Parrot Parrot

Also Read Our Article on How to Best Find a Lost Bird

Last year I received an urgent email from Milind Shah, the person who had helped train me to be the Pet Birds Guide at About. His beloved cockatiel had escaped his father’s apartment in Queens, New York while Milind was on vacation in Dallas. This bird had been a pet for 16 years, since Milind was only 9 years old. Needless to say, he was frantic and desperately wanted to get his bird back. I immediately told him aboutBirdHotline and told him to put up as many posters as he could with information about his bird. Milind set about to get his pet back. He has written an account of his experience so everyone here at Pet Birds can benefit from the story. Here is Milind Shah’s tale: Continue reading »

A man wrote to me about an annoying sound his black masked lovebird had been making recently. The sound was not “natural” to the bird and sounded almost mechanical. It was a high-pitched beeping sound. He found the sound intolerable and had tried numerous ways of stopping the behavior, but the bird only persisted in making it. He tried ignoring the bird, but usually the sound annoyed him so much he would yell at the bird. I wrote back to him, explaining that sound could possibly be something from the bird’s environment that it learned to mimic. In fact, the way he described it, the sound seemed to be something like the beep a truck makes when it backs up. My advice was to ignore the sound completely. No matter how maddening, how frustrating, he needed to act as if the bird did not exist when he made this sound. Under no circumstances was he to look at the bird, call to him, yell at him, or cover the cage. All these reactions would be considered attention and the sound would get the result the bird wanted. I also told him that when the bird was quiet, or making sounds the man enjoyed, to immediately interact with the bird and thereby encourage the positive behavior. He wrote back to me saying that he did not think he could ignore the sound because it drove him to distraction, but I encouraged him to try it for a while, that if he stuck with this strategy he had a good chance of changing the bird’s behavior. Continue reading »

One of the most common questions parents ask is, “When is my child old enough to take on the responsibility of having a bird as a pet?” There are a number of things you should consider before purchasing a bird when you have young children in the home. Continue reading »

In the wild birds have a primary concern: to protect themselves from predators. A sick or injured bird is a prime target for predators. Because of this, birds have learned to “disguise” their illnesses. By the time birds show obvious signs of illness, they are very ill indeed. It is important to learn how to recognize the signs of an illness before it progresses to serious disease or death. Continue reading »