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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Congo African Grey Parrot

Some of my flock have great, healthy appetites.  Some, not so much. We have to come up with some pretty clever ways to outsmart the picky eaters for their own good. Determine what your parrot’s favorite foods are, and then make some variations to the recipe.

*Remember, be very sneaky!  Cut the veggies very small and use them sparingly at first.  In this battle to good health, you are using his favorite foods as coercion.  You don’t want him to get suspicious and walk away from them. His ...

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Hyacinth Macaw

In the wild, parrots, with the help and guidance of their parents and other flock members, learn their way around the plant life in their native lands.  The day may begin with a visit to their local clay lick to help them ward off the toxins produced by the plants they forage on.  They manage to provide themselves with a healthy and well balanced diet without human intervention.

In a captive setting, I always make sure to vary fruits, vegetables and the other foods I serve to my parrots ...

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Congo African Grey Parrot

Have you ever noticed how dry your hands get in the winter?  Or how the  texture of your hair changes?  Sometimes your throat and nasal passages can become dry and sore. This is due to the low humidity in the air, often during the winter months when our heaters are in use.

Underneath all of those beautiful feathers, a parrot has skin that needs care just as ours does.  When skin becomes dry, it gets itchy – when we’re itchy, we scratch.  Skin conditions are sometimes the underlying ...

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Military Macaw

Of all of the things you thoughtfully do for your parrot, your first consideration must be for its diet.  I can’t stress this enough.  Without well balanced nutrition, a parrot’s general health will gradually decline, vitamin deficiencies will leave it susceptible to illness and disease and its life span will be decreased.  An unhealthy parrot is temperamental and may not want to be a part of family activities. If your parrot doesn’t feel well and energized, no amount of love, enrichment or interaction will do him much good.  A ...

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In keeping in touch with the avian community, I find more and more people who are coping with the heartbreak of their parrot’s feather plucking, barbering or mutilation.  The biggest problem with feather destructive behaviors is that we don’t know why it happens.  There are NO experts in this area, because, frankly, no one understands why they do this. There are people with a great deal of experience with pluckers who can recommend changes to make that they have seen good results with.  But ...

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