For The Birds

Very friendly and knowledgeable, they are my source for parrot food.

Wonderful vets and staff. Patient with my constant questions and concerns. Educated me on how to properly care for my birds. When one of my birds became a special needs bird they went above and beyond to give her a chance to heal but when it was clear she would need to have a different set up now they taught me to modify her cage. They are amazing and love birds here.

Don't go to there unless you want to your bird dead quickly. Expensive, wast time and no effective treatment for my parrot!

If you have a pet bird, please do not spend your money for care here. If you are a broke person who cannot afford veterinary for birds then it's best you steer clear away from this place. I once met Dr. Van Sant and the attitude she had was downright disgusting. Cmon, I am in an emotional panic because my former old bird was not feeling well.

I was desperate for answers not hear someone be mean and unwilling to help. Van Sant is not only terrible but really power hungry. She is honest but doesn't really have the ability to show it. Way to toss your veterinary degree out the window. It seems like people at this bird hospital don't really know what they are doing. The operating hours for this place are terrible, with the lack of pet ERs that take birds it makes them a lot worse.

This place is an absolute racket. Proving once again health care for any living body is reserved for the rich. Multiple visits have resulted in little to no action to actually help my pets but this place has no issue charging you hundreds of dollars to just walk in the door. Need simple antibiotics? You can expect over $200 for that visit. The bird needs to spend the night because it's having difficulty laying an egg? That'll be $1000 Your bird got injured and needs a suture? That'll be $700.

It's a shame that so much suffering needs to occur because of the greed running rampant in this Bay Area. Euthanasia is by far the cheapest and most effective "treatment" these people will provide, obviously with the mental toll it takes to make a decision like that. I guess I'll be taking my pet home and hope for the best as I watch them suffer because no body is willing to help for a reasonable rate.

At this point I am purchasing my medicine through the internet and learning to DIY these procedures because that's the only option left to receive any kind of health care I can afford in this country.

The nurse person was lovely and wonderful. The vet can go f-k herself. Ive never seen more rude and horrible customer service from a vet. Try telling me what needs fixing instead of making it sound like my bird is going to die tomorrow unless i change his habits. I need to do a diagnostics test but believe me I will not be coming back here to do so.

Dr. VanSant and her caring staff took wonderful care for my beloved African Grey, Shelley, in her last days. I found Dr. Van Sant to be honest, extremely knowledgeable and experienced in avian medicine and both my partner and I could tell that she and her staff genuinely cared for their patients. If you need an avian veterinary, For the Birds is the best around. Thank you guys from the bottom of my heart!

I called Friday morning to express my pet parakeet was wheezing. I wanted to bring in my parakeet as soon as possible. I was told there was nothing available until Tuesday! I then asked if there was anything I could do from now until then and they would not suggest anything. So unprofessional and inhumane. My sons parakeet ended up dying yesterday! Could have possibly be saved.

I want to thank Dr. Van Sant and staff at For the Birds for the care shown to Sammy. Our female Cockatiel Sasha will continue her care here as has been for many years. Sammy has been a part of our family for 19 years and is much loved. The loving compassion given to assist him peacefully from this life is more than we could have prayed for. As we move forward to a new reality and grief there is gratitude towards all who participated in his care. Thank you Dr. Fern, Tracy, and Corinna.

Piggybacking off what Ash said below; I can only speak for my experience with Dr. Van Sant, but I hope to god her staff is much more professional than she is. Not to mention Dr. Van Sant thinks she is playing god; there easily dozens of other professionals who do her job better in the Bay Area. I brought in a cockatiel who had an accident for a visit.

The clinic is predatory with their work, do not ask for authorization, and simply put they charge 2-3 times as much as any other vet. Had there been some communication, 95% of the issues would never have came up. Problems are as follows: 1) Only after dropping my bird off for the visit was I informed it would be charged as an emergency rather than a regular exam.

Should have been cleared on the phone. 2) I had made it clear I consented to an exam and pain meds ONLY. The doctor then went ahead and provided other services without calling me to authorize this service. In previous experience veterinary professionals ALWAYS call to authorize care BEFORE giving it and charging you for it. 3) When asking for an estimate, I was informed services I did not authorize were already completed and billed.

I called to negotiate because the bill had suddenly multiplied to more than I could afford. Dr. Van Sant was beyond rude, bordering on hostile, and threatened to call animal control because I didn't want to pay the exaggerated cost for some services I could've done at home and did not authorize. 4) Dr. Van Sant does a fantastic job of trying to guilt trip you into paying your ridiculous fee, by saying your bird will die, or be horribly disfigured without her care. Combined with the fact that they bill before you even know what you got billed for, this is downright predatory and frankly a little disgusting. 5) Like others have mentioned they try to force you to take your bird back into a plastic box.

When you refuse (because most people have plastic boxes at home), they turn their noses up at you In summary save your money, see another avian vet. This place is obviously only in it for the cash. Find a place that will actually care for our bird, not milk you for every cent they can.

The service is great here & they are 100% honest with you, we've gone to a couple of vets and this vet has left my family and I in complete shock of how great they were to our bird Blue. Blue went in with a wing injury and bones out his skin and they kept him for 4 days and when we picked up Blue he was so much better, it was a relief! Another vet told us they had to cut his wings and I definitely said no and thankfully I found " For the Birds ". Thank you for your work! We are happy with the service provided

I am stunned at this so-called "avian vet" location. I think they had a change in staff members who are less caring and less knowledgeable. I have a budgie who is CLEARLY a baby boy and they had to ask me how old it was and what gender it was. It should be the other way around, especially since the indications are visibly present. The budgie is like one of the most common household pets under cat and dog.

Even after I told them the gender of my bird, they called him a girl on my way out with him. I brought my budgie who I've had for 2 weeks for a checkup, and they did NOTHING helpful. All they did was charge me for medicine he doesn't need and for administering fluids to my bird? My bird didn't need fluids. I paid over the phone because I couldn't see the vets face or anything (SIP), I had to go on trust - but after doing research online, I realized what my vet prescribed could actually be dangerous to my bird if certain variables were in place.

Also they recommended that my bird stay overnight if I was concerned so they could "monitor" him. I predict all that would happen is id come home with a big bill of unnecessary charges and a frightened baby budgie. My bird had an overgrown beak, and they never noticed or brought it up during his checkup. A few weeks later, I called the office to inquire about a blood test.

The lady who picked up the phone sounded sooo annoyed that I had questions about what it tested for. She took my number and said she'll call me back, but she never did. I really want to get my bird a blood test, but frankly, I don't trust the people here to be caring and knowledgeable or make good judgements for my bird. I believe that in the past, they maybe had knowledgeable caring staff, but I have no indication at all that this is the case today. It's a waste of a good brand: For The Birds Forgot to add: I scheduled an appointment and they made me wait outside an hour before they contacting me.

I had to wait in the car and eventually just wandered through Home Depot while waiting for the vet to check my bird over the phone. Also, I thought they would call me during the checkup, but they only called after the checkup, after administering unnecessary services they can charge for. Be prepared for that. I hope this review makes change.

Due to covid, i wasn't able to go inside so they asked me to put my cockatiel in a box & being him up to the door. i followed their instructions & i talked on the phone with the doctor for a bit before i left because he was going to stay over night. over the course of a 2 nights his visit & medicine cost me over $600 & they were insisting that i keep him there longer even though they said he gained his strength back. i talked to a few different doctors on the phone while he was there & one girl was very nice, i wish i knew her name. the others who i talked to were very rude, implying that i didn't care for him well enough & made rude side comments. (might i add that he was my moms bird & she gave him to me in this condition). once i couldn't afford to keep him there any longer (due to me not making any money from covid) they let me take him home. as we were doing the hand off at the front entrance i asked the woman there "how is he doing?" & she almost rolled her eyes at me & said "as well as he can be" & she shut the door on me. once i got him home i did everything that they instructed me to do with him. i made him a hospital cage, gave him his meds, checked on him constantly, & gave him all my love. after the week they recommended in his hospital cage they said i could move him back to his normal cage. he had his voice & energy & strength back so i was confident that he was healthy again. sadly, he passed away four days later. i am so upset, i will NEVER recommend this place to anyone after how they spoke to me & threw their judgements around. not to mention they weren't very helpful after i took him home either, they didn't answer many of my questions so i had to do my own research. do NOT go here. after spending almost $700, our friend Tapatio died. if anyone who works there sees this, y'all can put that in your notes, too. edit: i also would like to add that: -our bird was in our family for 8 years, he died on his 8th birthday. -THEY NEVER CALLED ME TO FOLLOW UP! to see how he was doing, i can't believe it. it felt like all they wanted was my money. -i believe his primary doctor's name was van sant or something? he had a couple different people overseeing him i think.

Did not get so much as a follow up "how is she doing?" call after my chicken's lengthy hospital stay ($1200) with zero diagnosis because that would cost even more. My girl didn't last even through the night and this place never bothered to call and ask. I have taken 3 dogs and chickens for veterinary care and every single one has called after every single visit.

Not this place. Surprise! I have since found an amazing vet for chickens. Very familiar with poultry ailments with quick, honest, upfront answers without bleeding your credit card. PM me and I will be happy to share. Again, steer as far away from this nasty place as you can. Complete fraud and will tell you you are stupid in the meantime.

I bought my scarlet macaw when he was 1 years old, he's now 5 and I take him to this location mostly for wing and nail clippings. All of the staff at this location are absolutely amazing and recognize my voice and know my bird by name which I'm always surprised by because I don't come in often. The pet store I bought my bird from was a little sketch so I immediately took him to the vet and paid over 600$ on blood tests to check for avian flu etc. they gave him a clean bill of heath.

The feel confident with the staff when I bring my bird in and they know exactly how to handle him which puts me at ease. I always recommend this location to anyone who asks for a vet for birds.

I'm a new parrot owner. I brought in the Conure we had just bought from Petco because it looked like it had a poorly healed foot injury. Turned out that was exactly the case. Dr Fern spent over an hour with us-- not only looking over our bird, Sunny, but helping me brainstorm how to help our bird recover. She also spent time describing what changes in Sunny's behavior I should expect to see over the next couple years.

We spent a good bit of time on nutrition as well-- how to keep our Sunny healthy even with the family foos allergies. Some of the negative reviews below surprise me, because Dr Fern was very explicit about not needing to run some tests because my bird was unlikely to have those diseases. It seemed to me like the office was trying to save me money, not the opposite. I grew up around doctors for humans, and this felt like exactly the kind of honest, specific, and expert feedback you want.

Terrible service. We scheduled an appointment a week and half before. We called in advance (30 minutes before appointment) to see if they were running on time -- they said they were. Well, as is OFTEN the case, they were running over two hours late. They took our bird, left her in an empty room for almost an hour without doing anything. It made no sense.

The owner often contradicts herself, and will LOVE to tell you about how people shouldn't own birds (ironic given the number of them she owns). Came out and YELLED at us for not having an appointment? The same appointment they called to remind us of the day before? The same appointment we confirmed before going? In other words, absolutely no sense of organization management.

She berates her employees out in the open waiting room. I feel sorry for them. She has just no sense of professionalism or emotional maturity. Be prepared to pay $75 for an 'exam fee'. No matter if you have done it recently. These 'exams' typically last about 40 seconds. It's a total con. That was it for us -- we told them we would never come back; and we won't. BY THE WAY -- the woman in charge is NOT an Avian vet -- she is a general vet who likes to pretend she's an expert in birds.

Birds vet is very acknowledge and nice, she explained us everything about our cockatiel and helped me to calm him down after being traumatized in the pet store. I highly recommend her!

We've been coming here for many years (about 8) with our Pineapple Green Cheek Conure, Jacare. My first impression wasn't great as the doctor does seem to come off as a scolding parent but I had to take into consideration that she's probably met a lot of people that don't properly care for their bird because they just haven't researched enough or whatever the case may be (pet abandonment). It's all in the best interest of the bird. We're also use to being scolded by our doctors in various ways. Again, it's for the best interest of optimal health and happiness.

All the nurses/techs/front line have been very nice and generally chatty as they all love birds and have known us for some time. This is 1 of 2 good avian vets in the Bay Area and it's worth the 45min drive for us to get quality care for our bird.

***Update*** It seems like the doctor asked someone to reviewed my comment as FUNNY and add some additional positive comment for this place? IF you think killing my bird is funny, You are NOT a F*** Human being JENNIFER F. ********** My conjure passed away a few hours after treated here. She wasn't feeling well but definitely not to state that she couldn't make it through the night.

During whole treatment process, lots of test were done and nothing found, the doctor gave my bird lots of injections anyways--which I should have stopped. At first looking at these mediocre yelp reviews, I kind of convince myself that yelp cannot judge a doctor's skills, but in this case it did. This doctor either professionally incompetent or simply don't care, either way I do recommend anyone to THINK TWICE before you come over here.

This review is not posted out of angry but regrets--I wished I'd take my bird to someone else. I wish pet owners who can see this review can make better decisions so you don't have to go through the same pain I'm having right now.

This was like a yr ago by the way. Well came again since I have taken on a 2nd bird (not by choice but as an act of kindness). My Indian ringneck was acting quiet and sneezing often so like a good pet owner I rushed to make a last min appt. Again met Dr. FERN VAN something, and this time not only was she straight up rude but made us feel like horrible people for owning a bird and by her standards not taking care of him.

So we run tests and find out he has a mild sinus/allergy thing, like most the animals in the bay area. We feed him only natural food, fruits, veggies, fresh water and non colorful or toxic toys. Yet were still doing it wrong in her opinion. It got to the point my husband had to tell her that she was "Nolonger being helpful and made made us feel horrible and worthless so maybe we should go elsewhere to not get verbally attacked every visit with You". She did apologize and changed up her attitude real quick so I appreciated that. Next time we go were asking to see Dr. Siri since she is very kind and very knowledgeable.

If you own ANY feathered pet, no matter the variety, THIS is the BEST Bird-VET in the northern California area. I live oon Pasadena, but my little, noisy, 5-ounce Conure parrot makes periodic trips to Cupertino to "his VET, " Dr. VanSant. J-J is worth it, and this VET knows my bird and treats him like it is her own.

She was the worst. We took our injured bird to her but all she did was charge us $600 for nothing (we had to take our bird to another vet who actually took care of her and charged us only a fraction of the price) and told us we are bad parents. Stay far away and take your pet somewhere else.