when do feathers malt, is chicken wire poinsonous?
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when do feathers malt, is chicken wire poinsonous?
ive recently moved my alexandrine into a bigger cage because the smaller cage bent and snapped off her tail feathers. shes about a year old and her feathers havent fallen out and started growing back, neither have her wings from when i bought her at 3 months old...when will her wings and tail feathers grow back... also the bigger cage has chicken wire (zinc coated wire). is this poisonous to them after a while? i used to have a galah that died from zinc poisoning (APARENTLY after 10 years), but i dont know how accurate this is?
Re: when do feathers malt, is chicken wire poinsonous?
Galvanized and zink coatings are not good for any birds that tend to chew on them.
Birds molt their feathers all year around but the hard molts are usually before and after breeding season and last 3 to 5 weeks depending on how hard the molt is.
Donna
Birds molt their feathers all year around but the hard molts are usually before and after breeding season and last 3 to 5 weeks depending on how hard the molt is.
Donna
In Loving Memory
of one special husband and one special bird.
I miss you both
of one special husband and one special bird.
I miss you both
Re: when do feathers malt, is chicken wire poinsonous?
Hi It is possible to neutralise the coating on the wire by scrubbing with a mixture of vinegar and water.Just put about a cup of vinegar to about 2 litres of water----scub with a brush or broom and then hose off.
Re: when do feathers malt, is chicken wire poinsonous?
Yes the zinc is toxic in large amounts- anything outside it's normal diet will add to it. Zinc is also poisonous to people when we get too much of it. But think of how much smaller a bird is and how much less zinc it takes.
If you do scrub the cage regularly and it is kept indoors, then you should be okay. If it is outside, it will oxidize quickly and you will always have a nice powdery zinc coating appearing (the white powdery stuff on the wires). When they crawl around on the wires using their beaks then they easily get that zinc powder on their tongues and ingest it.
This is why the advice is simply to avoid galvanized if you can. Many bird owners wouldn't regularly scrub the cage with vinegar and water a few times a year (since scrubbing it is NOT a one time solution).
If you do scrub the cage regularly and it is kept indoors, then you should be okay. If it is outside, it will oxidize quickly and you will always have a nice powdery zinc coating appearing (the white powdery stuff on the wires). When they crawl around on the wires using their beaks then they easily get that zinc powder on their tongues and ingest it.
This is why the advice is simply to avoid galvanized if you can. Many bird owners wouldn't regularly scrub the cage with vinegar and water a few times a year (since scrubbing it is NOT a one time solution).
I've been called 'birdbrained' before, but somehow I don't think this is what they meant. say:hah-nay
Re: when do feathers malt, is chicken wire poinsonous?
when i first got my bird cage a year ago the guy who made them told us to wash thorougly with vinegar and then water as it was a chicken wire cage. i guess it pays to read up on these things as i would never have thought to keep washing it with vinegar. we give it a good gourney out when it needs it but in future i might go for the vinegar again first