Articles tagged with 'Unusual pets'

Does my bird have external parasites (e.g. lice, mites, ticks, fleas)?

Birds can carry a large number of external parasites (ectoparasites) – fleas, ticks, mites, and lice. This isn’t as common as people sometimes appear to believe and is greatly overrated (over-treated) as a cause of feather damaging behaviour and feather loss.

Is it necessary to feed my pet reptile live prey?

There are very few, if any, vertebrate-eating reptile species who will not eat anything other than live food in captivity. Where reptiles require a diet of whole vertebrate animals, such as mice, it is recommended to provide prey that has been humanely killed.

Why do birds chew and pull out their feathers?

Feather damaging behaviour (FDB) is damage to, or destruction of, a bird’s feathering by the birds themselves. It can include a number of behaviours including: Feather chewing – the bird chews at the ends of their feathers, damaging the vane.