The Secret of Do Birds in Cages Suffer All Their Lives?
selective focus of bright amazon parrot sitting in bird cage

The Secret of Do Birds in Cages Suffer All Their Lives?

I’ve often said the perfect size cage for a Green Wing Macaw is 30 acres. Many birds can and do suffer miserably in cages. There are ways we can offset the majority of the stress for our captive birds — but many of us do not.

Full transparency — I’m a companion to one Senegal parrot and four budgies. That in and of itself does not make me an expert. What makes me an expert in my 15 years of interacting with tens of thousands of captive bird owners while operating the Windy City Parrot website

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5 Best Practices For When Someone Gives You a Pair of Parakeets
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5 Best Practices For When Someone Gives You a Pair of Parakeets

Hi, a year ago someone gave me a pair of parakeets. I gave them a big cage, and tried working with them, individually. They are almost 4 years old, and are happy to see me, but not interested in being held, or scratched, and that is ok.

I have an African grey parrot, who has lived with me for 26 years, she interacts with me and my family and is really pretty funny and wicked smart.

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Wondering if You Can Guide Me on Care of my Umbrella Cockatoo.
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Wondering if You Can Guide Me on Care of my Umbrella Cockatoo.

Wondering if you can guide me with the care of my umbrella. Her vet is away on sick leave for a few months. I am her third owner.

I live in a two-room 35 ft camper trailer with six dogs and the bird. She likes to be around them – in her cage – and when they get treats she expects ( and gets) her own. They are her flock.

She has been a feather shredder since long before she came to me, about three years ago. She is also very indifferent to food. Her owner before me cared for her well and tried her hardest to get her to fresh fruit and veg. Her primary diet is Zupreem fruit blend, though her specific preference are the pink pieces. But she isn’t even very interested in eating.

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Pepper Our Two and a Half Year Old African Red-bellied Parrot
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Pepper Our Two and a Half Year Old African Red-bellied Parrot

Catherine,

Sorry for the delay.  I had full intentions of providing you with my take on the African Red Bellied parrot several weeks ago and life got in the way.  🙂
First of all, let me introduce Pepper our two-and-a-half-year-old ARB.  I am emphasizing two year old because we are going through what I can only hope is the terrible 2s stage and not a lifelong trait with him.

For a bit of history, this is not my first rodeo.  I was very active in owning, caring, training, and taming parrots many years ago.  I go back to the days when most were wild caught birds that required significant patience and attention.

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Scientists Fundraise for Conures
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Scientists Fundraise for Conures

Did you know the sun conure may be facing extinction in the wild, and you can help? There is a real need for more surveys to establish their status in nature. The 2014 estimates published on the IUCN database are between 1,000 and 1,499 mature birds. Some of the last known sun conures live in Guyana, a country with a small human population and a lot of forest and savannah grasslands.

The IUCN page mentions that the trade in wild conures is “ongoing” because “due to the ease with which birds can be attracted to bait (e.g. corn) and the large distances they will travel, it is easy to trap all the individuals in an area.” Quoted from Jamie Gilardi.

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Oh No Someone Has Stolen My Parrots! Sundance, Pepper and 19 Other Parrots: Missing!
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Oh No Someone Has Stolen My Parrots! Sundance, Pepper and 19 Other Parrots: Missing!

My first medium sized parrot was a loving sun conure who spent all the years of her life with me. She chose me one day when I was in a pet shop when she was just weaned, about 8 weeks old.

Today I know I got her for the wrong reasons. I was fast learning a lot about my budgie Sydney and twice-found cockatiel Cocoa. After two cold winters in Denver, my husband and I were at last returning to Cape Canaveral for his job on the Space Shuttle. Before leaving Denver I said I wanted a bike for riding the beach and a parrot to ride with me. When SunDance picked me, little did I know she would have an absolute horror of bicycles. No matter how I worked with her, she never overcame this fear.

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