Hello Everybody

Welcome to the My Parrot Shop Newsletter for May 2008! We hope you like our new newsletter format (feedback welcome).

In this newsletter we'll be looking at Parrot Clicker Trick Training Courses (try saying that fast 5 times in a row!), some awesome new Foraging products, Gallery updates, the Chiming Charmer, and new books. And don't forget our new fax and 1800 numbers :)

Parrot Clicker Trick Training Courses

Melbourne-based bird professional Nicole Arkinstall will be running Parrot Clicker Trick Training evenings at Bird Boarding, starting in June. Register your interest by contacting Nicole on 1300 556 231 or at birdboarding@gmail.com

» More information and Q&A . . .

» Clicker Products from My Parrot Shop . . .

Creative Foraging Systems – Food dispensers and chipboard boxes

A good many of you are already putting a lot of time and thought into ways you can encourage the expression of healthy behaviours in your pet parrot and are fully aware of the benefits of foraging. However, as many of you already realise - one of the difficulties of offering foraging opportunities for your bird is that you can often end up spending hours preparing a bunch of toys and situations that a proficient forager will only take 10 minutes to get through.

This is one of the reasons we’re always recommending the stainless steel baffle cage and stainless steel kabobs to our customers. They offer exactly the kind of lengthy foraging opportunities you want to give your bird without hours of preparation. The fantastic thing about these new CFS products is that they work really well with the smaller dry foods like pellets and are specifically designed for quick and easy preparation.

With the addition of these dispensers and boxes we now have enough different foraging products on our website that you can effectively offer time-consuming foraging activity for all your bird’s daily foods (not just the nut & seed treats!), and still get to work on time!

» Creative Foraging Systems . . .

» More Foraging Products . . .   (or just type "foraging" in the Search Box on our website)

Gallery Updated

Over the past few months we've added more of our customer's gorgeous photos to the Gallery, and have made it easier for you to navigate from page to page. Some of you are quite talented photographers! Many of these photos have also ended up being added to our product descriptions - we really appreciate getting pictures of our products with parrots of all shapes and sizes. Please keep emailing them to us! (don't reduce the file sizes, we'll look after that)

» Gallery Updates . . .

New Phone and Fax Numbers

We now have a 1800 number, so those of you in Australia can call us entirely for free! We also have a new fax number (with a more reliable faxing system too!). The new numbers are on our Contact Us page.

Featured Product

The Chiming Charmer is one of our favs. Adorable little ring beads and pacifiers sprinkled down a length of stainless steel chain ending with a darling little stainless steel liberty bell to chime the toy into your little bird’s heart. A durable, long lasting and dishwasher safe parrot toy for the little guys. We make these right here in Australia :)

New Books!

The Parrot Companion is a good book for beginners just starting out who need a framework to build their knowledge on, and for experienced keepers wishing to revisit the essentials in a modern context. Rosemary Low, considered the leading authority on companion parrots in Britain, provides down to earth and practical advice. With lots of quality photos and a great section on nutrition, this book is, as most Rosemary Low books are, a great addition to the parrot shelf.

My Parrot Shop highly recommends this book to all companion parrot owners, new and old. The author, Greg Glendell, fresh to the scene of authoring parrot books, presents a guide to companion parrot care built upon up-to-date research. An intelligent, well written and informative read from a fresh perspective.