the perfect shed
in-till WINTER STRUCK
it rained and rained and rained and the surrounding area around shed flooded
the shed was dry but the floor sucked up the damp causing pavers to be constantly damp
the birds got sick again i was not sure as to why
as the floor did not look damp however it was
this lead me to another issue the seed between the paving was getting germinated going sour and birds were eating it causing them to get e coli or sour crop and dieing
so i took all birds out and housed in holding cages
they all stayed well and i started to look at how i could fix my issue
im still not exactly sure however im working on it though
and to top it of the shed sprung a leak but i do know the awnser to that one
so will be adding a double roof with guttering to solve that issue
will it ever stop
it feel like no
but im sure i will eventually get it sorted
my message to all it simple
DON'T GET BIRDS TILL YOUR HOUSING IS COMPLETE YOU CAN NOT WORK AROUND THEM AS I THOUGH
well its been a few months and i have had some colour bond tin roofing given to me to fix my flights roof
the probblem is i cant do this myself so i will need to get some help not sure who or where from as yet but i will find help some how im sure will have to wait till next year though ...this is the longest shed building ive ever seen hee hee
the leak in roof was found out and solved and ive recently been told by my vet after another home visit last month that i really do need more ventilation if im going to breed in their so my breeding room has changed and flight plans are being re arranged and a safety door will be put in place :)
im feeling more positive about it all and can see exactly what needs doing now
2012 will bring with it modifications and happier birds which brings with it a happier me :)
have safe new year all
till next year ,blessed may you all be
leeia
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