Blue and Gold Macaws

Q:  I have a 2 year old blue and gold macaw that is very sweet and has never bitten me.  I heard recently that at some point my bird will bite me.  Is this true?

-Mary, Springfield, IL

A:  This is a great question and an important topic for new bird owners.  Unfortunately, the answer to your question is most likely ‘yes”.  Parrots may bite for a number of different reasons ranging from fright to fear to aggression, with a host of different possibilities in between.  What is more ...

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Congo African Grey Parrot

There are countless sources of information about parrots online.  There are online forums and web pages that are dedicated solely to the specific bird you are looking for.  There are sites for conures, macaws,  cockatoos, eclectus, you name it.  Within each group you can learn the habits of the individual species.

The behavior differences between a macaw and a cockatoo are enormous, but even within a family of birds, different species behave differently.  For instance, the goffins cockatoo species is entirely different from the umbrella cockatoo.  Then when ...

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Establishing boundaries for your young parrot, one that has yet to reach sexual maturity, is an important first step in laying the groundwork for a happy and healthy co-existence between parrots and people. By setting and adhering to rules consistently, you are ensuring that your older parrot (who otherwise might have become more assertive of his wants) will cooperate with your requests in pleasant and acceptable ways.

Rescues are packed to the brim with unwanted parrots. Many of them have been determined to be a “problem” later in life when owners...

Here it comes!  It’s only January!!  Normally, I wouldn’t see some of the behaviors I have been noticing until well into February.  Perhaps it is because of our change in location, but all the signs promising a very hormonal season are in place with my birds.

I took Theo, my goffins cockatoo, in to watch a movie with me the other day.  Normally, she would be preening herself, preening my hair, untying my shoes and hopping up and down the length of my body while I try to ...

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Blue throated macaw

An hour before the show starts, we do something called the all-access preshow at the circus, it’s where people come into the ring and meet the cast of the show as well as the animals up close and personally. They can take pictures with the people or animals, try on circus costumes, enter to win an elephant foot print on a t-shirt and much, much more.

This is the part in the show where we rotate using three of our parrots so they can get lots of interaction with ...

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Congo African Grey Parrot

Ever since touring on the road Dave and I have worked hard to get more and more of our birds into the show that didn’t start out in it when we opened. The mental stimulation, constant interaction and quality time they get out of being in the show is unbeatable and we want them all to experience it. We also want to be able to give our birds days off, even when we don’t have the day off from the show ourselves.

Our social butterfly, er, I mean, ...

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