“Help!  My new parrot ONLY EATS SEEDS!” This is one of the most common social media posts I see from new parrot owners.  We all know that our parrots need a well-balanced diet to thrive and we really want to provide that but they turn up their beaks at the pellets and veggies preferring to starve and scream until we give in and bring them that horrible seed mix! Why?  As a mom of humans as well as birds I can tell you both are pretty much the same when it comes to unhealthy food; they want what tastes good,...

Finding the right bird to share your life with is a complex process.  One crucial step that is often overlooked is finding the right seller.  Finding the right person to buy from will help insure that the bird you bring home is healthy and that you have a support system in place to facilitate a wonderful relationship between you and your new feathered companion.  So what should you look for in someone selling birds? GOOD REPUTATION AND TIES TO THE COMMUNITY Someone who consistently sells high quality pet birds will have a reputation for doing so.  It shouldn’t be hard...

Sometimes life takes an unexpected turn and tragically brings about the need to rehome a pet.  The best thing in this case is to take as long as necessary to find the best possible home.  Unfortunately time is not always available to do so, and pets are put in the dangerous position of being rehomed in a rush. To help alleviate this problem Silver Sage Aviaries accepts owner surrenders.   This looks a little bit different for us than for most organizations that accept owner surrenders for a few reasons. First, we are a small family run aviary, not a...

We all know that we shouldn’t meet strangers off Craigslist alone, and that is why I accompanied my friend on her errand that day.  She was responding to an ad for baby budgies, and honestly I was interested in seeing what mutations the man had available.  When we arrived I noticed some concerning things even before I saw the birds.  Several pit-bull type dogs on short chains or in small enclosures; all unneutered males or females who had obviously nursed puppies. The owner of the dogs and the birds was an elderly man who spoke broken English.  He led us...

Sometimes when working with parrots we experience things that make us sick, and sometimes we are blessed to be able to step in and do something to help. Last year  I went with some club members to a property where several macaws were being kept.  The owner had died, and the caretaker was looking to sell the birds.  That is all I knew.  I expected to see a breeding setup that had once been functional but now was perhaps a bit overrun, and meet a caretaker who felt she could no longer meet the needs of the birds.  This is...

Recessive Genes Recessive genes require one copy of the gene to be passed down from each parent to the offspring so the offspring has two copies.  A bird with only one copy is “split” to that mutation, and will pass down that gene to 50% of his or her offspring but will not appear to have the gene.  A bird with two copies of the recessive genes shows the color and is called “visual” for that gene. Recessive genes are inherited the same way regardless of the sex of the bird. Recessive genes include but are not limited to Blue...

One of the most common things we hear from prospective parrot owners is that they have narrowed down their choice of companion down to “A ringneck or a conure.” I always respond by saying “Then you really haven’t narrowed it down at all; those are extremely different birds.” Then I struggle to quantify exactly HOW these birds are different when any “which bird should I buy” quiz you find online will assign them to the same people. After all they need about the same amount of time daily, about the same amount of space, about the same level of dietary...

Lots of people contact me wanting one of my babies.  My aviary is quite small and I produce a limited number of babies so about 70% of the time I end up referring them elsewhere, specifically to local parrot clubs and other groups through which they might find a companion.  I usually hear some version of “No, we only want a baby, so it can bond with us.”   This statement never fails to break my heart.  There are pros and cons to both babies and older birds, but older birds are often passed up completely by people who would have...

We see it all the time; rehoming posts listing “I don’t have time to give him the attention he deserves” and variations of this as the reason the poor pet is being let go. My first reaction is to scream “WHY DID YOU GET HIM THEN??? DIDNT YOU GOOGLE EVEN FOR A LITTLE WHILE???” And sometimes this reaction truly is justified (When you say it in your own head, not when you actually scream out loud at people), but other times it is not. An unexpected move, job change, illness, pregnancy, a child who is struggling, ANY NUMBER of things...