- Hey, everybody, Dave and Jamie here from Bird Tricks
with a very, critical announcement
about your parrot and surviving coronavirus.
There is some important things you need to know
that we're gonna dive into right now.
- The first thing you need to know
is that your parrot cannot get the coronavirus.
- But what about all the animals
that supposedly tested positive for carrying this?
- Okay, so there's a big difference
between doing a nasal and a mouth swab
and having the virus be present,
versus being actually infected with the virus.
So we're gonna dive in and talk about some of this stuff.
Scientists know enough about this type of virus
to know that it won't be passed onto our pets.
Just like colds and flus aren't passed along to our pets.
When all this first started to explode
there were stories claiming otherwise.
Dogs in China were testing positive for the virus.
In reality, the dogs were testing positive
for the presence of the coronavirus.
They are not actually infected with it.
They did nose and mouth swabs which turned up the virus,
but that is only because dogs breathe
and have their mouths all over everything.
Spreading stories like those are dangerous for animals
because it could result
in people abandoning their pets, or worse, out of fear.
Which is actually happening right now,
we're already hearing from some of our favorite rescues
that people are no longer
boarding their birds in these places
but they are actually surrendering them all together
which is a really sad reality.
And birds and other animals are not being adopted right now,
it's kind of a high-end thing where people are not adopting,
they're actually surrendering, which is super sad, guys.
That's why it's so important to spread the right information
and get it out there to the masses.
However, you should not handle your bird
or any of your pets for that matter, if you are sick.
So the big thing to do is to wash your hands
before and after handling your pet
and that is because they act as a surface.
What do I mean by that?
This means you can contaminate them with the virus,
which can then be passed along
to whoever handles that animal next.
It's not like you can use a Clorox wipe to fix that problem.
The concern is not
that you will infect your bird with the virus,
but that you can make them a carrier instead.
If you do have to handle your pets, just make sure, again,
to wash your hands thoroughly before and after.
- I really like how you make mention of it being a surface,
because people are getting this false positive of,
"Hey, my dog has the coronavirus, we're all gonna die."
And the reality is that they're no different
than a table in that scenario.
So if you sneeze on the table,
that virus is going to be on the table
until it is thoroughly cleaned.
So don't sneeze on your parrot.
But it does act as a surface, right.
So other than that, it's about stocking up on supplies.
And I want to get a little bit doomsday here for a second
to just relay the reason why this is so important.
We look at what's happening, right.
China has quarantined an entire city,
welded the doors shut with people stuck inside.
Those people couldn't leave the building.
Now, granted we're not China and I don't think anybody's
watching this from China, right now.
Maybe.
But we shouldn't really, and then in America,
we're probably not gonna have buildings
where we're welded shut inside of them,
but it is very likely that we're going to be required
to self-quarantine or more likely,
there's going to be scenarios
where there's already supply shortages.
Like you've obviously seen,
you can't get toilet paper anywhere.
I went to some small towns in Washington state,
some tiny towns, even here where we live
in a little town of Sandpoint, Idaho.
There's a huge supply shortage.
And a friend of mine just told me today,
he talked to his Amazon driver yesterday.
He said, "Hey, how's business?
"Is it booming 'cause people are afraid to go out?"
And he said, "No, on their particular route,
"they deliver an average of 500,000 packages.
"That has been dropped down to 200,000 packages
"because there's a shortage of supplies at their warehouse."
So, let's look at this, not from a fear standpoint,
but like, let's be prepared.
If you have to self-quarantine for 30 to 60 days.
I know there's people watching this from all over the world.
Italy is shut down, Spain turned away flights mid-flight
'cause they woke up one morning with more positive results
of coronavirus, so they turned flights away.
If you're flying into New Zealand,
as of the time of this recording,
there's a 14 day quarantine period for anybody entering.
So what does mean for your birds?
You have to have all of these supplies on hand
because what if you can't get them for 30 to 60 days?
What are you gonna do?
- And it's kind of interesting because this is something
that we've always done, just naturally.
And we've talked about it a lot on our website, in our blog,
in different videos, where we've done
evacuation preparedness and preparedness for bad weather
and just the same thing.
Power outages.
Things that just happen. - Like yesterday.
- Like yesterday. (laughs)
things that just happen around the world and are constant.
So it's always a good idea.
Which is why we do our natural feeding system.
Those of you not familiar with it,
we have a seasonal feeding system which makes you make
a batch of food that lasts your bird for four months.
So what you're doing is you're putting it in the freezer
and you're thawing it as needed.
Which is really cool and it comes into play in this scenario
where I'm like, wow, I just made a batch, and so I'm good.
Our birds are good.
I also keep all of our pellets in air-tight containers,
I also keep extra bags in my freezer.
Now if you don't have the extra space in a freezer,
'cause we have a whole separate fridge
for our birds in the garage.
I feel embarrassed saying that.
But anyways. (laughs)
They have their own fridge.
- We have a lot of birds, guys.
- Yeah, so I'm able to keep a lot of supplies in there,
but if you need that storage space for yourself
and the humans in the house,
you can always use vacuum sealers
and just seal those pellets airtight
to keep them really good and fresh for a long time.
- Yeah, so another option if you can't,
this is not really the best option,
but at least stock up on as much of the dry stuff as you can
because worst case scenario,
like one of our friends near Salt Lake City,
she went to get veggies for her birds,
and they were out of veggies, guys.
Like out of fresh produce.
So hopefully she had stocked up on dried pellets, you know.
I mean that is a great back up plan.
Just like with people, you might be stocking up
on some freeze-dried food that you can just reactivate
with hot water, right.
Kinda similar in the bird world,
having those pellets as a backup is good.
But keep in mind, you don't want your bird to get sick
at the end of this 30 to 60 day quarantine if that happens.
So you want to still be giving the best diet possible,
but if you are already too late
by the time you're watching this,
do whatever you can to at least get some dried food.
- And don't be afraid to get canned food.
You guys can definitely get canned food
and keep those vegetables and things.
Just make sure that you're staying away
from the canned food that includes sauces
or those mixes where they premix everything together
and they might have onions or something in it.
Just be kind of wary about what you're picking out
and just stick to solid vegetables.
Just get the can of carrots.
Just get the can of green beans.
And keep in mind that you can get those canned foods.
Just rinse them real well before feeding
'cause some can be in a little bit of,
kind of like a syrup base,
especially if you're giving fruits or anything like that.
But again, try to keep it to veggies.
- Yeah, a lot of the fruit's preserved in sugar
or added sugar, I should say.
And some of the vegetables in cans may have salt added.
So like Jamie said, just rinse it well
and try when you're shopping for this, even if it's beans,
green beans or baked beans, try to get whatever you can
that's in the least amount of additives.
- Yeah. - Now that goes onto
the next thing is what about cleaning your cage, right.
For us we use butcher paper
in the bottom of our indoor aviaries right now.
So we're pretty good for a while.
- They're giant rolls.
Ah, Dave is like,
"Hey, do we need to go get extra newspaper?"
And I actually only use newspaper
for some of our play stands and when we're traveling.
So I keep very big storage bins of everything.
It was actually, it's pretty funny,
because we were looking at stocking up on stuff,
and I was like, "I'm pretty much already stocked."
- We're good. - I always order
our own 25 pound bag of pellets,
I keep it in our airtight, um, oh my gosh.
- Containers? - Containers.
I was gonna say concealers, and I was like,
"It's not right, it's not right, what's the word?"
(laughs)
But and then I do our seasonal feeding system
which supplies us with a lot of food.
And so we're usually good.
I keep a lot of baby wipes, I keep a lot of cleaners.
- We also have two bird trailer,
well, we have a bird trailer and then a magic trailer
that allows space for the birds.
So these are usually pretty well stocked, too.
So I think we're in a pretty good situation.
- Yeah, it was actually kinda crazy
'cause we were almost without power.
Power went out for almost 24 hours
and Dave just happened to take a quick trip away
and I hadn't really powered the generators by myself.
(laughs)
I still haven't 'cause my neighbor came over.
- We have really good neighbors.
- Very good neighbors.
And just finagling everything,
they would be like, "Oh, do you have this?"
I'm like, "Yeah, yeah, I got that."
And everything was on hand.
So just, I think it's almost nice
that we use those things all the time.
- Yeah. - When we're traveling
because it wasn't out of the comfort zone.
I was like, "Yup, which generator do you want?
"Which cable do you want?"
- Yeah.
- "Which portable heater should we use?"
Like, I got to choose from our supplies of things
and how to finagle
and when neighbors came over needing help, too,
I was like, "Do you want to use one?"
You know, it felt great actually.
- It's gonna be a parrot-training party at our house,
sleep over, apparently.
'Cause everybody came over.
- Literally everybody came over, including Morgan.
- Back to newspaper stuff,
if you don't want to go buy a bunch of newspaper
and you don't want to steal it by putting a quarter in
and taking the whole stack,
um, not that I've ever done that.
Ah, you should go over to collect
some of the free newspapers that are available
outside of gas stations or inside of grocery stores.
They often have stacks of like Nickels Worth
or whatever your local newspaper might be where--
- Wheel Deals. - You can get a bunch,
yeah, I don't even know if they have that anymore.
But you can get a bunch of the free papers
and you know, get enough
that you're not deplenishing all of it for.
- Everybody. - Everybody else,
but take enough that you can use it for your own birds
and because cleanliness
is gonna be a big thing with this, right.
You want to make sure that you're cleaning the bird cages
maybe a little bit more than you normally would
because you want to keep the cleanliness of your house
maybe better than normal, so.
- Yeah, and I think this is just a good routine to get into.
So don't panic, guys, just think,
how about ordering double, keeping extra.
It's just always nice.
Even if you have a little bit more of a financial crisis
where things are just a little tighter
one month than another,
having a little extra on hand always comes in handy.
So I always keep extra on hand.
I just like to be prepared
especially if we find out we're going to leave
for a long time, if we're going to leave for a few months,
I want to make sure that I have enough food and supplies
for my birds to when I leave
and for the person and birds staying behind
to take care of them.
So I always try to have at least double.
- Yeah, we don't always know.
Sometimes it's like, "Hey, you're going on a trip tomorrow,"
or right now, my Australia trip got canceled.
(crying)
- Yeah, so speaking of which, we had a lot of travel plans
to come all around the world and work with you guys
and your birds, and things are really on hold.
So Europe we have postponed until next year.
(crowd cheering)
But please, if you're interested in having us come see you
in Europe and do master classes
and you want to host any sort of events with us,
let us know, we have plenty of time now to plan,
which is even nicer.
So get in tough with us, info@birdtricks.com
if you want to get into that.
And then Australia, hopefully we can look at.
- We'll reschedule. - We're rescheduling,
we're not sure when.
But again, always keep tabs on us, email us,
and let us know if you're interested
in getting in on that, too.
I believe Dave will be in Brisbane and Sydney.
So if you're in either of those places
and want to do that in the future,
was that a poop or a dropping of toys?
- Gosh I hope that was. - That was poop.
- Okay, it was a poop.
To recap, don't panic, guys.
Just go stock up on some stuff now, like we mentioned.
Buy extra pellets, buy double if you can.
Make sure you store 'em in a dry, cool, dry place.
Make sure that you make an extra batch.
Even if, like for us, you know,
one batch for one bird for four months,
maybe we need to double down and do two batches
so that we've got extra amounts.
In all of that, obviously it's space-dependent.
If you have an extra bird freezer like we do, then use that.
But it's all just about being logical with stuff
and looking at what's happening in the world
and not panicking.
You know, I mean, if we have to not leave our house
for 30, 60 days, we got some card games, we got.
(laughs)
We'll be puttin' out a lot of content, if that's the case.
- Yeah. - So.
- They're gonna be sick of hearing about us.
- Yeah.
So, yeah, I think, hopefully that helps you guys out.
If you have any questions, like Jamie said, email us.
Or I'd love to hear your comments
what you've done to prepare for your birds for coronavirus.
- Yeah, share your tips and tricks.
And I'm gonna leave some really cool resources
in the video description.
I'm gonna leave a link
to why your bird can't catch your cold or your flu,
but a really cute story that goes along with it
that made a vet even question if a bird had a flu.
And then I'm gonna leave some links
to making your own first aid kit that you can assemble
because I know last time
that I mentioned our birdy first aids kits
that I use off of Amazon, they were completely sold out,
and that wasn't under this kind of crisis.
So I'm gonna tell you all the things
that you can buy individually to make your own first aid kit
that's probably even better
than the one that you could get off Amazon.
So I'll leave some links in the description
of different types of things and preparedness tips
that we have and that we've gone over
in the past on our blog,
and hopefully you find those helpful.
But yeah, like Dave said, please share yours
because we're only, we're all in it
to help each other and build a community.
Please don't go surrendering your animals,
please spread this information
so that other people aren't rushing to surrender theirs.
It's a really sad reality.
- Yeah, and if you're new to this channel,
please consider subscribing.
Like this video and most importantly, leave some comments.
We want to be engaged with you guys
and see if we can help you through this
because it is a world-wide scenario
where we all need to help each other and come together.
Especially because our goal has been
to save birds one person at a time,
we really depend on you to help share this message
with your friends and family
who maybe they don't even have a bird,
maybe they have a dog.
Share this video so that they start thinking,
"Oh, you know, maybe I should get some of that stuff ready."
The grocery store was totally wiped out of bird food,
or sorry, baby food, same thing for us.
(laughs)
And they were wiped out of dog food
and charcoal briquettes for cooking.
I mean, the people are kinda thinking
maybe the grid's gonna go down, and they can't get water.
Hopefully that's not the case,
but with the infrastructure being, you know,
people don't want to go to work.
For example, you might think Amazon's gonna keep delivering,
but if they don't have the inventory
or if you're at a warehouse with 10,000 people,
you may not go to work
because you don't want the chance of getting sick.
So there's going to be disruptions in the supply lines,
that's already happening.
So it's not coming from a point of like,
"Ah, the world's falling apart."
It is, but. - Oh, stop it.
- No, but more from a standpoint of just be really logical
about this and think through it.
Do you best to not be super emotional about it
and just think through, okay, worst case, 30, 60 days.
Hopefully that's worst case.
What do you need?
And go from there. - Yeah.
And remember if you buy in bulk that always helps.
Did he just say okay?
Did you say okay?
Nope, didn't say nothing. (laughs)
Just lookin' at him like. (laughs)
Ah, I don't know what I was saying.
Oh, just buying in bulk.
So if you ever need a custom order from us, you know,
we do try to offer as many different size variations
as possible for pellets
so that those of you with a lot of birds like us,
we can order a 25 pound bag of pellets.
And if you do that on subscription, you can always save 25%.
But, if you need to just do four pounds or one pound
or anything like that, we can always accommodate you.
Or if you want to just change it temporarily,
just let our customer service know.
They're really good gals, they will help you out.
And the same goes for toys and we are fully stocked,
so don't worry that you're gonna run out
of our pellets or our toys,
we are fully stocked for you guys.
- We have a ton of toys right now.
- We will not be running out.
You guys are gonna be good.
- And another quick money-saving tip,
I don't want this to feel like a pitch,
because it certainly isn't,
but if you don't have our cookbook,
you can save a lot of money
by just getting the digital download on our website.
- Yup. - And that'll get you through
your seasonal feeding system, four months worth of food.
So, that's a huge savings for you,
if you don't already have it.
Again, I don't want this to come off as a pitch,
'cause it's certainly not intended to,
but hopefully that is a helpful tip for you,
so that you can save some money and not have to worry
about shipping time and that sort of thing.
- And again, if it's part of your life like it is for mine,
it was just built into my life.
So I didn't have to worry when Dave was like,
"Hey, we should go make another batch."
I was like, "I just made a batch
"and I have a ton of food in the freezer."
Like, I feel really good about it.
So, and that's just a way of life for us.
It's not me having to run out and just scramble.
So it feels good to make that a part of your daily life.
So I guess that's the greater message here,
is just to keep more stock on hand for those times
where it falls down, no matter what the reasoning in.
Whether it's financial, random,
or otherwise, or coronavirus, apparently.
- Hope that helps. - Thanks for watching.
- That was cheery.
- I know, I feel kinda depressed.
- I know.
- Okay, well, I guess we could end it with,
(laughs)
let's see if any of you, that are not on Patreon,
because Patreons you already know.
Patreons don't say anything.
But the rest of you see if you caught onto
what was different about this video.
- We dropped some hints in there that.
- We've dropped some hints on our channel.
- Yeah, there's something. - About something.
- Something coming. - Something.
- That's actually really positive.
So Patreon, if you guys know what it is,
just post that you know.
- But don't say it.
- But yeah, don't tell anybody.
- Let YouTubers guess. - Yup.
- And another hint is that one, specific commenter.
Has guessed it already. - Has got it.
Yup. - But doesn't know
they got it.
- Yup.
- 'Cause I ignored their comment.
(laughs)
I didn't respond.
- So what is this announcement we're talking about?
- Yup, so let's see
if you guys can figure it out from this video.
I think you guys, you guys are totally gonna figure it out.
So. - Yup.
- Anyways, leave it in the comments if you figure it out.