You have made the decision to breed your cockatiels. You understand that breeding pairs that are too young can cause problems because the parent bird is still using her body’s calcium supply for growing bones and other metabolic processes. The inbreeding of related pairs cause heartache, needless suffering and gross deformities in offspring. Breeding birds … Read more
The Sulphur-Crested Cockatoos are highly intelligent, empathetic, loving and elegant companion parrots. Their regal, composed posture brings beauty to our lives when we share our home with them. Their witty, clowning actions bring smiles when we give our hearts to them.My devotion runs deep for the Sulphur-Crested Cockatoos. They have a special need to be … Read more
The diagnosis of Hepatic Lipidosis (Fatty Liver disease) can be one of the most frightening to hear uttered by your avian veterinarian.However this does not always have to carry the sentence of death. Lets review some of the reasons why a parrot develops liver disease and what can be done to prevent this from happening … Read more
Chlamydia psittaci exists in two forms – an Elementary Body and a Reticulate Body. The Elementary Body is the form that is infective and exists outside the bird. Ebs are shed in ocular and respiratory secretions as well as in the droppings. Once the EB invades a bird’s cells it is transformed into a Reticulate Body. … Read more
One of the most common digestive problems of cockatiel neonates is sour crop. There are a number of reasons why sour crop occurs and it might be helpful to look at them in order to understand why sour crop happens to chicks. This is a picture of a Cockatiel chick with a very full crop.One … Read more
Tucker Farms is a small aviary. By a small aviary I mean that our family does all the work that needs to be done without outside help. My husband Ron builds equipment and cages and does most of the heavy cleaning. I handfeed babies, prepare food and feed breeder birds. I try to educate people … Read more
Calcium is essential for bone formation, muscle contraction, proper functioning of the nervous system and egg shell formation.Phosphorus is also essential for bone formation, metabolism of carbohydrates and fat, and calcium transport in egg formation. The diet provided to keep a bird healthy must contain adequate calcium and phosphorus and they must be present in … Read more
(This concludes this article. Part I of this article is at https://birdsnways.com/raising-good-pets/) Flight Training I consider this to be the most important thing in raising confident babies and the single biggest factor in avoiding the clinging, feather-plucking, self-mutilating, neurotic Cockatoo or naked, fearful African Grey or biting, screaming Amazon. Our baby birds fly through weaning. … Read more
Do birds need grit? This is not only a common question of concern to bird owners, but a source of disagreement as well. Understanding what grit is, its purpose, and the possible problems which may result from its use, can help us in deciding whether or not to offer it to our birds. Most of … Read more
We have all wondered which foods contain the most nutrition for our birds. Many of us also want to know what nutritional differences exist if foods are served raw, fresh, cooked, sprouted, dry roasted or oil roasted. This is the second in a series of articles which will address these questions. The first article covered seed … Read more