Albatross in flight. The blue sky of summer, nice for a while but continuing extreme heat takes its toll.

The summer we’ve just had in Australia has been a bad one. We’ve had extremes all over the country. One half is under water, the other half is melting and that’s NOW. It’s not even summer anymore, it’s supposed to be autumn here. Yet I’m slowly cooking here in a record-breaking heatwave that exceeds what we’ve seen since records began at ...

July 2012. Cocky Boy huddled under a heat lamp.

I spent most of last year wondering when I’d be writing a post saying that the worst had happened and my elderly Galah Cocky Boy had died from his heart condition? Every day felt like a battle and there did come a point where I found myself realizing that difficult decisions were coming. He seemed happier with treatment but his weight kept dropping. His body condition deteriorated with his decreased weight ...

I have done a post or two on this topic in the past but think it’s important enough to re-visit it from time to time. Please take the time to read this to learn, or give yourself a reminder, about the many benefits of sunshine for parrots.

Companion parrots have a very different lifestyle from those of their wild cousins. As much as we try to provide them with a great diet and an active environment, there are few alternatives available for captive parrots that offer the same health benefits ...

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There is a lot of talk about bee pollen and its benefits in the parrot diet. I am one that believes we have to maximize every meal, especially if we have a picky eater on our hands. Bee pollen is as complete and natural a food supplement as there is…

What is bee pollen?

Flowers (and other plants) produce a powdery substance called pollen made of microscopic particles, which is a male seed necessary to fertilization. Bees travel from flower to flower collecting pollen particles and formulating and carrying to the hive the granules that we ...

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Bubba and the Sweet Pea by Gladys Boutros

PBFD is a highly-contagious and usually fatal avian disease that causes beak and feather aberration. While it can affect all parrots species, the cockatoo seems to be targeted often, although this may not be an indicator of predisposition so much as location.

PBFD, as well as other devastating avian diseases, are very prolific in Australian wildlife. Since the pet industry in Australia is known to buy wild caught birds for resale, it brings wild bird diseases into the stores, which are then dispersed to ...

My Rainbow Lorikeets. Dori is on the left, Lori is on the right. Almost identical they can be hard to tell apart if you don't know them.

The textbook average weight for a Rainbow Lorikeet is approximately 130 grams and they don’t tend to fluctuate much more than 5 grams away from their personal average weight unless there is something wrong. So if I were to tell you that my Rainbow Lorikeet “Lori” weighs 120 grams, would you ...