Obese blue fronted amazon, Storm, carrying about 30% more than his species' average weight

Companion parrots experience both advantage and disadvantage with the humans in their lives. To their advantage is the human who loves them and provides them with all their needs – feeds them the healthiest diet, offers enrichment and vet care as needed.

To their disadvantage is the human who loves them and provides them with all their wants – rushes to release them when they insist on coming out of the cage, makes excuses for unwanted behaviors ...

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Photo from babble.com

Earlier this week, I heard about yet another parrot death following exposure to the toxic fumes of non-stick cookware. This death is particularly frustrating because this owner HAD heard the warnings, but didn’t take them seriously.

It astonishes me that some people still aren’t aware of this danger (for both birds AND humans) in this day and age, and it makes me wonder what we are doing wrong that the information is not reaching everyone.

But, what are you to do when someone DOES have the knowledge and chooses to ...

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Photo by Jamieleigh
Location: Athol, ID
Shown: Alexandrine Parakeet “Rasta” not eye pinning or being aggressive with sun conure “Detka” 

If you haven’t followed Rasta’s story, please do so here:

• Meet Rasta.
• Rasta: Where to start with terrified birds.
• Rasta: My first breakthrough.

So what has happened with Rasta since the last time I wrote? A whole heck of a lot!

I’ve been doing two things:

1. Encouraging Rasta to use flight as a means to get himself where he wants to go.
2. Putting happy on cue by clicking and rewarding anytime ...

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There’s a common misconception that working in wildlife rescue means working with lots of amazingly cute and cuddly animals. Unfortunately, the real situation is quite different. A LOT of wild rescue work results in the animal being euthanised because they’re usually extremely ill before they come to someone’s notice for rescue.

Not many photos of dead animals make it to the media and no decent rescuer is going to be stressing out a seriously ill ...

Blue throated macaw

Flight is the one characteristic that birds have that distinguishes them from all other animals. A bird’s entire physiology is designed for flight. And its emotional health is tied into its ability to fly. It is something that we at Birdtricks are very passionate about.

Recently, a member of our community, Parker, posted on Facebook about a frustrating experience he had with his breeder: the lady weaning his young macaw clipped his bird’s wings after he had told her NOT to.

This made us all angry because Parker ...

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