Hyacinth Macaw & Camelot macaw

The very best advice anyone is going to give you is to know your bird and understand its body language. Know what calms them, know what excites them, know what motivates them.  Know what tone of voice they respond best to, and know which actions (or inactions) indicate aggression.  Know their favorite foods.

Know when they’re tired or that they are over stimulated from too much play.  This knowledge is the very best tool in helping you to control their behaviors, assessing their health and preparing their ...

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Blue Fronted Amazon Parrot

If you have parrots and potted plants in your house, you have probably watched in awe at the speed with which your feathered backhoe can empty the contents of the plant pot onto your carpet.  You likely have a ground foraging species like the cockatoo, cockatiel, budgie or african grey to name a few.  Digging is a natural behavior for a ground forager and if he’s found his way into your secret garden, you will  have to pretty clever in your attempts to keep him ...

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When you hear about a parrot rescue, you immediately think the worst;  a group of parrots out there have been so abused, so neglected, that an organization has been called in to remove them from their home to safety. You expect to find parrots in poor health from untreated disease, rusted caged filled with mounds of poop in a filthy house. This is not always the case, and it wasn’t when I was asked to assist in the rescue of of 9 parrots in San Antonio.

We pulled up to a beautiful home, in a ...

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 I’ve said it before and will probably say it again; parrots don’t give unconditional love.  A dog will rest his head on your lap and say, “It’s okay that you forgot to feed me before you left this morning. My tummy is full now. You’re the greatest." A parrot will turn his back to you and give you the cold shoulder for a week for the same infraction. Trust is a hard-won commodity. It sure is in this house. It only takes one incident to break apart all that you’ve established. 

While there are several way to lose your parrot’s trust, here are three sure-fire bets:
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Congo African Grey Parrot

I am resistant to change.  It is my nature.  I try not to pass that trait along to my parrots, but I have to work really hard to avoid it.  I wish I had a dollar for every time I said: “Boy, I should’ve done this sooner.”   A lot of my hesitation has stemmed from my concerns about how the birds might respond to certain changes.  I’ve worried about moving because the birds are happy where we are.  I worried about starting a new job because they ...

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White Budgies

There are reasons besides appropriately naming your parrots to have them DNA sexed.  I’m pretty sure that DeeDee, my male cockatiel, has no objections to his effeminate name, and Theo, my female goffins cockatoo, seems to be comfortable with hers as well. I know the sex of all of my parrots except my quaker.  I decided to have her (I think of her as a girl) DNA sexed.

Why should I bother with DNA sexing?

If you’re a breeder, this is pretty important.   If you are not a breeder, it’s still ...

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