This day didn't start out so well, I had to take my cockatiel to the vet because she has a sinus infection. Birds don't show illness unless it's serious. Luckily, I noticed small changes in her and found it early enough. She's going to be fine. =) The only problem now is I have a small plastic bottle of antibiotic for her, yep, plastic ugh. But she's worth it. I have the horrible task of giving her .10 ml in her mouth twice daily. It's hard with a bird, they squirm a lot and bite.
I have decided to talk about zero waste and having pets. Dealing with pets has been the biggest challenge for me so far. I have been trying to figure out how to cut down the trash that is created. If anyone has any suggestions, please leave them in the comment section.
I have a bird and once I set up my indoor compost bin, I can compost the newspaper I use on the bottom of her cage. Her organic diet (Harrison's Bird Food) does come in plastic lined paper bags, this is a little frustrating, but she only goes through a 1lb bag every 2 months. It is the best food on the market and I'm not willing to change. .
My dog on the other hand creates more garbage than my bird. I have a 43lb australian shepherd who eats a dry grain free diet (Wellness Core Reduced Fat). Granted the food has lessened his feces amount, but he still poops at least twice daily. I've decided that I am going to use the empty 26lb bags as garbage bags. It takes Mac 2.5 - 3 months to finish a bag, so I don't have them as trash very often. I am also planning on making homemade liver treats with chicken livers from the store.
On walks I use biodegradable bags (poopbags.com), which I buy in bulk. For picking up his feces in his potty area, it's too expensive to use the poop bags. I scoop it up and place it into a garbage bag. Soon I will change to a biodegradable garbage bag once I find them in bulk at a reasonable price.
When I arrived home from Cedar Rapids, a large box was waiting on my front porch. My jars finally arrived! They had been delayed over the weekend because of a train derailment in Montana. There aren't any places close to me that sell hermetic jars and the price was right.
They did arrive in styrofoam peanuts, but I will take them to a UPS shop to be reused.
Here they are after I took out the paper and put on their rubber gasket.
Here is my newly organized shopping items:
My bags (I sewed some more last night and the mesh ones are from coolhats.biz)
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