Establishing boundaries for your young parrot, one that has yet to reach sexual maturity, is an important first step in laying the groundwork for a happy and healthy co-existence between parrots and people. By setting and adhering to rules consistently, you are ensuring that your older parrot (who otherwise might have become more assertive of his wants) will cooperate with your requests in pleasant and acceptable ways.

Rescues are packed to the brim with unwanted parrots. Many of them have been determined to be a “problem” later in life when owners...

Military Macaw, Camelot macaws

I watched in amazement as Linus, my umbrella cockatoo, picked through his food bowl, tossing to the ground everything that wasn’t that exact piece of food he was after.  Because of it’s design, Linus’s is the only cage that I keep the grate in.  That means that all of that food he was flinging was falling to the cage bottom, and out of his reach.  What was he thinking?  Certainly he knows from experience that he would be hungry for these pieces of food later in ...

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This is priceless.  For those of you with cockatoos, especially goffins, the engineering variety of cockatoo, you will treasure this.  Once again, the author is unknown:

‘Twas the night before Christmas and all through the flights,
Not a bird was stirring since I turned off the...

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Quaker Parrot

There was a family that lived near me in Austin that had a large front yard that always seemed to be filled with playing children and puppies.  It seemed like several times a year this family was enjoying a new, cute, fluffy little playmate, and it occured to me at some point that I never saw any grown dogs.

One day, when I was walking by the house, I struck up a conversation with one the adults.  I told her how cute all the puppies I’ve seen there have been ...

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In the early morning hours, as the sun is rising and weather permitting, wild parrots all over the world visit clay licks on tall riverbanks to eat dirt.  This practice has long confounded bird watchers, conservationists and scientists alike, and while all of the benefits of this activity are still a mystery, more and more is being discovered and understood.

Wild parrots forage on plants, their fruits and their seeds as part of  their natural diet.  However, plants naturally produce chemicals, poisons, that protect themselves, their ...

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