Lately a few people have been sending me messages asking for cleaning tips in relation to birds. Some of the questions have had a definite tinge of desperation to them and I can’t help but imagine these evil birds that are intentionally throwing food and poo at their humans. I can just see their beaky grins of delight when they manage to hit their target.

I can’t help but smile at the irony of my being asked for ...

I pretty much live in a zoo. Multiple birds, dogs and cats permanently own me, there are also a few goldfish and the odd passing rescue waiting for re-home. Most of the time, we all get along beautifully but it has taken work to get to that point.

My mother recently added to the zoo, by adopting a shelter cat. It wasn’t an easy decision whether or not to take on ...

There’s a common misconception that working in wildlife rescue means working with lots of amazingly cute and cuddly animals. Unfortunately, the real situation is quite different. A LOT of wild rescue work results in the animal being euthanised because they’re usually extremely ill before they come to someone’s notice for rescue.

Not many photos of dead animals make it to the media and no decent rescuer is going to be stressing out a seriously ill ...

It can be extraordinarily frustrating watching others successfully train their birds while you can’t even get your bird to look at the obvious types of treats available.  Not all of us have a bird that is happy to take a sunflower seed or something similar as a reward for training. I’ve seen many people give up on training for this reason.

Most birds will happily work for some sort of nut (favourites ...

My male Eclectus Pepi, has been a flying nightmare lately. He has gone from being sweet, affectionate and talkative to being moody, unpredictable and often downright nasty. It happened overnight and hasn’t been accompanied by any of the usual signs of sickness.

Of all of my birds, it’s Pepi who seems to have the nastiest bite. He has this knack for getting a tiny bit of skin pinched in his beak. When something ...

One of the main problems that I have had with my Blue and Gold Macaw Fid, is getting him to settle at night. He cries when I put him to bed, he cries again when I turn off the light, he screams in fear if anything disturbs him and he often wakes up and starts making a heart wrenching, hiccupping sob noise for no obvious reason.

In my last post on Fid, I ...