Blue throated macaw

Most of us view bird chores with a sense of dread. It’s reasonable that one wouldn’t necessarily enjoy the unpleasantries left at the bottom of cages. It can be a lot of work to keep up on the cleaning that bird ownership requires.

But there is a very big advantage to doing those chores: you get an intimate look at your bird’s health and its activities. Birds are such masters of disguise when it comes to illness that we have to actively investigate to get to the truth.

Wild birds ...

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Alexandrine parrot

I hope that all of you are aware by now that a bird needs fresh produce to be the largest part of its diet. Vegetables are the food most valuable to your bird and need to be offered every day.

Of course, you want to serve the best there is to offer, which is generally organically grown produce because it is cultivated using natural pesticides, as opposed to the much more toxic and dangerous synthetic pesticides, and because organic produce is usually higher in nutrients.

Not everyone has access to organic ...

I am very excited to share with you our first Bird Tricks success story in this series. I really love this story because it is a great example that even in a “perfect” situation, problems will inevitably arise in raising a parrot over its lifetime and we need to be both willing and prepared as caregivers to meet the challenges as they come.

MEET KIKI

Samina Ansari ...

Fid, my Blue and Gold Macaw playing with a foraging toy. The age of shredded paper that I use in foraging toys is also something that I am very aware of.

Mel Vincent works as an animal rehabilitator out of Australia.

I think by now, most of us are aware that the best cage liner to use for our birds is paper. It lies flat, easily allowing you to monitor your birds’ droppings; it’s non-toxic and it is cheap. That said ...

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Last year for Halloween we gave away goodie bags, or trick or treat bags, and this year I really wasn’t planning on doing anything. But then last minute I felt inspired to do SOMETHING for you guys because...

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For those who don’t know, I live with a very young Blue and Gold Macaw named Fid. I believe he is currently around 12 months old, although I can’t be 100% sure. What I can be sure of, is there is a very good reason why the first sentence he learned to say was “You’re a BRAT!!!!”

Friday started in a very typical way. After I unlocked the padlock on his sleeping cage’s door, Fid refused to wait to be let out...