Is Bird Ownership Taking Flight During the Pandemic?

[Pajarita]

Article from industry not from conservationists, rescuers or even owners so, of course, there is misinformation in it BUT the most glaring one is that there aren't enough birds to satisfy the public - have these people even looked at CL or bird rescue numbers?!

https://www.petproductnews.com/current- ... e907d.html

[Michael]

I know a bird rescue that was desperately approached by a store begging to take all their cockatiels because of the shortage.

[Pajarita]

I don't know where, exactly, that happened but I am sure it was not in the NYC tristate area because I see tiels for rehoming (and babies!) offered in CL all the time - and I do mean all the time.

On another note, the anecdote serves to illustrate how blind the pet industry is to what exactly rescues do or what guides them. I mean, who would actually think that a rescue is going to give its rescued birds to a pet store so they can be resold?! Sounds more like a joke that anything else.

[Michael]

It wasn't around here, however, I do not see why it couldn't be. Rescues being full has nothing to do with stores being empty. I heard Cockatiels about doubled in price around here in the last few years.

[Pajarita]

Well, there might not be an immediate direct link -like a 'cause and effect' one- but breeders produce ALL the birds that end up in rescue so there is a sort of a link there. But the comment was that there are plenty of tiels available in the NY tristate area, both babies and adults, and even if stores did not have any for sale, people can always get them from CL, rescueme and kijiji only rescueme has only adults and kijiji usually has babies.

[DancingDiva]

I know here in California, there is an increased demand for pets in general. Our local rescues unfortunately are running on even more limited funds than usual, and because of the pandemic, the adoption process has slowed to a crawl.

[Pajarita]

Yes, adoptions did become more difficult, no open houses, no meet-n-greet, etc. But, thankfully, the rescues have become more resourceful and creative and, after the first few months when everybody was kind of waiting the whole thing out not yet realizing that this was going to be a 'long haul' type of thing, they've managed to pick up. Some of them even empty their kennels... I just gave 6 kittens I had taken from a feral mother (I manage a feral colony) to a cat rescue who contacted me after I put them up for adoption in CL (I am VERY careful and only adopt out to people with EXCELLENT vet refs!) because although they had adults, they had ran out of kittens and actually had a waiting list for them. Needless to say, to me it was like winning the lottery because they would do all the medical (which we usually pay out of our own pocket - I do not charge a penny for any of the animals I rehome) and all the screening (which takes a HUGE amount of time - time I do not really have). AND, to put the icing on the cake, they offered to take the mother to their own vet for spaying this coming Monday - which, again, it was a godsent to me because the inexpensive clinics I use stopped doing ferals due to Covid and the last one we did cost $330 (we couldn't wait any longer because he had been in my basement a couple of months already waiting for the clinics to start doing ferals again and that's no life for a cat - he is now living with us and doing great).