Thinking about getting a bird

Back when I was about 9 years old, we won a budgerigar at the local fairground. We had him for about 15 years.

 

my opinion would be that anyone who had a true affinity with birds would understand that caging them is not okay.

it's possible to befriend all kinds of wild animals, including birds. if someone wants to befriend a bird, go ahead. make it an equal relationship.

 

I agree restricting them to a cage life is not the way to go (that's why i also look down on keeping goldfish etc in fishbowls). But that's far from always the case
Its always fun to see how my friends bird comes to sit on his head. Entirely voluntarily btw. It's not a learned trick

 

of course voluntarily.
most creatures "make the best" of their lives.
or don't know any different.
it doesn't mean it's okay.

 

I get your point but wanted to say Erin, my pet crow, is sitting in her cage right now with the cage door wide open... she's perfectly content. Her cage is her safe spot.

In case you wonder why I have a pet crow at all... she either fell from the nest or was ejected by her parents as a fledgling, she has a condition called "bumblefoot" (one of her feet is messed up). She would not have survived on her own so I could have let her be out in the wild, in which case she would be long dead. Or, I could have brought her inside and cared for her, kept her healthy and given her companionship, good food, and a place to be safe. When it's bedtime or I have to go out during the day (actually leave the property for shopping or something) she goes to her cage for safety and has no problem with that. The rest of the time I have her cage door open and she comes and goes when she wants (Inside the house... She can't survive outside)

Erin is about 15 years old now, she probably wouldn't had made it through her first year had I let her be and ignored her plight the day I first saw her.

 

yes that is very different, and falls in the realm of befriending wild animals.
i'm specifically talking about the buying and selling and ownership kind of pet keeping.

that's really cool though, by the way. i'm glad you looked after her.

 

I used to have a cockateil. They are pretty bright. His name was Spunky, and he could say a few words. He knew "pretty bird" and he could wolf-whistle.

Teaching birds is basically just repetition. You can play them a tape saying "pretty bird" and they pick it up. Just say the same stuff to the bird over and over and she or he will pick it up eventually.

 

A cockatoo always get spunky sooner or later

 

Ah yes, I see and agree with your point now. No matter how good they may get it with their owner, the store days are too often chronically spend in a cage, yes.
I don't mind the buying and selling of pet animals (i hate the word pet though!) by default, if done with proper care and under the right conditions.

 

It's why I literally cannot walk into the pet store anymore, cause I need to be the saviour to a new rabbit.

 

None of you know anything about birds or any other animals.

 

Oh yeah? Can you talk to squirrels? I can.

 

But can you understand what they say?

 

I can clearly see both points of view.
In my opinion keeping reptiles in a small tank and fish in jam-jars is undoubtedly cruel.
At the other end of the scale, our dogs and cats co-exist as part of the family and despite plenty of opportunity to leave us, they prefer the security and comfort of our home.
Birds lie somewhere in the middle of all this, since they do not have the brainpower not to fly off given the opportunity, but sadly any bird bred in captivity will not survive in the wild.
In my opinion, I would not want to keep a bird that was afraid of human contact and whose life was confined to flying to and fro in a small cage. However birds in the parrot family seem quite content to become part of a human group. We have a friend who owns a Parakeet almost identical to the picture at the start of this thread and like in the picture, he loves being rubbed. When he is out of his cage, he flies from shoulder to shoulder for attention and company.

 

I don't know whether you are aware that London is alive with foxes. Over the last 2 decades they have become increasingly tame and once you feed them they become even more friendly. One of our neighbors feeds the fox that lives at the end of her garden in her kitchen and she freely wanders around the house. On a few cold nights, rather than return to her burrow, she stays in the house and sleeps on the settee with the cat.
It is amazing how quickly animals adapt and start to enjoy human creature comforts.

 

No, but I use body language and slight intonations to warn them that people are bullies and will murder them. Do you?

 

Is your opinion of reptiles referring to all of them? Because couldn't you make a similar argument with reptiles? I think reptile terrariums tend to mimic their natural environments better than a bird cage does for a bird. I've known a few people including a roommate with Bearded Dragons and none of the dragons seemed all that discontent, they would roam around when they were taken out of the tank but it didn't really seem like they were intent on trying to escape. I mean I suppose it's difficult to really gauge their emotions but I wouldn't consider it any more cruel than keeping a bird.

 

I am sure that what you say is true, a friend of ours from Barbados told me that he had a lizard who had taken up residence in his house and would sleep on his pillow. it was free to leave at any time, but always returned. I was thinking more about people keeping snakes and lizards in small glass tanks and seeing them more as an ornament than a living creature.
Nature is very strange at times.
When you think about it, their are guys who have extreme difficulty adapting after a period in the military and frequently resort to alcohol. Likewise guys who cannot adjust to life when the leave prison.
This brings us back to the situation of any animals kept in captivity for a while not being to adapt to living in the wild.
Cats seem to be the cleverest. When they get lost or kicked out of their home. they just sit on a doorstep until someone feeds and adopts them. Their even seem to be cats that simply get bored and move on every year or so, but I think that is is mostly males that get lost perusing the scent of a fertile female.

 

Slightly off subject,
Every time I see this thread in the new postings list I cannot help laughing.
In cockney slang, a guys "Bird" means his girlfriend.
Although cockney slang is not in everyday use, it is one of the terms that is still quite commonly used......... "Met this really fit bird at a party last night"