Do you let other pets contact parrots?

[Michael]

Do you allow other pets come in any sort of contact with your parrot? If so, how and why? If not, what do you do to prevent contact, spread of disease, and safety to the parrot?

Anyone have a close call? Are there any pets that should never be kept in the same household as a parrot?

Do you think a clipped parrot is safer or in greater danger from other pets? On one hand a flighted parrot can fly away from danger, but on the other hand a curious flighted parrot can also find its way into danger as well.

[triplebbirds]

Yup, I do. I expose the birds to the dogs at the puppy stage. Then the birds get exposed to them when they are babies too but less directly. But with the pups at a young age getting exposed to the birds and being taught to be still around them they learn. And they learn that its not some new toy mom happens to have. Do they get to play togeather? no, but they get time to be near each other, dog on one side bird on other side of me. As a result of one of my birds none of my dogs will go in my bird room. They sit at the door and wait for me to come out.
We have too many times around here where if the dogs werent exposed to the birds I wouldnt have birds. We have escape artists around here and toddlers that sometimes like to open cages. So the birds are taught to go to the top of their cage, Or to an empty cage in the bird room. The dogs are taught to pretty much ignore them. But more often than not they run away with their tails between their legs.

[miajag]

I don't have other pets but if I did they would only be allowed near my parrot under very close supervision.

As for the flighted vs. clipped issue, I would think it depends on the situation. If the other pet (dog, cat, whatever) is allowed to roam throughout the house I'd think keeping the bird flighted would be best, so it can get away if necessary. On the other hand, if the dog or cat is kept separate from the bird area with doggie gates or doors or whatever, it might be safer to keep the bird clipped so it can't fly into other areas of the house where pets are, so a situation where it needs to get away never comes up to begin with.

[Natacha]

I don't allow direct contact.
The cat is in my bedroom when the birds are out. Their cages are in a separate room so when they go in, all I have to do is close the door and she doesn't even get to be close to the cage.
In my old apartment, I would allow the cat out if the birds were in their cages and we were around or when the cages were covered (she has never shown any interest in covered cages).

[Crazy Bird Lady]

I let my cockatiels free when my dog is in the room. If either 'tiel comes too close, my dog will timidly move away and find somewhere else to sit. I do think my male cockatiel has a little bit of a sense of superiority because of my dogs reaction. But i know of a lot of dogs i would never let near birds or other small creatures. I just happen to have a very non aggressive dog, as we have lived with pet rats, cats, and native birds i used to rescue and rehabilitate. Over her 13 years she has never hurt or killed any creatures, in my care, out in nature, or anywhere else. It is because of this that i feel i can trust her.
Last year i had my budgies free in my lounge room, and my friend came over - and for once brought her dog. If the door is unlocked, she normally opens it and lets herself in (which was fine)... You can probably guess whats coming next....... the dog went straight for one of my budgies and got it, and poor Lemony was gone before we could do anything about it. It was horrifiying to watch, and i have learned now to let people know the new rules with doggy visitors. A graphic lesson for me to learn.

[MandyG]

My dogs are always out when my bird is out. They were introduced early on and they have all been taught to ignore the bird. Mojo and the dogs don't really choose to go near one another, it might be a different story if he was trying to harrass the dogs or if the dogs showed interest in him. Of course whenever Mojo is out I'm in the same room or very close by, they are never allowed out together without supervision. I would absolutely never allow Mojo to play with the dogs, I've seen how my dogs play with eachother and I've gotten accidently bit by my sweet, old, highly trained dog so I do know how quickly accidents can happen. If they didn't all have a healthy respect for eachother's space they would not be allowed out together.

In some ways I think that Mojo is safer not having his wings clipped, he doesn't fall off of his perch now and when he's walking on the floor he can quickly fly to somewhere safe if he feels threatened or annoyed. On the other hand we fostered more dogs when he was clipped than we do now. A new dog would usually ignore him if he was just playing on his perch or walking on the floor, but now I'm worried that a bird flying by would make a new dog's prey drive kick in. That's just something I keep in mind, but we haven't had to worry about it much. The current dog we have is a return that we had when Mojo first came home, and any new dogs are carefully matched to their foster homes. Thankfully the president of the rescue owns a blue fronted amazon and a cockatoo, so she's very good at picking dogs that will work out for us.

There are some dogs that I simply don't trust near my bird, we've tried to introduce the dogs to Mojo when he was in his cage, but they are just too interested in him. Any real interest besides an initial curiosity is too much in my opinion. And since these dogs only visit on occasion I don't feel the need to work on their relationship.

[Michael]

Do a lot of dogs get rehomed? I understand the issue with parrots quite often is that people really underestimate them (usually from inexperience with birds) and just cannot handle them. What about with dogs though? What typical reasons could people possibly have for rehoming dogs? It barks so loud that all the neighbors are going nuts? Lol, yeah right.

[MissLady9902]

A lot of dogs do get rehomed. People don't want to deal with them, barking, making poo messes in the house, untrained, people unwilling to train.
The only thing is it's A LOT easier to re-home a dog than it is a parrot.
Cats are re-homed a lot too. It's harder for cats to find a home than it is for a dog.

[MandyG]

A lot of animals get rehomed, and a lot of cats get euthanized. I can't find the stats for the most current years, but a few years ago the stats provided from the city animal control were:

Owners Reclaimed - 145 dogs; 93 cats
Adopted from pound - 43 dogs; 133 cats
Rescued by Local rescue - 41 dogs; 96 cats
Rescued by Humane Society - 5 dogs; 28 cats
Euthanized - 8 dogs; 224 cats


I've heard so many stories of why people are giving up their animals. The majority of animals we bring in are actually ones from the pound, and those animals were either simply dropped off at the pound with no explanation or found at large and weren't reclaimed.

We get animals that have been seized from homes by animal control (as was the case for the puppy we adopted), a lot of times it's due to a new child in the family and the dog doesn't like the baby, people moving is a common one too. I've had a few that were simply because the owners got a new dog and then they realized they didn't want two dogs and they choose the puppy over the older dog. We fostered a really nice well trained dog that was given up simply because the owners had gotten a second dog and then they realized that two dogs = twice the poop so one dog just had to go!

Basically you can sum it up to: barks too much, escapes from yard, isn't house broken, isn't trained, costs too much, takes up too much time, destroys household items, health reasons, changes in family structure (divorce, marriage, children), relocating to area that doesn't accept animals, changes in employment (promotion that takes up too much time or unemployment), dog is pregnant, dog had puppies so you have to get rid of the puppies (we get a lot of litters), puppy grew to big, didn't want a dog after the cute puppy stage, didn't want a dog after owner realizes it's actually a responsibility, etc.

Except for a very few understandable scenarios the reasons dogs and cats get rehomed are just as infuriating as the reasons people give for rehoming their birds. I really believe a lot of problems with all animals could be solved by potential buyers/adopters taking some sort of a class or test to make sure they fully understand what they're getting into.

The only thing is it's A LOT easier to re-home a dog than it is a parrot.

I believe the biggest reason it's easier to rehome a dog or cat is because they can be very forgiving animals. The majority of animals that are rehomed are due to no fault of their own and don't carry any behavioral baggage so it's easy for them to be placed in a new home where they are happy and loving towards their new owners. With parrots you can't simply give them a treat and then get their unconditional love. I'm not saying it's that easy with dogs all the time, but it's definitely much harder to earn a parrot's trust and to build a trusting relationship with it than it is with a domesticated animal. This is just out of my experience.

[Michael]

I really believe a lot of problems with all animals could be solved by potential buyers/adopters taking some sort of a class or test to make sure they fully understand what they're getting into.

Forget a class, just volunteer for a day at a bird/pet store and get bit a few times and clean poop. If you still want the pet, you're good to go.

Getting bit and cleaning poop is about the reality of owning a parrot. If you get anything more out of it you're lucky because that is all bonus. You have to start out assuming you'll get nothing more than bitten for your hard effort. If you start with lower expectations like that, then you'll be much happier with your pet then expecting it to talk and cuddle and love you just because you paid for it.