The importance of education

According to Susie Hons, the manager of Wildwood Veterinary Hospital in Redwood City, one of the largest contributors to the issue of improper care is a lack of education.

“The public has been made aware of how to take care of dogs and cats from commercials on TV and all kinds of stuff, but bird care is not common knowledge,” Hons said. “The internet’s actually been a boon to that to help people get the right information.”

In her job at the veterinary clinic, Hons has seen birds brought in for all sorts of reasons, but most notably because the bird’s owners didn’t understand how to properly care for it.

“I would say about 80% of what comes through our doors is there because of a lack of information,” Hons said.