Brian Ler on WNYC and on this final day of the fall membership drive, it's our final look at all the different kinds of animals.

We share our lives with our pets in this end of the show series during

the drive. We've talked about dogs and cats, of course, but also rabbits and reptiles and fish

and even rats, which surprise me to find that some people keep as pets, but they do. And we wrap it up

with a slightly different take on a fairly common,

and I think very misunderstood pet, birds. They present special problems to their owners,

and maybe that's not surprising when you remember that birds are considered by some people

living dinosaurs. We'll talk about that quote. So we'll hear about that and get some guidance on what

it takes to care for these

animals from Dr. Lyle Cleary, an associate veterinarian at the Center for Avian and Exotic Medicine

in Manhattan. Dr. Cleary, thanks for joining us. Welcome to WNYC. Thanks, Brian. Thanks for having me.

Birds are a particular challenge as a pet, right?

Should we start with the fact that they can fly over long distances,

but as a pet are confined to a cage or maybe a room?

Yeah, I mean, the general saying for most parrots is there's no cage big enough.

These are animals that basically have intelligence of, you know, six to eight-year-old,

also with the energy of a six- to eight-year-old.

So, you know, I mean, we all know how crazy everyone got during COVID.

Imagine that as in everyday life for an animal with, like, incredible intelligence.

So that's parrots in particular?

Yeah, that's the ones we see mostly in captivity

as a exotic animal practitioner.

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