Be sure to keep your animals cool during the brutal days of summer. Hot summer days are hard for both humans and animals. Air conditioned environments help tremendously, of course. But what can you do to help alleviate the danger of hot temperatures if your air conditioning fails or if you can’t provide cool temperatures for your birds and other critters?
For your indoor birds, you have a few options:
- Ice cubes in the water. Quick easy way to give your bird access to something cool.
- Feed some frozen veggies. You can run a bag of organic frozen veggies under hot water for a minutes or less to slightly thaw and then place in your bird’s cage. A great treat, easy to make, and will help beat the heat.
- Save your empty 2-liter pop bottles. Fill with water and store in the freezer. If you need heat relief in a pinch, put the bottles in front of a fan. The fan will blow cold air off the bottle and help cool the area down.
- Spray your bird with cool water. Tried and true method and quick fix for a hot day.
For birds located outside in aviaries or cages:
- Make sure the birds have protection from the direct sun. Fixing a tarp over the top of the cage/aviary will help warn off direct rays.
- Make sure the birds have plenty of access to water, and add some ice cubes throughout the day to keep the water temperature as cool as possible.
- If your bird is in an outdoor cage try to keep the cage off concrete. Concrete reflects heat back and can really contribute to the heat factor in an immediate area.
- Use common sense … and monitor your birds during the day to be sure they are not over-heated and suffering undue stress.
Never attempt to apply sun block to your bird. If you are worried about how your bird takes the heat don’t push the limits. Birds can adapt to heat better than they can handle cold, but heat can still kill. If your heat wave is extreme and you are without a way of cooling your house or outside environment, consider taking your birds on a trip to a friend’s house, perhaps a local pet store, or someplace that you and your pets can safely escape the hot temperature.
