What kind of parrot should I get based on this schedule?
I wake at about 5:30 AM and get ready for school. At 7:25 AM I head off for school. After at about 2:00 PM I get back home for lunch and do what I want for 2 and a half hours. I then do homework for 2 hours and then dinner and 1 hour of anything.
I have recently purchased a new parakeet (Budgie)
As my beloved 7 yr old Sparky died. He is very young as the cere above his beak is just changing color from white to blue.
When I cover his cage at night he is on his top perch but when I get up in the morning Budgie is hanging upside down from the top of his cage. He has a perch high up but moves to the roof when I am sleeping. Any ideas?
Martie H
How long should it take for a Cockatiel to grow back clipped wing feathers?
I have a 7-month-old cockatiel, he’s super happy all the time and is “shedding” his down feathers constantly lately. The people we bought him from at about 2 to 3 months old were clipping his wings and he still hasn’t been able to fly properly. We keep him clean, happy, and healthy.
My answer
For the record, we are proponents of keeping birds flighted. But if a person loses a bird because it is flighted and they walked outside with the bird on their shoulder un-tethered – they are a dumbass.
Apologies in advance, I’ll be stepping on some toes here. But first I will man up and say I don’t have a good answer, here’s why.
Captive bird keepers regardless of their avian resume cite all sorts of, “facts”. Certain species mature at this age, other species mature at another age.
A question I ask rhetorically all the time is, “if we have all these facts at hand – THE right cage size – THE right perch size – that pellets are the ONLY food parrots should eat…
In that we know so much about birds with certainty, why has captive bird ownership in the US done nothing but decrease for the past 10 years while bird rescue populations have done nothing but rise?
By request from one of our Facebook fans, Teresa – we will start off talking about the Goffin cockatoo. Known formally as the Tanimbar Corella. These adorable little birds are about 12 inches long from head to tail.
The males weigh about 300 g (about 10 oz) and the females weigh about 50 g less. Like many other cockatoos they have a crest they raise and lower on top of their head.
As Cockatoos go, this one is a quieter Cockatoo which makes it a terrific pet. You have to be careful what you do in front of these birds like opening the cage latch because they will watch it and mimic it rather quickly.
Hi Mitch!
Any thoughts on clicker training? Any videos on your site for that?
Thanks ahead for any insight…
Rocco (Michael)
Birdcage lighting for 3 parrots
Hi Mitch,
I am fairly new to reading your blog, so I hope I am not asking questions that are too redundant. I have three birds – an almost 4-year-old male Bodini Amazon, a 2-year-old male Blue-headed Pionus, and a feisty little female Parrotlet. I have two questions really.
First, I would like to know if what I am currently doing is adequate or not. My birds have their own room where their cages are. The room is furnished with a fountain, a tree, hanging toys, etc. – basically a parrot playground. There is only one overhead light in the room that is just an LED daylight bulb.
You may have noticed the “live help” tab at the bottom of the site coming on now and then: Here’s a “fly on the wall” look
Chatting with Guest (Egypt)
Mitch: Hello, how can I help?
Visitor: I brought 2 Indian parrots 6 months old yesterday.
Visitor: Yesterday they were nice but today they tend to bite so hard.
Questions about birds I answered on Quora the week of 3/13/17.
Do power lines affect the health of birds, when they perch on them?
I can’t speak to power lines but I know that Quaker parrots are colonial animals. They build large nests where a whole colony can live enabling them to survive brutal Chicago winters.
A heat source they seek out and build their nests in is electrical transformers. ComEd has access to a number of Quaker rescues who will come and get the birds when requested.
