Hyacinth Macaw

Hurricane season is beginning here in Florida, and forecasters are predicting an active season.  While I am located in central Florida and don’t expect to see the severe weather the coast might see, hurricanes do, in fact, travel inland. I grew up in the northeast and lived a good part of my life in Chicago so I am accustomed to severe storms and oceans of snow. The south offers some new challenges to which I don’t feel particularly accustomed.  The clouds, both here and in Texas, don’t seem ...

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The following are five things we all need to know how to do to give us the advantage in day to day life with our birds:

1. TARGET TRAINING

Target training might be one of the most important things you do with your parrot. This activity, which many parrots literally pick up in minutes, is the first step in training. The joy felt by both the owner and the bird during that first AHA! moment when it makes the association between the requested behavior...

For the tiny creatures that they are, parrots seem to have a lot of things, from cages to boxes of toys to dishes to perches and swings.  They dominate any home they occupy.  Here are 5 more things that you should not be without, or without access to, when you own a parrot:

1. GRAM SCALE
Birds are so good at masking an illness that there are few ways that we have to learn that something is wrong. One of those ways is by weighing them frequently. Because birds are so light, they must be ...

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A bird laying an egg is the most natural thing in the world.  Still, we humans always seem so surprised when it happens.

Egg production is not the result of mating, as many astonished single bird owners have discovered.  It is the breeding stimuli in the environment that causes a hen to generate an egg.  If you have only one bird, or are certain that your male and female are nothing more than good friends, the egg will be unviable.  Without fertilization, an egg will not produce a chick.  ...

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For those of you who have read my posts over the past year, I hope I have impressed upon you the importance of feeding your birds a nutritious, healthful diet. Anyone who knows me, or has contacted me with questions about certain products has learned quickly that I hate everything. I could never bring myself to suggest a product that I know falls short of it’s claims, or worse, might actually harm a bird.  I don’t recommend commercial supplements, in large part because of their questionable ingredients, but mainly because I have never found ...

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Congo African Grey Parrot

Q:  Why does my bird act crazy when it rains?

Laura G.,  Oakland, CA

A:  Rain can mean many things to a parrot.  The warm rains of spring mean that the plants are being nourished and food will soon be plentiful.  It is a precursor to breeding season and can signal the onset of hormonal behaviors.  Parrots are able to detect a change in barometric pressure and may be aware of a coming rainstorm well before we are.

At other times of the year, a rain shower will inspire my ...

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