What's the worst situation your parrot's had with a stranger

[JaydeParrot]

Hi, my Senegals meet the occasional house guest but I've never been able to take my Senegal ouside. I read on one forum that Micheal has to put up with people wanting/trying to grab or touch his birds without his permission, I was wondering if/ what the most diffcult situation you've had between a stranger and your parrot (in or outside of the house) and how you solved this.

I'm asking this question partly because it's interesting and partly because I'll soon have a relative coming over for a few days who is, (to put it bluntly) irresponsibly childish (despite being a grown adult), and if she sees me interacting with the birds, she will most likely attempt to do that herself while I'm not around, potentially causing danger to the birds. I've already had to ban her from walking my dog as she came back too many times with the dog's paws bloody because she didn't watch the ground for sharp objects like I'd told her to.

I was just wondering how other parrot owners have gotten around the problem of irresponsible people wanting to handle their birds, as (except for yelling/swearing) nothing seems to work when I just simply ask my relative to leave the birds alone.

[Michael]

The worst situation I've had, off the top of my head, was when freeflying Kili outside, some retarded kid ran over to her and started attacking her with a thick string. She put up with it longer than she should have and eventually just flew away to me. For the most part though, I generally don't have too much trouble with kids. In fact for the most part I feel safer with kids around my parrots than adults. I've had plenty of idiot adults just reach to try to take my parrots off my shoulder or something like that while out which I hate far more than the kids being around them.

As for your situation, seriously if you can't trust the person coming over not to do something to your birds while you are not looking, you REALLY should not be having that person over period. Get them a hotel room if you have to. I would not allow someone in my home that couldn't respect my house rules and my pets obviously take very high priority in such rules.

Have a look at this if you haven't seen it already to remind you why having others in your home can be a catastrophe:

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=10611

I generally don't have problems with people at home but when out, if people aggravate me too much, I just pack up and leave. I am firm and state my position but when it is clear that it's hopeless (usually it's because of genuinely retarded kids or parents), I just go elsewhere and if it persists I leave entirely. I'm not going to put my parrots at risk of other people. So in your case I say either don't let the person come or pack up with your pets and let the person stay without you/pets there. It's the only foolproof solution when dealing with a fool.

[JaydeParrot]

Ouch, was she alright? I guess you can't really say much to kids though. How do you cope with adults trying to grab one of your parrots, do you dodge out of their way or say something?

The most similar problem I had was walking my dog off the lead, some idiot tried to call my dog over, from the other side of a busy road, I grabbed my dog and shouted to him that it was 'a bloody main road' and thankfully he left.

Yeah, if it was up to me she wouldn't be coming over at all, I'm going to be sleeping in the same room as the parrots and I've got them some extra clips to hold their cage door firmly shut so I guess I'll just have to keep a very close eye on them and her for the next couple of days... Relatives! Who'd have them... .

[marie83]

As for your situation, seriously if you can't trust the person coming over not to do something to your birds while you are not looking, you REALLY should not be having that person over period. Get them a hotel room if you have to. I would not allow someone in my home that couldn't respect my house rules and my pets obviously take very high priority in such rules.

Totally agree with this, even the kids know not to go near the birds when i'm not there so no way would I tolerate it from another adult.
If you really can't get out of it move the birds to another room/your room and put a lock on the door.
If that really isn't an option either I would put padlocks (careful of the metal type) and make it very clear that person wouldn't be welcome back if they broke the house rules again.

[pennyandrocky]

the only problem I ever had was when my cousin and I took our birds camping. my was allowed to be free from his cage while I was there but I took my son down to the lake and told my cousin not to let him out until I came back since he would come looking for me. 5 minutes after I got to the lake I hear her on her scooter screaming i'm so sorry I let cebal out and he flew away. I told her it was fine he would come back and went back to the site. he came back as soon as he smelled dinner cooking but she never let him out without me there again.

[Pajarita]

I've never had a single problem with anybody because I don't take my birds out in public and I make it VERY clear when people come to visit that they are only allowed into the birdroom with me, no more than 3 people at a time, and that they can look but they cannot touch -they are even warned not to talk too loudly or move their arms around and, if they don't like the rules, they don't go in but I've never had anybody not following the rules - well, my grandchildren have but they only do it once or twice when they are babies and never again.

I agree with Michael et al that allowing that person (who has proven not to be reliable) to stay at your house is a big risk.

[MacT]

Probably the biggest problem i have since i come from a big family, is when all of my relatives come over and feel the need to hold and pet kiwi when she clearly doesn't want to be with that person.

i try to explain that shes a one person bird and is scared of them but for the most part they think they're right, so i resort to violence (more playful ) if i have to, to avoid them going near her and scaring her for life while in the midst of owning her and training her.

the worst would have to be one friend who poked kiwi for no reason, god i wish she bit him hard!
i punched him hard for that

soo...violence kinda works for me....LOOOL

[GreenWing]

I wouldn't say it's bad, per se, but Tiki probably felt overwhelmed once when she was around a group of kids.

My next door neighbor, a sweet elderly lady, had been bugging me to show my parrot to the kids she babysits. One day I had Tiki outside with me in her carrier, as I like to show her the flowers in the garden and get some sun on her wings, if only for a few minutes.

Well, the kids crowded around her, and they kept trying to pet her all at once. One in particular kept demanding that she talk. It was completely innocent, but I think it's good to gently inform children that parrots shouldn't be expected to talk, not to pet, etc.

[Khaiqha]

I don't think my birds have had any bad experiences with strangers, but rather the opposite. Apparently there are many more people than I realized that have a huge fear of birds, and are terrified by my parakeets.

[Eric&Rebecca]

Yes I've had a similar situation... was terrifying for my birds though because the person was flapping around screaming which also made them flap around and scream. probably my fault for not mentioning we had them...

Children (I'm sorry) are the WORST! Unless particularly used to birds from a young age or well behaved no child even enters the house let alone near the birds. This comes after one instance where a child actually let the birds out, luckily we have window coverings or we would have lost them. We have since got a new cage (Montana) with a much stiffer door fastening lock. Needless to say the child was not welcome in the house again.