parrots world

Biggest Mistake We Make With Our Birds A while back I wrote an article about the biggest mistake we make with our birds, you can read that here. This article is about our second biggest mistake… This is a mistake that we make with the best of intentions. It can sideline our plans for our birds, cause us to lose their trust and cause them to lose their willingness to expand their horizons. It is – impatience. We live in a results oriented world. Our actions are judged by their outcome. Our employers encourage us to push forward toward goals that are set for us. We keep our eyes on the prize. Results are good things. However, we also live in a world where we want everything done yesterday. In our hurry to achieve results in the fastest possible time we cut corners and apply pressure to those we are partnered with so we can get to where we’re going faster. While your employer may appreciate this quality, your bird will not. Results are important to a bird, but ...

Tips To Help Your Bird Get More Exercise I pay close attention when life issues a wake-up call. I am always grateful for the forewarning that danger is lurking up ahead and I try to extract as much positive from the experience as I can. Sometimes these personal near misses drive home lessons that also help me to be a better parront. I have a pretty good diet. I make healthy food choices and buy good products. My diet is not perfect – I allow myself the occasional indulgence foods, but I use moderation with everything I eat which has always served me well. Following recent blood work, however, I was floored to learn that my cholesterol has seriously skyrocketed. Prior to this, the last discussion I had with my doctor about my cholesterol was that it was fine and didn’t need discussion. So what went wrong? I work for Birdtricks.com part-time, which usually involves me sitting here at the computer blogging or answering questions. My other job was an active one which ke...

Medicating Your Bird Compared to our other pets, birds live a very long time. At some point you will need to administer a medication to your parrot and it is something that you will want to be prepared for when that time comes. I won’t lie – the first time is not easy. Your bird is sick and grumpy and not feeling at all like being cooperative. You are nervous and without confidence in what you are trying to do. What if I do this wrong? Will I hurt my bird? Let’s say your bird has been quieter than normal and has had watery droppings for a few days. Your vet determines that your bird has a bacterial infection, something not uncommon but which definitely requires a course of antibiotics if your bird is to get well. It doesn’t have to be traumatic for you or your bird. Following is everything you need to know to get the job done right. Be sure to CLICK ON THE PROVIDED LINKS for more detailed information on the highlighted topics. The DOs and DON’Ts: At the v...

The Perfect Parrot Owner  Years ago, when I started working for Birdtricks.com, I made my mind up that I would focus on certain areas where the need for information was the most evident. Through reading comments on blog posts, Facebook and through emails it became clear what was getting through and what wasn’t. A main topic to tackle was the parrot diet – how it affects every single aspect of a parrot’s life, current and future, and a subject that was eluding the majority of parrot owners. I wanted to help people feel compassion for their parrots rather than anger when they display problem behaviors. There are reasons for the biting and the screaming caused by problems that are generally not of their own making. I wanted people to understand that parrots were not like dogs or cats, but also not like children despite the many similar behaviors. The most emotionally healthy birds are those who get to be birds and aren’t expected to be anything else. This post ...

Parrot Misinformation On The Internet Facebook. I love it and I hate it. On the one hand, it is SO annoying watching people publicly humiliating themselves by posting drunken photos or making personal comments that they will live to regret…forever and ever. On the other hand, for someone like me, it is a wonderful way to see into the world of other bird owners to get a sense of what is REALLY going on out there. This year we started doing an educational post of the week on our page. A good number of those posts are based on what I see in my Facebook feed. I go through my feed nearly every day. It is very uplifting to see how much effort and love people are putting into their birds and everybody wants to share. But just as a warning, please be careful what you post. Many reposted articles are found on the internet, which is overrun with information which is dated, or just plain wrong.  An article written in the 1990s might look and read the same as one w...

Problems With Keeping More Than One Bird In A Cage I love cockatiels. So much. They are the sweetest, funniest, most agreeable and easy to read birds I have ever had or known. I hope to always have them in my life, so much so that I have to purposely avoid any I see at a bird store because I don’t trust myself to say no. At this date, only two remain from my original flock of four cockatiels which were all housed in one large cage. While keeping those birds together, I learned the hard way about the problems that can arise from putting multiple birds in a single cage. Which droppings belong to whom? Birds are masters at hiding illnesses from us. Wild birds understand that opportunistic predators target the smallest and weakest of a flock first, and because this thinking is hardwired into all parrots, ours included, they keep their physical condition private until they are too ill to hide it any longer. Along with changes in weight, droppings are one of th...

BITING PARROTS Why They Do It and How To Control It In the course of my behavior consultations, I have encountered many different manifestations of aggression in pet parrots. This article discusses what I find to be the most common – biting – and how to use the foundation of what Blanchard calls Nurturing Dominance or Nurturing Guidance to control it. Fortunately, I find this to be one of the easiest parrot behavior problems to correct – IF the owner is patient and consistent. Biting Isn't "Natural" It is important to understand that parrots in the wild rarely appear to use their beaks as a weapon against other parrots. If needed, the beak is a protection against predators such as snakes and raptors (birds of prey), but not against others in their own flock. In their natural environments, competition and/ or conflict between parrots rarely escalates to physical violence --- instead, they vocalize (scream) and/or use body language by strutting, pos...

Parrot Biting Parrot biting is the number one behavior problem developed in pet parrots; along side the screaming, the mess and possible plucking, parrot biting seems to be the first thing parrot owners want to cure. After all, it hurts! And not just physically, emotionally too. Which is why we highly recommend that you sign up to receive our training techniques series here: Watch our Free ‘Stop Biting’ video series When it comes to parrot biting, you need to be aware of the different types of biting that come from parrots. For example… Reasons for parrot biting Fear based – Your parrot bites out of fear Aggression – Your bird bites out of aggression Territorial – Your bird bites out of becoming territorial over spaces (like his cage), places (dark corners), people (his favorite person) or things (favorite toys) Hormones – You didn’t realize you were provoking your bird’s hormones and now he’s frustrated Trained – Most owners have unintenti...

Household Hazards / Toxins for your African Grey       As African Grey owners we need to be aware of hazards and toxins in our homes. Just as with a child, you need to "bird-proof" the house and always know where your parrot is. We as owners have the responsibility to make sure our Greys are safe and not exposed to harmful chemicals and items that could potentially be dangerous for them.  Remember how the miners would take a canary down in the mines with them to check and see if the air was safe and free from poisonous gas? The canary would keel over in a matter of minutes if the air was toxic. Birds in general have the most efficient respiratory system in the animal world. Amazingly, they can efficiently remove oxygen from the atmosphere into the bloodstream. Because of this efficiency and their small size, birds are more sensitive to airborne toxins. Below are potential household dangers for African Greys and birds in general. Non-stick cook...

Emergency Care Kit for Your Bird As a bird owner it is important to keep a bird emergency kit on hand. You never know what could happen. Make sure you are prepared to handle an emergency situation that might arise with your African Grey.  The following is a list of items that are recommended for your home bird emergency / first aid kit: Corn starch and / or styptic powder – great to stop bleeding for toenails, beaks or feathers (some styptic powders can burn the skin so be careful using this) Pedialyte – helps replace electrolytes in sick or dehydrated birds (if you think your bird is in need of this, you really need to talk to your avian vet) Hemostat, fine needle-nose pliers, tweezers – these can be used to remove a broken blood feather Scissors – to cut sterile gauze Betadine – to disinfect a bleeding wound Sterile saline solution – to flush eyes Towel – in case you need to restrain the bird Sterile Gauze Q-tips Syringes – to give medications...