Dr. Alex Lesniak, CPEV

02/22/2026

Scary, right?

02/21/2026

A lot of cutie patootie time recently!
Rose visited, friend’s puppies, and co-worker puppies!
A little cuteness always brightens the day!

02/06/2026

So cool! Bird enrichment!

Olfactory enrichment for parrots:
Although not discussed frequently in birds, olfactory enrichment is a form of sensory enrichment shown to be beneficial in chickens and birds of prey. What about parrots, pigeons, and passerines? One option for these birds is to rub edible herbs and spices onto toys and perches. Try using basil, mint, chilis, lavender, rosemary, or edible flowers.

02/06/2026

02/06/2026

01/27/2026

Please read! This goes for all pets truly!

An Open Letter to Petco,

Today we received a surrender application that stopped me in my tracks.

Two birds were purchased from Petco two years ago.

There are now sixty. (Or so he says.)

Let me be very clear: the responsibility to prevent breeding absolutely lives with the people who bring animals into their homes. Full stop. But it also lives with the people who sell those animals in the first place.

Because when someone walks into a pet store and buys birds, they are trusting that the business selling them living beings will provide more than a receipt and a cardboard box. They are trusting you to tell them:

• That birds reproduce fast
• That many species will breed even in basic pet-store cages
• That mixed-sex pairs will almost always reproduce
• How to prevent breeding
• What proper cage setup looks like
• What happens if those basics are ignored

When that education doesn’t happen, rescues like mine become the last stop.

And “last stop” is expensive.

Every one of these birds must now:
• Be quarantined
• Be disease tested
• Be treated proactively for anything communicable
• Be seen by a veterinarian
• Be fed, housed, cleaned, monitored, and managed

Budgies, cockatiels, and other small birds are often misunderstood as “cheap” or “easy.” They are neither.

They eat more than macaws by weight. Their metabolisms are wild. They go through food fast. They require space, heat, filtration, medical care, and constant labor. A flock of sixty is not “small.”

In 2021, we took in a situation that began the same way. Two birds. Purchased at a pet store. No education on prevention.

That family also called us and told us that they had 60 birds to surrender.

That situation became over 800 birds. They grossly miscalculated how many were flying free in that room.

We learned the hard way what that kind of intake does to a rescue.

This is not an abstract problem. This is a pipeline.

Petco, you are in a position of enormous influence. You are often the first voice a new bird owner hears. You are the moment where prevention is still possible.

We are asking you to:

• Make breeding prevention education mandatory at point of sale
• Train staff to explain mixed-sex risks clearly
• Provide printed guidance on how to prevent reproduction
• Stop treating small birds as “starter pets”
• Treat them as the long-lived, intelligent, complex animals they are

Rescues are drowning.

Not because people are cruel.

But because people were never told what they needed to know.

We will do what we always do. We will take them in. We will test them. We will treat them. We will protect them. We will spend the money and do the work.

But this didn’t have to become sixty.

And it doesn’t have to happen again.

You can stop it where it starts.

Please LIKE and SHARE this post to follow the story of these birds when they arrive!

01/23/2026

01/18/2026

🐤 Humans are part of nature, not above it. We share this planet with countless other species, each with an equal right to exist without fear of abuse and exploitation.

01/13/2026

Need an easy, low-cost parrot gym for a smaller bird? Try using an unstained, unpainted, untreated wooden clothes-drying rack!

01/12/2026

It’s me!

01/09/2026

I love seeing these silly noodles!!! 🥰

01/05/2026

Happy Bird Day!

Today is one of our favorite days of the year...
National Bird Day!

Take some time today to pamper your feathered friend or, if you don't have one, think about why you love birds and how you can better help the birds of the world. We'd love to know what you come up with, so comment below!

As always, tag us in your photos for National Bird Day, whether they're of your bird celebrating or a bird you found in the wild! We love all birds and want our timeline filled with them🦜💚