Camelot macaw

This hasn’t always been the case, but these days you can’t research bird care without the importance of toys in the parrot’s environment being carefully stressed. The educated bird owner understands the multiple purposes bird toys serve:

• they keep the mind active and stimulated
• they keep the body active and fit
• they satisfy the urge to chew and destroy
• they take away the boredom that might result in feather destruction

It is always a joy to watch a parrot at play – it is the sign of a healthy and happy bird – but ...

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Umbrella cockatoo

So many people over the past several months have commented that their bird smells bad that I have been wanting to do a post on the subject. I held out only because I’ve been unable to get any particulars from the people complaining – where is the odor emanating from: Body? Breath? Poop? I’m still not sure what they were talking about.

But, the simple fact of the matter is, there should be no “odor” coming from your parrot. The different parrots have smells that are unique to their species, ...

Fid, my Blue and Gold Macaw

Have you ever sat back and thought that you had everything under control and that you’re doing pretty well with your birds? Thought that your flock is happily occupied, playing with foraging toys, enjoying their amazing diet while rattling off their extensive vocabularies at each other? Thought that while they were busy in their respective aviaries that it was safe to leave them to it and go out for ...

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Because of its construction, this swing from Birdtricks.com will last forever and help keep your parrot safe in the cage.

Earlier this summer, within roughly a 10 day period, there were 3 separate incidents posted on our Facebook page that described parrots becoming entangled in their toys. I heard of another incident of entanglement from a different source just last week.

In two of the four cases, the neck was caught in a toy part, posing a serious strangulation threat. Fortunately, the owners of all of the birds were home at ...

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Cockatiel photo by Anna Sloan

The amount of people who are taking on the responsibility of handfeeding and weaning their baby birds seems to have reached epic proportions this year. What’s going on? The information warning people against doing this is everywhere.

Recently, I got an email regarding someone who wanted to know how to wean her fully grown, feathered and fledged bird. <sigh> She has no idea how to do it – she has no idea that she should have started the process some time back – but here she is ...

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It was like Christmas for my birds at my place last week. It was what I fondly refer to as “Psychotic branch week”. It’s usually an annual event, although sometimes it happens twice a year. It’s not planned (I wish it was) and it isn’t consistently at the same time of year.

It’s not general knowledge but it is actually illegal to take branches and foliage from trees that are on public property ...