🦜 Exotic Pets guides

Exotic Pets

Budgerigar: choosing and hand-taming a young bird, week by week

Most pet budgerigars are weaned, sold, and shoved into a small wire cage before they are six weeks old. The bird that ends up tame and bonded to a human is the bird that was bought from a careful source at the right age, given the right cage, and walked through a slow hand-taming progression. Here is the protocol I run for first-time budgie owners, with the actual brands, dimensions, and week-by-week timing.

Ravi Patel· ·9 min read

avian vet aviary bar spacing

Exotic Pets

Cockatiel daily care checklist: the 15-minute morning and evening routine

A cockatiel is one of the easiest pet birds to keep healthy and one of the easiest to keep badly. They survive on all-seed diets for years, then drop dead at fifteen from fatty liver disease. The difference is a fifteen-minute morning and a fifteen-minute evening routine, plus a weekly twenty-minute clean. Here is the actual checklist, with the brands and the timing that keep cockatiels well into their twenties.

Ravi Patel· ·10 min read

Arcadia avian vet calcium

Exotic Pets

Rabbit GI stasis: a home emergency guide that buys you time

GI stasis is the most common rabbit emergency. The first 12 hours at home determine whether the rabbit recovers or develops a fatal complication. Here is what to do before you reach the vet.

Ravi Patel· ·8 min read

emergency GI stasis hay

Exotic Pets

Cockatiel daily care checklist: the 30-minute routine that keeps a small parrot healthy

The cockatiel that gets the same 30-minute routine every day is the cockatiel that lives 15-25 years. Here is the routine, the equipment, and the weekly and monthly additions that produce a healthy, well-adjusted bird.

Ravi Patel· ·8 min read

checklist cockatiel daily care

Exotic Pets

Guinea pig vitamin C supplementation: why guinea pigs can't make their own and what to do about it

Guinea pigs, like humans, cannot synthesise their own vitamin C. A deficiency causes scurvy, which is one of the most common and most preventable diseases in pet guinea pigs. Here is the supplementation protocol.

Ravi Patel· ·9 min read

guinea pig nutrition scurvy

Exotic Pets

African grey parrot: language ability and the emotional needs that come with it

African greys are the most linguistically gifted parrots, but the same intelligence that produces 200-word vocabularies produces neurotic, self-mutilating, screaming birds when the social and emotional needs aren't met. Here is the full picture before you bring one home.

Ravi Patel· ·11 min read

African grey behaviour emotional needs

Exotic Pets

Rabbit GI stasis: a home emergency guide that buys you time

GI stasis is the most common rabbit emergency. The first 12 hours at home determine whether the rabbit recovers or develops a fatal complication. Here is what to do before you reach the vet.

Ravi Patel· ·9 min read

emergency GI stasis hay

Exotic Pets

Parrot diet: seed vs pellets vs fresh — what the evidence actually says

The all-seed diet is the leading cause of premature death in pet parrots. The all-pellet diet is a clean fix but has its own trade-offs. Here is the diet I actually recommend, by species.

Ravi Patel· ·9 min read

avian nutrition fresh food parrot diet

Exotic Pets

Psittacosis in pet birds: the risk pregnant households need to know about

Psittacosis is the most common zoonotic infection from pet birds and it is genuinely dangerous in pregnancy. Here is what every pregnant household with a bird needs to know and do.

Ravi Patel· ·8 min read

chlamydia psittaci parrot pregnancy

Exotic Pets

Ferret vaccination and desexing schedule: what to get, when, and why

Ferrets have specific vaccination and desexing needs that differ from dogs and cats. Here is the schedule I use, by region, and the diseases each vaccine actually prevents.

Ravi Patel· ·9 min read

canine distemper des-exing ferret

Exotic Pets

Hamster cage size and running wheel requirements: what 'enough' actually looks like

Pet store cages are about one third of what a hamster actually needs. Here are the dimensions and wheel sizes I recommend, by species.

Ravi Patel· ·5 min read

cage size hamster running wheel

Exotic Pets

Hamster cage size and running wheel requirements: the minimum your hamster actually needs

The cages sold at most pet shops are too small. The wheels that come with them are dangerous. Here is the minimum enclosure size and the running distance that actually keeps a hamster healthy.

Ravi Patel· ·6 min read

Exotic Pets

Annual health check for exotic pets: a vet checklist for birds, rabbits, reptiles, and small mammals

Exotic pets hide illness until it is advanced. An annual vet visit catches what you cannot. Here is what a thorough check should include, species by species.

Ravi Patel· ·10 min read

annual checkup exotic vet rabbit health

Exotic Pets

Feather plucking in parrots: 7 root causes and what to actually try

Feather plucking is a symptom, not a diagnosis. Here are the seven root causes I screen for in order, and the interventions that actually move the needle.

Ravi Patel· ·11 min read

avian vet enrichment feather plucking