Dear Parrots magazine,
I read Jim Hayward Jnr’s article in Parrots magazine issue 204, January 2015, with interest. Mr Hayward has named me directly as the inspiration for his article and I feel that he has misinterpreted my original letter, which was a plea for readers and contributors to “live and let live” on the subject of feeding. Here I wish to clarify a few points and make an observation of my own.
Dear Parrots magazine,
I hope you will print my letter, as I feel it’s the last chance I have of tracing Pepper.
Dear Parrots magazine,
I have an issue with one of the responses in your queries' section. It has to do with the replacement of real eggs with 'dummy eggs' of a pair of Scarlet Macaws. The response was that nothing should be done, and just let the birds keep breaking their eggs until they mature. Well, I disagree. While I have never bred Macaws, I have bred Caiques, and can speak about egg breaking by this species.
Dear Parrots magazine,
I have just read Understanding Parrots, Cues from Nature by Rosemary Low, it is a thought provoking read. The book is packed full of information that can only have been gained from a lifetime of interaction with parrots, both captive and wild, their carers (good and bad), breeders, researchers and vets.
Dear Parrots magazine,
I want to just point out how careful one has to be when buying a parrot. I have kept parrots now for over 10 years and a close friend of mine has also been bitten by the bug and decided she would like an African Grey – I have three.
Dear Parrots magazine,
My African Grey, Molly, comes to me from across the room when I say, "Come here", and wave a peanut. Not all the time, by any manner of means, and never outside the room, refusing to fly through its doorway except on rare occasions where I am in the kitchen, when she flies in to check on what's for din-dins. She can give me a look on these occasions speaking volumes, "Dolt! I come for the peanut not because of the blah-blah whatever coming from your beak."
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