Birds are typically very clean creatures and they spend a lot of time cleaning, preening, and grooming their feathers. This is natural self-care behavior that is important for birds to do. While preening, birds straighten out their feathers by pulling them through their beaks. This allows them to pull out dislodged feathers, clean out pests and debris, and spread preening oil across their feathers. Preening oil is produced from a gland near a bird's tail and the bird spreads it around to all of its feathers. This oil helps protect the feathers. If your bird has stopped preening, has ruffled feathers, and looks shabby, you should have it looked at by a veterinarian. This could indicate that it is not well. Bathing is an important part of feather maintenance for birds. If your bird stops bathing itself, that is a sign that it is no longer taking care of itself. This could signal depression, body pain, or lack of mobility. Your bird may simply take a quick bath in its water dish once in a while, so you may not catch it every time. However, you may notice water splashed all over the place in your bird's cage. This is a good indicator that your bird has taken a bath. Wing flapping can signal a lot of things, but one reason that birds do it is simply for the exercise. Birds in captivity still want to keep their wings in working condition, so flapping them around keeps the muscles conditioned to some degree. Your bird may also do this to get your attention or simply because it is happy.

Summary: Look for preening behavior. Make sure your bird is bathing. Look for vigorous wing flapping.

This can be done at home using your stove and oven. Cut meat into narrow strips with a cross section of 1cm x 1cm. Boil strips of meat on the stove for 3-5 minutes to get rid of bacteria. Remove the meat from the water and let drain until dry. Bake in an oven (on the lowest setting) for 8-12 hours. You could also use a commercial food dehydrator instead of an oven. Properly dried meat will feel sticky, hard, or leathery. Meat dehydrated this way will last 1-2 months in air-tight containers without refrigeration. Smoking also adds flavor to meats. Cure meat with salt before drying to extend shelf-life. Smoke the meat in a smoker at 145 degrees Fahrenheit for 7 hours or 155 degrees Fahrenheit for 4 hours. Do not exceed 155 degrees Fahrenheit as this will cook the meat, not dry or smoke it. Some cuts of meat will take longer. For example, a brisket may take 22 hours to smoke thoroughly. Use a meat thermometer to make sure the meat reaches a safe temperature before removing from the smoker. Poultry should reach an internal temperature of 165 degrees F; pork and ground meats should be 160 degrees F; steaks, roasts and chops should be 145 degrees F. Commercial smokers use gas, electricity, charcoal or wood. Add wood such as mesquite, hickory, oak or cherry to add flavor to the meat. Smoked meats can last 1-2 months in air-tight containers.

Summary: Make your own jerky. Use smoke to keep meat from spoiling.

You can use any browser, such as Firefox, Chrome, Safari, or Opera. Type www.convertfiles.com into the address bar, and hit Enter or Return on your keyboard. This is a third-party website that allows you to upload and convert your files to a different format. It's not associated with Microsoft Excel or OpenOffice. " This option lets you upload a file from your computer, and convert it to a different format. You can find it in the green box with the "Select a file to convert" heading. Browse your files in the file navigator window, and click the ODS file you want to convert to XLS. This will upload the selected ODS file to the converter website. This will open a list of all the file formats this website can process and convert. This field should match the correct format of the document you're uploading. This will open a drop-down list of all the available file formats. This option will convert your uploaded ODS file to XLS, which you can open in Excel. This button is located below the Input format box. It will upload your ODS file to the website, and convert it to an XLS file. When your file is successfully converted, you will see this button on your screen. It will give you a download link to the converted file. This will automatically start the download, and save the converted XLS file to your browser's default folder for downloads. If you don't have a default folder set for downloads, you will be prompted to select a saving location.

Summary: Open your internet browser. Go to ConvertFiles.com in your browser. Click the Browse button next to "Choose a local file. Select the ODS file you want to convert. Click Open in the file navigator window. Click the selector bar next to "Input format" in the green area. Select OpenOffice ODF Spreadsheet (.ods) as your input format. Click the selector bar next to "Output format" in the green area. Select MS Excel 97/2000/XP (.xls) as your output format. Click the Convert button. Click the Click here to go to the download page button. Click the download link.

Once the installer has finished downloading, head to your default download folder, most likely called Downloads. Alternatively, you can click the downloaded file on the bottom of your browser's window to automatically run it The installation wizard should open and guide you through the installation. Adobe Reader shouldn't require any customization, so you can just keep clicking "Next" and wait for it to finish installing. It may download a few more files that it needs to be able to work.
Summary: Click on the downloaded installer. Run the installer by double-clicking on it.