Is anyone aware of the safety of these styles of candles around birds? And are regular unscented candles also harmful? Trying to avoid anything that could harm my bebe my mrs was going to light something with a normal candle and i was like “bae dont..” lemme check with the peoples @ reddit

I've always wondered if its possibly to train parrots to poop in certain places. I used to have parrots when I was younger who shit all over the house, and don't really see that part of owning birds brought up at all online. Is there something I don't know about?

Just reminiscing about the time I shaved my beard, and I lost my birds trust for weeks. Went from Grizzly Adams to clean shaven and it blew my birds mind, she hated me for it for like 2-3 weeks. We’ve been back on good terms for some time now…I haven’t grown the beard back. It got me thinking, do you think your bird thinks you’re a bird? Or do they know you’re a human? My bird likes two people, and is either afraid of, or hates everyone else. She even knows it’s me when she can’t see me, if there’s even someone new in the house in a different room she can tell and gets all quiet.

Happy bday buddy love you thom!

Is this supposed to be her moulting?

A little bit context, she is Rio, around 6-7 months of age. I have been away from home for 2 weeks because of my university and I came back hone yesterda. When I left, she had some feathers missing on her hair and a few pin feathers kicking in, I assumed she must be moulting because she never did her baby moult. And now she looks like this, there are some feathers missing under her wings too but she doesn't like to be handled. I have looked up PBFD, and ruled it out myself as it was stated as "highly contagious", but she's been living with my older birds for quite some time now and they all look beautiful. I am wondering what it could be. Her diet consists of veggies, mixed seed and fruits.

I am very scared, I don't know what it could be. Does anyone had similar experience they wanna share? There are no avian vets and general vets are not an option as one of those monsters killed my baby bird due to wrong dosage of meds. Any help would be appreciated!

I’ve been using minoxidil for 3 months without knowing how dangerous it is. I wash my hands after applying it and use it before bed, but my parrots love sitting on my shoulders, playing with my hair, and I sometimes scratch my scalp without thinking.
Now I’m considering stopping it altogether because I can’t realistically wash my hands every time I want to touch my birds or my hair. I’m honestly terrified of accidentally poisoning them.

New phobia unlocked 🫠

Hi everyone! I have a 16-week-old male Eclectus parrot named Gideon. He is still settling into our home, and I’d really appreciate practical advice from people who have raised a young Eclectus themselves.

Gideon is very social and seems to have a clear preference for me within our family. He feels safest with me and steps up onto my hand very easily, so we already have a good connection in that sense.

However, when he is out of his cage, he frequently flies straight to my head or tries to climb onto my shoulder, even when I want him to stay on his play stand. I don’t want him on my head or shoulder at this stage, because I don’t fully trust him around my face yet. I’m still learning to read his body language and don’t know how he might react if he gets overstimulated or decides to bite. I’m particularly concerned about a bite to my face, nose or ears (earrings/piercings).

I’ve tried calmly returning him to his stand, but he often comes straight back to me. This can turn into a repeated cycle, and I’m struggling to teach him that he can be near me without constantly landing on me.

Another challenge is that he can be quite boisterous and excitable on some days, while being much calmer on others. I’ve tried a variety of treats to find something he really values, but food rewards don’t seem to motivate him particularly strongly. Sometimes he is more interested in getting to me than in the treat itself, which makes training a little difficult.

I also have three children, so my goal is to build a safe, positive routine that works for the whole family. I want him to remain fully flighted and learn to fly to me when invited, rather than feeling that he can land on my head or shoulder whenever he wants.

I really want this to work, both for Gideon and for our family. I’m committed to helping him learn, but I feel I need some practical guidance on how to teach him the foundations: boundaries, settling on his play stand, appropriate ways to interact with me, and managing his excitement without damaging our bond.

I’d especially love to hear from people who have been through this stage:
- How did you teach your young Eclectus to stay on a play stand instead of repeatedly flying to you?
- How did you set boundaries around your head and shoulders without making your bird afraid of you or damaging your bond?
- What did you do when your bird wasn’t particularly food-motivated and seemed more interested in physical contact than treats?
- How did you teach the difference between flying to you on cue and landing on you whenever he feels like it?
- Is this kind of behaviour and variation in excitement typical at 16 weeks, and what realistically helped you manage it?

I really want this to work, both for Gideon and for our family. I want to guide him properly during these early baby and toddler stages so we can build a strong foundation for his adolescence and adult life. I’m worried about unintentionally teaching him habits now that could become difficult to change later, or making mistakes at this important stage that could negatively affect his development.
I know he is still very young and has a lot to learn, which is exactly why I want to get things right from the beginning. I’m committed to helping him learn, but I need practical guidance and clear foundations to work with, rather than constantly guessing whether I’m handling things correctly.
I’d really appreciate honest experiences and concrete advice from people who have raised an Eclectus through these stages. I’m not looking for perfection, and I’m not looking for a quick fix.
I’d genuinely appreciate honest experiences and concrete, practical steps for teaching him a solid foundation, especially from people who understand Eclectus behaviour in a family home.

Thank you!
(Yes, this was constructed using AI. English is not my native language so I needed a bit (or a lot of help ;)) to get my point across!

i know its by no means museum worthy but i dont know i’m feeling pretty happy with it considering its only my 3rd time painting a bird (and 3rd time painting in general other than fabric paint when making patches which is a totally different ballpark). i think my main self criticism would be to work more on the wing structure, i don’t have an issue with avian anatomy when using my preferred mediums, but translating all that to painting has been quite a challenge! he’s supposed to be doing the heart wings pose but i’m not sure it conveys it well.

for anyone unfamiliar, this is a palm cockatoo. they’re amazing and truly unique birds that have been my favorite parrot since i first found out about them as an angsty pre-teen first getting into punk culture and thinking it was the most badass authentically punk animal i’d ever seen. that hasn’t changed one bit in the years since!

one of the many things that makes this bird unique is their drumming, if you weren’t already convinced enough of their punkness. when courting, they will break a branch off of a tree and find a hard surface like a rock or a log and use it as a drumstick, rhythmically hitting it against the surface with each individual having their own unique rhythm. super neat stuff!

I may live to regret teaching him this, also not sure when he learned how to offer it. I'm discovering kakarikis are SMART

After selling a lot of my shit like my MacBook and ipad I managed to take him to the vet and we didn’t focus on diagnosis and instead on treatment as diagnosis would be expensive.
He was prescribed vitamin A, B and antibiotics plus eyedrops. We gave him the antibiotic and vitamin B ( Doxycycline Oral Susp 50mg/ml, Thiamine Vitamin B Oral Susp 100mg Cyanocobalamin 200mcg/ml VSRx) and after that he started making these beet boxing sounds I mean he normally makes sounds when he breathes too but this machine gun gunshot sound is new and he was eating his pellets normally b4 getting medicine and after that he’s sitting with his eyes closed, looking all drunk and beatboxing.
His differential diagnoses include Chlamydiosis (psittacosis) versus bacterial sinusitis/rhinitis, along with a suspected right cervical air sac rupture with subcutaneous emphysema, infectious upper respiratory disease and air sacculitis.
The vet is closed rn so I can’t rlly ask them any questions till tmr so pls lmk if this is ok or not.

He had a respiratory infection last month and had to be on antibiotics for 2.5 weeks. He was finally getting better. I don't like how he's behaving here. He's also just finishing quite a heavy molt as well. I'm ready to pack him up and go to the vet, but I also know he's going to be extremely stressed for days after the vet and I want a second opinion if I'm overreacting or not. He's been twitchy since the day I brought him home and he's incredibly hard to read for sickness.

I would usually discourage it as she can get a bit carried away sometimes but she has gotten better at being gentle.

This was Bells' very first bath!

Bells spent ages watching our budgies, Sunny and Moon, bathing. Then came the cautious approach, a little inspection, and a lot of hesitation.

Finally decided to give it a try... but first, Sunny had to go 😂

And once Bells started bathing, all that hesitation was gone. Apparently the bath belongs to Bells now lol.

My 5 yr old Kukla needs some extra socialization. My mom passed and that's who she received a lot of attention from. My mom had a daily influx of visitors and Kukla was always doted on. She has now been with me in my apt 24/7 (mom lived upstairs) and she is uncaged. I am out and about a lot now as I'm newly retired and wondering if there is a companion or little friend that she may enjoy. I don't want to get another cockatiel as two u caged birds would be a lot more work. I have no idea what would get her interest. A goldfish?? A caged bird would seem unfair because Kukla has flying freedoms. I have no idea. A turtle? Any ideas would be soooo welcome.

We’re just shy of the end of our first year together, and I cannot express how much I love this bird and how much we’ve done for eachother.

this is his 2nd day here. im so happy and i feel like he trusts me already
1st day was a mess!! but he is just a baby (3weeks old)
he is my first pet, first parrot.. i already feel like im waking up with a purpose, to feed him and make him feel loved
today, he woke me up from my nap screaming, refused food from anyone till i came and fed him.. i feel so happy. i usually would be so angry ive been woken up by anyone and anything. today i cried while feeding him because he made me feel something different. its like having a purpose for me.
also, he is still being fed by the syringe and i dont know what id be able to feed him later without putting him in danger
would anyone have any suggestions?

my babies (Iggy is left, Gummi is right) enjoying their new plate ! bought from target , i think they're meant for human babies lol it's a set of 6 for $3 ^_^ they love eating like this when outside their cage

I don’t know what to do, i’m honestly really distraught right now. my bird randomly started pulling away from me and not letting me go near her and i don’t know why. she used to immediately jump to me when i opened her cage or was even in the same room, she’d be fine with my hands near her, even if im waving them around like crazy, but today she randomly stopped. i went to her room and she didn’t even bother to come near me, i tried getting her to step up, but she kept moving away from me. she won’t let me touch her or come near her, when she’s never been like this before. i don’t know what to do, she’s never been like this to me