This first of three answers about macaw parrot keeping solutions is in response to the Quora question:
Macaw Asthma aka Macaw Respiratory Hypersensitivity disease is found in several species of macaws but is especially prevalent with blue and gold macaws.
Nancy H wrote:
Dear Mitch and Catherine,
I own a Blue and Gold Macaw that I’ve had for 23 years, I love him dearly as he’s been, my little companion and roommate.
The problem is and I’m hoping you can help is that I’m not able to have my family or friends over because Bernard will literally take a tantrum screaming until I go in and get him and bring him out to see who’s there and when I go to bring him back to his cage, he bites me hard with displaced anger.
Hello,
I love your birdie brunch and read it first thing every Sunday. Thank you!
I hope you can help me.
I have an 8 yr. old white-bellied Caique.
Conrad has owned me since he was 3 months old.
I am also a strong proponent of flighted birds (seems to me they were made that way), so Conrad is fully-flighted.
I’m going to interpret this as a cage placement question.
The answer is not straightforward.
Parrots like privacy.
We talk a lot about the birdcage canopy effect of lining the top third of your bird’s cage with so many toys that you can not see the bird.
This gives them a sense of security in that they are not easily seen all the time.
You have some sort of window covering in your bedroom, right? (more…)
There are two sides to this conversation.
There’s the “your bird needs to have some sort of sexual satisfaction in its life” and there’s the “what sex is your bird”?
Let’s start with bird sexing.
About 20 to 25% of parrots are classified as sexually dimorphic.
This means you can tell them apart by their color. Male Eclectus parrots are green and females are red.
What size cage is the minimum size for one small budgie?
The experts have all sorts of rules on proper cage sizing.
“It needs to be this size and shape in height”.
“In needs to have levels on this and that”.
“The bar spacing MUST be…….”
So here’s my deal with the experts
At first I thought to myself “this’ll be fun.”
Once I started the project it was a bit more difficult than I forecasted.
I originally started with 9 YouTube channels but some favorites needed to be included not simply based upon numbers.
For those who are not following on us Facebook or our YouTube channel, you’ll note that we are ramping up our use of Fid-eo to better communicate caged bird care.
Linda F asks,
Hi, As spring approaches we look to protect furry as well as feathered friends. Any suggestions on Frontline and heart guard type products that are safe around parrots and toos (Cockatoos) when used on three little dogs?
Are the two above mentioned harmful when used on a dog that lives in the same house as a bird?
Thank you for all help I have received as my CAG (Congo African Grey, goffie (Goffin Cockatoo) learn to share our life together.
Would not have made it as smoothly this far without your good advice and Birdy Brunch. Thank you again. Linda,
Micha and Stewie
Were not going to start with bird bites because we’ll be talking about several first-aid challenges you may face having a bird or two in your home for several decades.
Everyone likes to think of themselves as being prepared for disaster and certainly life’s cuts and scrapes.
I’ve personally sutured a dog in a garage (after 5 minutes of training by my vet) 🙂
Thank you Constance R.
So often its important to hear from independent third parties who provide valuable feedback on our pet bird content.
Having been in the process of rescuing budgies, (current budgie census is at six) and spending a lot of time with Peaches, our Senegal parrot weighing in at about 115 g, our recent focus has been skewed towards smaller birds.
Constance has a Congo African Grey and an Umbrella Cockatoo and from her recommendations, this is going to be a cockatoo-lishish post.
