I feel ill when I see the cruel and disrespectful way luckless chickens are treated in the wake of this dreadful avian flu epidemic. Do people know of the true intelligence of the common old chicken? Continue Reading

I was having lunch yesterday with a friend who related a telephone conversation she’d recently had with her animal crazy daughter, Shalene who works on a ranch in California, USA. Now bear in mind it was long distance, Jill is a real softy, and as she told the tale, tears ran down her cheeks which set the stage for suspense! Continue Reading

Hi there,
My African Grey lives in a large cage in my living room. I often open the door for him to come out which he does but he refuses to leave the top of the cage. I’d love him to be sociable.. do you know of anything I can do?

Another thing: said parrot likes to annoy me sometimes - he’ll bang his cage door and look at me for a reaction or he’ll hang upside down screaming or chew cushions - again looking for a reaction. I’ve tried shouting, spraying water at him (gently), and tapping him on the beak, nothing seems to stop my African Grey’s bad behaviour.. what can I do?

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My friend Linda never stopped bragging about her bantam rooster Henry and his snazzy, trophy wife Hen-rietta. I didn’t tell her but I thought their names were rather lacking originality. As a kid I named my roosters after famous jockeys of the day which I thought was more descriptive …Tiger Wright and Cocky Feldman were my favourites.

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Which bird species can talk?

Unfortunately no bird is able to talk a human language without first being taught to say words which is achieved by repetition, patience and perseverance.
Most of the parrot family make good candidates while some while some species and individuals learn more easily than others. Budgies, Indian Mynahs and Crows can also be taught to mimic sounds along with many other birds I guess.

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I have a young African Grey parrot who constantly shakes her head. The vet put her on antibiotics, but she doesn’t have an ear infection. She’s always lying on her side and scratching her head and inside her ears with her claws and loves it. But the constant head-shaking - could this be a habit or dry skin or what? I feel sorry for her as she’s such a lovable bird and is starting to talk now. Continue Reading