It’s that most summer-y of summer traditions in the United States: a time for BBQs, neighborhood parades, running through sprinklers, and detonating low-level but extremely loud explosives in the sky above our homes … Wait, what? That’s right. It’s time for 4th of July fireworks. And every year, anxious pets throughout the country are having…

This article was first published in 2008 on the now-defunct PetKnows.com blog. I’m republishing it here as that site has been taken down. Some people think of parrots as low-maintenance pets, a step up from fish and hamsters, but much less trouble than a dog or cat. Anyone who gets a pet bird under that…

If disaster strikes your home, do you have a contingency plan for your pets? A disaster doesn’t have to be on the scale of a national terrorist attack to create havoc in your household; even a small issue confined to your family (like a hospital stay) warrants having a preparedness plan for your animals. In…

Bird cages get crud on them. Not just in between the tightly spaced bars, but in the crevices where the bars join, inside the wheel housing, behind the screws of the food dish holders, etc. If you have a powder-coated cage like Stewie and Mika have, food and poop (and anything that sticks to food…

According to the FDA, Goldenfeast has issued a voluntary recall of several of its bird food varieties due to possible Salmonella contamination of parsley flakes. No illnesses have been reported so far, but if you’ve purchased affected product, contact Goldenfeast at 1-800-344-6536 for instruction on returning your purchase(s). Please note that Salmonella poisoning is serious…

On July 20th, I had the enormous pleasure of meeting one of the most prolific bird bloggers on the internet, the wonderful Patricia Sund, who came all the up to Maryland to lead a Phoenix Landing class on how to make “Chop”. What is Chop? Chop is a feeding concept Patricia has been advocating for…

Just want to make sure none of my readers missed Lafeber’s voluntary recall of some of its Nutri-Berries bird treats. The recall impacts some batches of the bird food. Don’t panic — the recall was voluntary, and not all of the products are affected. Dr. Ted Lafeber, the company’s CEO and president, explains that some…

The Wegmans grocery store chain, according to the AP (and the FDA), is recalling pine nuts sold in bulk due to a salmonella outbreak. The pine nuts were imported from Turkey by Sunrise Commodities of Englewood Cliffs, N.J. If you bought pine nuts from Wegmans, return them to the store for a full refund.  If…

Mika, my white capped pionus, has sexy time on her mind. It’s that time of year for parrots, that time when hormones rule and some birds get extra lovey-dovey and others get super cranky. Hopefully it’ll be over soon, as summer nears, but for the last month she’s been making her mating noise incessantly. It…