What looks cute and charming when it belongs to a friend, but transforms into a screaming, food-throwing test of patience when it belongs to you? A five year old child? No, a parrot; one of the most demanding pets a person can own. According to Dr. Irene Pepperberg, adjunct associate professor at the Dept. of Psychology, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA., “People often buy parrots because they think of them as low maintenance pets. They think they can put them in a cage, hang a toy, put in a bowl of seeds and that’s it. They don’t realize how intelligent these

We live in a land of fast food, fatty snacks, and junk food junkies. French fries dripping with grease, hamburgers packed with calories – most of us are painfully aware that our diets are less than ideal. Could our pets also be suffering from a similar situation? If that pet is a bird and it’s on an all-seed diet, the answer’s an emphatic “Yes!” While nature lovers can safely supplement wild birds with feeders full of seed, too much seed for your pet bird can lead to serious problems. Just ask Dr. Vanessa Rolfe, an avian veterinarian at Avian &

Sophia’s Indonesia Trip, Day 3 (Sept 2009) Impressive Hornbills On day 3 of my Indonesian vacation and our first day on Bali, we stop and visit Bird Park. The park has the standard variety of parrots, most of which are also present at other zoos. But they have a large collection of hornbills, which most other zoos do not. These large birds form monogamous pairs and live in tree holes and crevices. When the female is ready to lay eggs she builds a wall of mud and droppings to seal the opening and seals herself in. The opening is only large enough