From the counter at Paradise Pets Neil has kept, bred, and sold cage and aviary birds at Paradise Pets Swindon since 1988 — over 35 years of watching which animals families choose, and why those reasons shift with the times. I want to be honest from the start about something the title of this piece … Read more
From the counter at Paradise Pets Neil has kept, bred, and sold cage birds at Paradise Pets Swindon since 1988 — over 35 years of first-hand experience with budgies, cockatiels, canaries, and aviary birds. In December 2025 the government published what it described as the most ambitious animal welfare strategy in a generation. This article … Read more
From the counter at Paradise Pets Neil has kept, bred, and sold cage and aviary birds at Paradise Pets Swindon since 1988 — over 35 years of watching what happens when a bird outlives an owner’s patience, circumstances, or finances. Recent reporting from UK welfare charities has put numbers and named cases behind a problem … Read more
From the counter at Paradise Pets Neil has kept, bred, and sold cockatiels at Paradise Pets Swindon since 1988 — over 35 years of first-hand experience with these birds, including the emergency calls that come in every time the UK has a genuinely hot spell. Heat stress in cockatiels is fast, serious, and far more … Read more
From the counter at Paradise Pets Neil has kept, bred, and sold cage and aviary birds at Paradise Pets Swindon since 1988 — over 35 years of watching what people buy to bring birds into their gardens, and why. UK bird feeder sales have climbed to their highest level on record this year. That sounds … Read more
From the counter at Paradise Pets Neil has kept, bred, and sold cage and aviary birds at Paradise Pets Swindon since 1988 — over 35 years watching the population of garden birds outside the shop change as much as the birds inside it. This year’s Big Garden Birdwatch results, released by the RSPB, paint a … Read more
From the counter at Paradise Pets Neil has kept, bred, and sold cage and aviary birds at Paradise Pets Swindon since 1988 — over 35 years of watching how owners feed their birds, and watching what happens when the diet is right and when it is not. Diet is the single area where I see … Read more
From the counter at Paradise Pets Neil has kept, bred, and sold cage and aviary birds at Paradise Pets Swindon since 1988 — over 35 years watching how people feed garden birds, well and badly. New guidance issued by the RSPB this year has confirmed something that conservation scientists have suspected for a long time … Read more
From the counter at Paradise Pets Neil has kept, bred, and sold cage and aviary birds at Paradise Pets Swindon since 1988 — over 35 years watching the UK’s relationship with parrots, both kept and wild. Few birds divide opinion as sharply as the ring-necked parakeet, now a familiar sight across much of southern England … Read more
From the counter at Paradise Pets Neil has kept, bred, and sold cage and aviary birds at Paradise Pets Swindon since 1988 — over 35 years of watching the UK’s bird world from the inside. Occasionally something happens in that world that pulls in not just the dedicated birders but a much wider audience. The … Read more