Rose Breasted Cockatoo

Many parrots are neophobic, meaning that they fear new things.  In fact, maybe most parrots instinctively fear new things.  Since parrots are undomesticated, and bring many of their natural behaviors into our homes, they often display alarm towards things that are unfamiliar to them.  This makes sense from a practical standpoint when you consider that they have to be on high alert in the wild to guard against predators.  A watchful bird is a smart bird, and a safe bird.  It’s the level of fearfulness that takes this ...

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Image by Zdeněk Chalupský from Pixabay 

It is fall, which makes it cranberry season again. YAY!  I don’t think there is any other fruit my birds have more fun with.  When you think about it, it’s half food, half toy.  My birds enjoy playing with cranberries as much as they enjoy eating them.  I watched one of my cockatiels rolling a whole cranberry around with his beak for about a half hour once.  They are fun to drop from a height because they are firm and they bounce.  They make ...

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Congo African Grey Parrot

I cleaned out my storage shed today looking for the plastic storage bins I want to use for packing.  I was appalled at how filthy they had become just sitting there over time.  Since I will be putting bird accessories into many of them, I need to use a cleaning solution that is entirely safe and non-toxic.

White , distilled vinegar is all natural, and can be used in many helpful ways.  It cleans, disinfects, deodorizes, and removes stains and mineral deposits.  It can be used on ...

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Congo African Grey Parrot

I was listening to the Ask The Bird Experts weekly webcast the other night.  Liz Wilson was speaking about how little we actually know about parrots.  After so much research has been done about parrots in the wild, there are very few questions that can be answered with absolute certainty.

I have complained in past posts about the fact that there isn’t a formulated diet that can duplicate a parrot’s natural one. This is because we really don’t know what they eat.  A field researcher can spend ...

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Blue throated macaws

When is the right time to wean a parrot?

There really isn’t an exact answer to that question.  Each species has its own timetable that can be used as a guideline, but it will vary with each individual bird of that species.  The right answer to the question is: when the bird is ready. More important than when is how it is done – a parrot must be weaned properly for developmental reasons.

Unless you are an owner experienced in hand feeding and weaning, or are a breeder, you ...

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Mitred Conure

I took my umbrella cockatoo, Linus, to the vet last week.  His poops were runny and just generally not right.  I have to watch him closely because he contracted AGY (avian gastric yeast) last year, and it took almost a year to get rid of it.  It started out with the same symptoms: runny poops and a bad attitude.  I didn’t want to take any chances, so I had them run the tests, which all came back negative. Problem was, his poops still weren’t quite what they ...

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