Blue fronted amazon

Q: My cockatiel has been sneezing a lot lately. Is that normal?

-Joshua P., Balzac, Alberta, Canada

 A: There are many reasons a bird will sneeze. The nares (see photo below) are your bird’s nostrils. When they collect dust or if an object, such as a seed hull, were to get lodged in them your bird will force air through their passages to disperse whatever is obstructing them. This will result in what is called a “dry sneeze”, a sneeze that does not expel any fluids. You can expect these types ...

Think for a minute about all the things your parrot does with its beak:  It forages for, transports and breaks apart food.  It builds nests and feeds the babies.  It’s used for climbing, gripping and balancing.  It’s used in daily grooming. It’s their tool of choice in picking the padlocks we put on their cages, and, in conjunction with pressure capabilities of up to 1500 psi in their jaws (in macaws, according to tests done with a veterinarian’s oral speculum), it is a formidable weapon. We mere humans require power tools to ...

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