Bird Logs *Free Download*
Bird logs are extremely valuable to keep with each one of your birds. Birds are known to hide illnesses extremely well. This is because in the wild, the flock will preserve its overall health and safety by eliminating sick or injured birds. This is so the illness does not possibly spread to the rest of the flock, compromising safety in numbers, as well as slow down the flock. It is not uncommon for those birds to be killed by their flock. It is also done in captive parrots in flocks. So, a bird will conceal its illness as much as possible. When we start seeing symptoms, it has likely already been going on for a long time, and the urgency for getting treatment is higher.
This is why it is always advised to visit your avian veterinarian at least once a year for a check-up which includes bloodwork, physical examination, and fecal testing. For older or special needs birds, it is recommended every 6 months to be able to track them more closely, as they will be more fragile to getting illnesses and organ changes. But, in between vet visits, we still need to be able to track our bird’s health, as birds can get sick at any time between the veterinarian visits.
So, how do we do that? There are a few easy ways to tell. First would be change in droppings. It is always recommended for the substrate to be a solid-colored flat paper, as it will be able to showcase the dropping quality easily. Another way would be plumage condition. Are feathers duller, ruffled, are there bald patches? Your bird’s behavior is a great indicator. Are the more active, less active, increase in aggression? Another great way is by the bird’s weight. a bird will start dropping weight when it is ill. It also will track if your bird is actually eating, as fake eating is common with sick birds where it will look like they are eating but are not actually consuming anything.
Getting a bird’s weight is simple! All you will need is a gram scale, a “T” style perch, and your bird! The best time to weigh your bird is as early in the morning as possible, the weight we are after is the birds “true weight.” This term means the weight of the bird before it gets any food or water. Food and water can increase the bird’s weight, giving us an inaccurate weight of the bird. It is also important to weight your bird around the same time every time to make sure it is consistent. We weigh in grams and not pounds because birds are extremely lightweight! If we measured in pounds, some birds would not come up as a pound, and it disallows slight weight fluctuations. For some species and situations, 10grams of weight dropped is extremely serious, and pounds simply wouldn’t pick up that slight fluctuation.
It is recommended to keep a weekly log of your bird. This includes the weight, dropping consistencies, mood, energy levels, if they are on any medications including the name of the medication and dosing instructions, anything worth noting that can contribute to your bird’s health. If there is too much of a weight fluctuation, there are abnormal droppings, abnormal mood, we need to start tracking the bird more closely. This means weighing everyday and keeping better track of those other factors. This also means cleaning the paper substrate at the bottom of your bird’s enclosure everyday to know which droppings were from that day or not.
Bird logs are great to be able to take with you to your vets to be able to help them get a better understanding of your bird’s condition and the progression to better aid in diagnosing. Some vets like to include copies of bird logs into your file for a more completely outlook on your bird to track any medical problems. Another great factor of them is if there was ever an emergency with the health of the main caretaker, there is information left about the bird to help give insight to health. Keeping this in a “bird binder” or folder with the bird’s general information, schedule, feed, likes and dislikes, and the bird log will give anyone all the information they need to immediately pick up care of your bird in the event of an emergency.
Our bird log is simplified for the general household. Each bird should have their own log. It includes the bird’s name at the top for you to fill in, the date of the submission, a place for notes, and then the bird’s weight. The notes section is the largest because it allows you to write in about the mood, droppings, feather quality, medications, etc. if you need more room, you can always staple an extra sheet of paper to the log and write more in depth, defining each submission with the date that is written on the front of the form, or you can stick sticky notes to the notes section. Not only do we want to note the things that are wrong, we also need to write off the things that are good! This also help us know that things were 100% fine on this week, but the next maybe there was something different that needs closer inspection, and switching to an everyday for closer monitoring till things have resolved or you go to the vet.
Our bird log is available here free to download and use as much as you want! Add it to your cart, pay nothing!
