I’m dropping off charlie my father’s amazon parrot and charlie hasn’t seen the doctor in a long time better late than never well obviously the main flying animals we have as patients are gonna be our bird patients okay well now we’re friends huh all right up you go incoming when i first got out of vet school i wanted to do only birds one of my favorite birds a lot of people don’t think of them as very glamorous but they’re just the most wonderful pet birds are little budgies just little american parakeets [Music] birds can make excellent pets there are hundreds and hundreds of thousands of species of birds in the pet trade and it’s really important that people talk to an avian veterinarian before they get a pet bird so you try to match which personality would be right for your family some families are great for a bird like a cockatoo oh that was a good one which is very cuddly and demands a lot of attention other families can’t provide that much attention because of work in school and might be better off with a more independent fur like a black head of cake he’s so chill people like playing with him and stuff i think one of the biggest misconceptions people have about owning a bird is that they’re easy they’re the most difficult pet you can own they require so much attention that’s super specialized they’re a definite challenge that not everyone’s going to be able to undertake what does he eat cheese corn chicken steak his diet is not the greatest and that does play a toll on a bird over time one of the biggest misconceptions that people have about caring for birds is that birds eat birdseed when you take a look at what’s in a birdseed mix you see sunflower seeds safflower seeds corn and peanuts so what that tells us right there is that these seed mixes they have very little solid nutrition for these birds the conclusion was he’s fat and get you skinnier because you are fat fat fat for a parrot we prefer that birds are on a pelleted diet that’s more of a nutritionally balanced kibble see how this will cause posturing see how the wings are kind of drooped mm -hmm that’s like abominable pain type of thing some of the big challenges of having an animal that flies as a pet is well they fly nice you need to make sure you turn off ceiling fans so don’t get hit close all your toilets so they don’t fly into there and also make sure all windows or doors are shut so you don’t get an escapee bird you’re gonna listen no they’re really really smart your whole life needs to be revolved around having this animal as your pet they need to make sure they have the right diet they need fresh air and sunshine they need social and mental interaction at all times to be a happy healthy bird [Music] you.
