As my cockatiels get older, they are spending more and more time on their flat perches. I still provide a variety of standard perches for them, but their tired, old feet always head back to the flat perches before too long.

Flat perches gain a lot of points for offering comfort to my cockatiels in their golden years, but lose points with their constant need for cleaning. The beauty of the design of a standard perch, taken from nature, is that droppings fall from ...

cockatiel

I love cockatiels. So much. They are the sweetest, funniest, most agreeable and easy to read birds I have ever had or known. I hope to always have them in my life, so much so that I have to purposely avoid any I see at a bird store because I don’t trust myself to say no.

At this date, only two remain from my original flock of four cockatiels which were all housed in one large cage. While keeping ...

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Parrots are weird. They are. No matter how long we may have lived with a particular bird, there are days that they will do things to confound us. Many of a bird’s activities, and the reasoning behind them, are a mystery to we humans; but the waters of understanding get ...

There are many such places that have popped up in recent years. It is important to keep in mind, however, that these places are run and visited by bird lovers who can post what they want and are not held answerable for any misinformation they put on the page. Some may not even realize they are posting wrong information.

People will accept the words from sites like About.com as truth. I don’t blame the reposters of these articles, their intention is only to share with like-minded people, but I ask everyone to be sure of the sources you get your information from.

Businesses like About.com don’t care if your bird is safe or healthy. They are there to bring you to their advertisers, not to better your world.  Remember, when you repost something it goes out to countless others who might then be misinformed and go on to misinform others.

A couple of weeks ago I was having a conversation with an avian vet during which I asked him about problems that would most commonly land birds into his clinic for treatment. We got to talking about food related bacterial infections, and he told me that he feels the dishes that are manufactured for small bird cages are causing big trouble. This is not the first time I have heard this complaint.

The small bird cages he was describing are the ones made of pliable, plastic-coated wire that are commonly found in pet stores ...

Q: Can I keep my budgie and my cockatiel in the same cage?

-Andrew F., Carlsbad, NM

A: This is a question we get frequently. Many people have birds of two different species that get along well and become very attached to one another. When they are out together in their play area, they always share the same perch and snacks, and they always preen each other to perfection.

It is completely understandable that their humans would begin to wonder if they would ...