If you want richer, robust, and more granular content than Facebook bird groups and Google searches for information about pet bird care, it’s best to navigate towards expert sources (which is why you’re here 😉
We spend a lot of time fact-finding and this list (below) is just one of our sources.
All papers were written by veterinarians, ornithologists, zoologists, and other accredited professionals.
Notably absent from the prior answers (on Quora) are the words “and I inspect my bird’s feet by flipping him over and examining his feet under a magnifying glass on a regular basis.”
As a vendor of bird cages and accessories for over 25 years, we advise people to take the dowel rod perches out of the cage immediately upon assembly.
Although I firmly believe that correlation does not necessarily imply causation I’m very concerned with the fact that 60% of pet birds die of malnutrition according to necropsies (animal autopsies) performed by veterinarians.
I can’t help feel the explosion of feeding “chop” to pet birds has fueled that statistic.
These comments are in response to last weeks post CBD Oil – Miracle Cure For Birds Or Just The New Snake Oil
From Taryn Palo
Regarding CBD oil.
My avian vet sells it.
He’s taken care of my Umbrella cockatoo for 23 years now so I pretty much trust him.
On June 2, 2018 I responded to the question:
I, for the most part, pleaded ignorance and suggested that he not give his African Grey CBD oil based on my “spidey sense.”
Now I’m seeing more conversations about the use of CBD oil on all sorts of animals but obviously, my concern is the effects of CBD oil on our pet birds.
Let’s take a deep dive into the subject, shall we?
Debra C. writes:
I enjoyed the article entitled “Should Blind People Own Pet Birds“.
My husband and I are both totally blind.
I am 62 and Barry my husband is 67.
Hi Mitch,
Thank you so much for getting back to me, what you had to say was very helpful.
I do not know how to send pictures from my Chrome book, only know how to send pictures with my phone, I’m not very good with technology.
I did get Alex a rope perch recently, but he won’t go near it as of yet.
I read on the parrot forum that Vitamin E oil is good for pressure sores.
Do you agree?
Yes I have another question for you, my green-cheek conure seems to be molting all the time and he’s lost the two big red feathers in the tail and I can feel the feathers under his skin in between his back and wing feathers is this normal or is he short on calcium he will not touch a cuttlebone or any calcium bone to rub down his nails or beak so I have two perches, that are rough, he is a year and a half old, already really molted.
Thank you very much! Jane
This might be an interesting topic for a Birdie Brunch!
Hello, I’m Laurie Cannon, who wrote to you about the possibility of adopting an older Green-Winged Macaw.
We didn’t do that, however, we did contact a breeder about a Panama Amazon baby.
She seemed almost horrified when she found out both my husband and I are totally blind.
You asked whether our birds are flighted.
All three of our birds – African Grey, Dusky Pionus, Cockatiel – are fully flighted.
We have a lot of large windows in our apartment but so far we have not had a problem.
They all have their favorite routes and pretty much stick to them.
The only time we have clipped our bird’s wings is when we were traveling internationally and they had to go through the health and customs inspections at the airports.
Lisa Y.
