Welcome to Scritches

Welcome to Scritches!

My plan for this website is to provide accurate and
useful information to parrot owners. Like most things,
it's a work in progress.

Among the things you can find here are articles with
useful hints and tips, random podcasts with other parrot owners, and a list of recommend publications and other things I find helpful.

It is also where you can contact me for individual
consultations about you and your parrot, as well as what to expect from an individual consultation.

I won't promise regular posts or guarantee witty repartee, but you can subscribe to be notified when 
I do post new material.

I will be allowing and publishing your comments (unless they're rude, mean, crude, or otherwise objectionable).

So come on in and look around! 

First Annual World Wildlife Day!

I just heard about this today; otherwise, I would have posted it sooner.

The World Wildlife Fund marks today as the first annual World Wildlife Day by discussing some of the endangered species around the world, including parrots.

You can read the entire article here.

Experiment!

About a month ago I put a Hide 'n Sleep tent in the cockatiels' cage. Cheb had expressed a lot of interest in Charli's, so I thought he might want to sleep in one.  Both cockatiels immediately got to work, going in and coming out, scratching on the platform, and chewing out a big hole in the fabric in the back. Perhaps they thought it was a trap, I don't know.  Anyway, it has stayed empty and neither Flash or Cheb sleep in it. Once in awhile I'll see Cheb guarding the entrance as if it is hiding a chest of gold, but he's good natured about letting me peek inside.

Last week I was feeling adventurous so I bought a little stuff animal (pictured above) for the cockatiels. I was careful to get one with no buttons or trim to chew off. I placed the critter inside the Hide 'n Sleep, off to the side, and waited to see what the Dynamic Duo would do. Would they be afraid? Would they think it was a misfortunate foreign baby bird? Perhaps a misguided suitor for their attention?

Turns out, none of the above. They complete ignored the toy, not even bothering to move it while they went about their busy work doing who knows what in there.

A few days later, though, I saw that the forlorn little critter was on the bottom of the cage, still smiling. Whether the cockatiels threw him out or he jumped I'll never know.