Galahs/Rosebreasted Cockatoos, Merlin & Nemo investigating the eucalyptus tree in their aviary.

Recently, I’ve been noticeably quiet. I have had some health issues and I haven’t been able to do everything I would normally do in my everyday life, which has included everything I would normally do with my birds. As it turns out, I’ve been forced to learn that it isn’t easy to hand aspects of your birds’ everyday care over to someone else.

I’ve always considered myself lucky. I don’t live alone, I’m ...

The excited blush of a macaw at play

I wish it were possible to do a blog post that would define, once and for all, the body language of parrots. Heaven knows we get asked for it enough. How cool would it be to be able to tell someone that when your bird does this, it means this?

Unfortunately, such a post will never come to be. There are too many considerations that prevent it:

• Each species of parrot has its own ways of expressing themselves.
• Each bird has its own personality.
• Each owner ...

   

Rose breasted cockatoo and congo african grey

I’ve talked about MBS (Multiple Bird Syndrome) in previous posts and know well the feeling that since your bird has been such a joy in your life that it only makes sense to add another (and another). It is a decision, however, that needs to be as carefully weighed as adding a new child to your family. When you add another bird to your home it changes the flock dynamics. Things WILL change, and not always in the ways you had imagined.
Know for ...

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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...