Birds as pets?

  • 🏰 The Fediverse is up. If you know, you know.
  • Want to keep track of this thread?
    Accounts can bookmark posts, watch threads for updates, and jump back to where you stopped reading.
    Create account
We Are The Witches

We Are The Witches

True & Honest Fan
kiwifarms.net
Joined
Feb 23, 2019
I'll go straight to the point: I think it's overwhelmingly lame, however I want to know what Kiwifarmers think. Here I'm obviously talking about the usual bird in a cage that people have, not about affluent individuals that can make small ecosystems where the animals can be free.

Personally, I have strict standards when it comes to having pets, however in this occasion & for one reason or another, I'm in a house where one of the people agreed to take care of a canary (I think? Not sure what it is) for another person because they were going on vacation for a few days.

It's almost painful to watch, do you feel the same way?
Seeing a bird caged up, an animal that can be very active and fly around is just sad, so it's perplexing to me that someone would buy this as a pet. Every time I see it, I inevitably take it a symbol of captivity and insult to life, to the point where it's actually making me uncomfortable.

It's obvious that the owner just considers it like an ornament, I can't see them playing around with this bird or doing anything past making sure it doesn't die, regardless, most of the time of its life will be inside that jail.

What do you think, do you feel like having a bird as a pet is cool, or maybe pointless?
 
Barnyard fowls the only ones I like as pets. They are great to have in the yard if you have the space. They're great for pest control, too.

I'm not a huge fan of caged birds in the house, though. Wings are usually clipped. They stay in their cage most of the time, they're loud, messy, and smelly. Most people I've known who keep birds are really weird and dirty themselves with very few exceptions.
 
If you're going to do it, I suggest wild birds in your chimney. That way you don't actually have to feed them and you don't get overly attached to them.
 
Might be a hot take, but I don't even like it, when people keep cats in a flat. As in, only indoors. I feel like a pet should be kept in a way, that somewhat resembles it's natural habitat. fully grown cat has a territory of about a square mile.

A parrot would be pretty cool, though. Once you bond with it, you can pretty much let it go and do what it wants. But they'd outlive me and then what do you do with it.
 
Yeah having a bird that's permanently kept in a cage is cruel and retarded. Either you let them roam around the house and resign yourself to constantly cleaning bird poop, or you don't get one. Get some feeders and a bird bath for your garden and enjoy having some wild ones around instead.
A well adjusted free-flying pet bird can be a very endearing, affectionate and entertaining pet, but the amount of work involved and life style limitations imposed on the owner are pretty huge.
 
I got a little cutie Budgie that basically has free roam all day except at night when he goes in his cage to sleep. When nobody is home, I put him in my bedroom (his cage is there with him) and shut the door but other than that, he goes where he wants either by flying or running.
 
I feel the same way about most "exotic" pets. They're very cute, great to watch, and some can display affection and bond with you but you just know it would have been better off with a potentially shorter, more dangerous life in the wild with its kind. Real dilemma as someone who has always wanted to care for some exotic animals at home.
 
You need more than one bird if you're keeping them so they can socialize and be with each other when you're not there. Other than that it's totally possible to keep birds and them be happy even if you don't have a lot of money. Stick to the types of parrots that can be trained to go back into their cage to poop and let them have the run of the house when you're there to supervise, you don't need to clip their wings teach them recall and if outside you can get bird harnesses so they can't fly away. The rest is basic keeping their cage clean and keeping your house clean, you have to do that with any pet. The main thing is that most birds need constant socialization from other birds and/or you, some more than others. So they're only the type of pet you can have if you can spend large amounts of time with them (basically retired or work from home) or you have enough other birds for them to keep themselves company. Get the biggest cage you can with your budget, but again you only need a super large one that's comically huge if they're in their the majority of the time, which they shouldn't be.
 
Chickens, ducks, quail, and domestic geese are awesome if you have the yard space for both practical purposes and human enjoyment (chickens are hilarious to watch).

“Indoor birds” IMO really should only be kept by people who are really enthusiastic about giving them the happiest and healthiest lives possible. They need very clean air and as much enrichment and attention as a dog unless you have multiple birds of a kind. Ideally they’d be allowed to fly free around the house while their people are home to supervise. They are very intelligent and can be trained but cannot be ‘corrected’ like a dog when they do behavior you don’t appreciate, which for me would be frustrating cause you kinda just have to let the bird do what it wants and manage around it.

I think they’re too high-maintenance for what they give back (compared to a dog) which is why it takes a certain type of person to be a good bird owner and most people aren’t that type of person.
 
Synechdoche said:
Might be a hot take, but I don't even like it, when people keep cats in a flat. As in, only indoors. I feel like a pet should be kept in a way, that somewhat resembles it's natural habitat. fully grown cat has a territory of about a square mile.

A parrot would be pretty cool, though. Once you bond with it, you can pretty much let it go and do what it wants. But they'd outlive me and then what do you do with it.
Click to expand...
A parrot's the opposite of a pet you can let go and do what it wants, because what it wants is to dismantle your house with the knife on its face. They need mental stimulation and social interaction because they're social animals that live in flocks, and if they don't get it, they'll pluck their own feathers. Basically, they're special needs toddlers that never grow up and are armed with a pair of finger cutters.
 
FrickleMyPickle said:
A parrot's the opposite of a pet you can let go and do what it wants, because what it wants is to dismantle your house with the knife on its face. They need mental stimulation and social interaction because they're social animals that live in flocks, and if they don't get it, they'll pluck their own feathers. Basically, they're special needs toddlers that never grow up and are armed with a pair of finger cutters.
Click to expand...
Well, haven't looked into it a lot.
Some old lady who lived next to my grandparents had a parrot and left it on it's own quite often. It would also fly around in the garden.
To be fair, I was pretty small back then and might misremember things and surely didn't grasp the whole ins and outs of parrot keeping.
Guess I learned something today...
 
Almost all pets that are good to have as pets are going to need lots of socializing. Their social nature is part of what makes them enjoyable companions and helps to ensure they're not stressed by human interaction. Any other type of pet is just there as decoration, like a snake. You can have a snake out to hold for a little while but ultimately that's about the degree of it beyond it's enclosure looking cool.
 
FrickleMyPickle said:
A parrot's the opposite of a pet you can let go and do what it wants, because what it wants is to dismantle your house with the knife on its face. They need mental stimulation and social interaction because they're social animals that live in flocks, and if they don't get it, they'll pluck their own feathers. Basically, they're special needs toddlers that never grow up and are armed with a pair of finger cutters.
Click to expand...
I've seen examples of cockatoo and macaw owners here in northern europe who take their parrots out to fly free. It's equally bizarre and wonderful to see an exotic parrot playing in snow or flying between tall pines.
The three most important rules about parrots as pets imo:
  • Always have a minimum of two parrots
  • Must have room and time to fly for the majority of the day
  • Must have dark place (cage with blanket over) to sleep at night
 
The thing about birds is some species will outlive you. Get a macaw or a parrot, and it dies early, you probably killed it with your incompetence. If you can care for a bird properly and you die then it will become heartbroken and go nuts and the next of kin will have to put it to sleep or it will die due to neglect because they can't or don't know how to take care of it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom