This Is Your Bird on Eggs. Can Chronic Egg Layers Anonymous Help?
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This Is Your Bird on Eggs. Can Chronic Egg Layers Anonymous Help?

“I’ve got a lot of addictions but not a lot of time so I’ve been going to polkaholics anonymous because they offer a two-step program” mitchr

So Popcorn our cockatiel, (pictured above) has become a prolific mom and if we put our hand within 12 inches of her in her cage, my arm will be ripped off by the doting mother sitting on 2 nonfertile eggs. We feel your pain and we are about to embark on a journey trying to figure out why this is happening and how to fix it.

Recommendations are to leave the egg(s) in place for 11 days past the time the last egg of the clutch is laid. Normal cockatiel clutches have about six eggs. Popcorn is sitting on two – does that impact her? (more…)

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Are You a Perpetual Poop Inspector?
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Are You a Perpetual Poop Inspector?

What you can learn from your bird’s droppings

You should become very aware of your companion bird’s poop because you can use them as a daily guide to your bird’s health. The parrots and soft billed birds we share our homes with are flock creatures and, like all flock mentality creatures, hide signs of illness until they are too ill to be able to hide it any longer. The first clue we have of illness or diet-related problem shows up in our bird’s poop.

Unlike humans, birds have only one opening in the body for allowing fecal matter, urine, and reproductive material (sperm and eggs) to exit, the cholaca. Inside the avian body, three distinct routes bring these types of matter to the cholaca for expulsion from the body. In this case, we will only be looking at droppings rather than the use of the cholaca for reproductive purposes.

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Do Birds and Parrots Need More ICD-10 Medical Codes?
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Do Birds and Parrots Need More ICD-10 Medical Codes?

What’s he talking about now Martha?

So my sister the psychotherapist sent me an article from NPR entitled Struck By A Macaw? Now there’s a medical diagnosis code for that found here.

Our federal government is mandating that On Thursday, doctors, hospitals, and health insurers must start using the ICD-10, a vast new set of alphanumeric codes for describing diseases and injuries in unprecedented detail apparently including injuries caused by macaw parrots.  (more…)

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Help! My Bird’s Egg Bound but the Vet Won’t be In Until Tomorrow.
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Help! My Bird’s Egg Bound but the Vet Won’t be In Until Tomorrow.

Our cockatiel Popcorn is a prolific egg layer. To the uninitiated many female birds, especially cockatiels and lovebirds will lay eggs whether or not they have a guy to help around the cage.

There you are drinking your morning coffee trying to get ready for work and as you breeze by the cage you see an egg lying on the grate.

Because we know our bird is doing her single mom thing and there is no guy around the egg is definitely infertile. It is not fair to the bird to allow her to try to hatch the egg for weeks.
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A Conversation with Glen Glendell, UK Parrot Behaviorist: Biting Parrots (Topic 1 of 3)
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A Conversation with Glen Glendell, UK Parrot Behaviorist: Biting Parrots (Topic 1 of 3)

A Conversation with Glen Glendell, UK Parrot Behaviorist: Biting Parrots (Topic 1 of 3)

A while back, I had the opportunity to have a long teleconference with Greg Glendell, UK parrot behaviorist and author of several parrot training books.

Our discussion covered 3 main topics, at least one of which haunts many parrot owners. In each part of this series, I will summarize one of the key topics of our conversation, which covered:

  1. Biting Parrots
  2. Screaming Parrots
  3. Feather Plucking Parrots

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Check Out  Farming Parrots in Their Gardens
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Check Out Farming Parrots in Their Gardens

– are they the real macaws?

Generally speaking, the answer is ‘No, parrots do not make good “Intentional” farmers as they destroy more than they build. Ironically that mess on your floor which was clean 15 minutes ago is an example of nature’s way of using birds as agents to spread seeds throughout the earth. As an example, birds do not have receptors for capsaicin, the protein that makes peppers hot, so birds will still eat the peppers and disperse the seeds. You and I on the other hand will need to drink lots of beer to put out the mouth fire.

Before moving forward I’d like to note that what you are about to read is a digital collaboration between me and Nora – unbeknownst to her as I write this but she will be making the final edits on this post. The original title was “Grow a Garden for Your Parrot” but clearly, there is a difference between what men think about parrots and farming and what women think about growing stuff for parrots

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Silence Your Screaming Parrot with this Quick Tip
Screaming Single green parrot on a bough.

Silence Your Screaming Parrot with this Quick Tip

We just wanted to say hi, I’m David Jones and this is my 10-month-old “Blue Headed Pionus” whom we believe to be a male at this time. His name is “The Shriek of Araby”, but the vote is still out…!! He is sweet and naughty at the same time. Any tips on what to do when they shriek?

Thanks, David

Hi David,

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Why Do Green Parrots Have No Green Feather Pigments?
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Why Do Green Parrots Have No Green Feather Pigments?

and why are their feathers different from other bird feathers?

Hi Mitch

I recently inherited a Yellow Naped Amazon and love her to pieces, but not being a bird person previously, I could use some advice. He is guessed to be about 50 years old, actually, I was told that Rhoda is a female but, she has never laid eggs so they say she is a he!

No matter, I have noticed some of his feathers have black coloring on them. Is it true that could be caused by him not getting enough sunlight? His cage is in front of a window, but the window has a sun screen on it. What is needed to provide “sun” for him in his cage? I would also like to purchase a “Happy Hut” for him but I need to know what size I should order. 

Thanks for any help you can give me and I welcome any advice!

Ginger Oliveira
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Should We Demand Gay Rights for Our Parrots Too?
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Should We Demand Gay Rights for Our Parrots Too?

Did you ever have that problem of trying to define what you did for a living to another human? I spend a lot of time triangulating information on the Internet in an attempt to fine-tune the accuracy of our Caged Bird Keepers knowledge base.

I read journals, blogs, forums and more emails than Tom Petty (maybe) – Did you know that Tom Petty has the second longest-running show on Sirius XM? Whoda thunk it?

Sometimes the extent of my ability to reach out to experts and execute query after query on Google, there still remain some questions that are above my pay grade.

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