To the majority of bird owners, the appearance of an egg can be quite a surprise. First of all, it’s hard to know the sex of your pet bird unless you get it tested, so there’s a fifty percent chance you thought you had a male bird and were wrong! Secondly, many of us presume […]

As responsible pet owners, the first thing that we all want to do is to provide our exotic birds with a safe living environment in a cage, or even better, an aviary. So it’s somewhat ironic that this place of protection is also the source of one of the greatest dangers – Heavy Metal Intoxication

Australia achieved an interesting milestone last year, according to the latest statistics: There are now more households that contain a pet than a child under 16! Demographics may have something to do with that: Australia, like many developed countries, has an aging population. More and more parents have become “empty nesters” after their children fly

Any man with half a brain has worked out – probably the hard way – that when his wife tells him “I’m fine,” she is anything but! The same diagnosis needs to be applied to exotic birds. From their days in the wild, birds, like many other animals that are lower in the food chain, have

Many of us spend most of our life on a diet. And not just one diet, but many different diets. Scientists are constantly discovering more about nutrition, often in contradiction to what we thought we knew only a few years back. Fat was bad, but now it’s good and instead, sugar is evil. Protein (I.e.

There is always healthy debate among ornithologists as to whether or not it is right to clip a bird’s wings. Both sides of the argument have valid reasons to back up their point of view, and few, if any, are ever likely to change their mind. Simply put, there is no universal answer to what

Microchips are in everything — You’re using one to read this – so why not in Pretty Polly? Australia is home to 24 million pets, according to a survey by the RSPCA. Dogs and cats are the most popular, but companion birds account for almost one-in-five, at 4.2 million. RSPCA figures also show that over

At Sugarloaf Animal Hospital we are frequently asked whether or not to clip a bird’s wings.  While we ALWAYS want birds to be able to fly — because we know that they are healthiest when they can — we also know there is no simple, universal answer.  There are a number of things to consider

Watching What you Eat? Remember to Do the Same for Your Dog!  The start of a new year is a time when many of us try to repair the calorie damage done over the festive season. Now that my belt has been reduced to nothing more than a fashion accessory rather than actually serving a