My Bad!!! Bird Flies Away !

[marie83]

I am so so glad you got your bird back.

The number of people I'm seeing on facebook atm with birds on their shoulders/playstand/fence completely unrestrained is driving my bonkers. I point out the bird can get away from them and get all the usual oh but he is clipped/cant fly/has never flown/never leaves my side.

I wish there was some sort of catalogue where we could bunch peoples escapee stories together from accidental escapes (the parrot that got chased by hawks would be a good one), people deliberately taking their bird that can't fly out and stories like Michaels from a more professional point of view, I would send each one a link to it. They probably still wont listen but if it makes one person think again it would be worth it

[Pajarita]

Yes, Marie, a compilation would help. It would make a small percentage of people change their habits and a larger percentage to think about it - but there will always be a percentage that thinks it won't happen to them because 'they KNOW their bird'. In my personal experience and opinion, most problems with birds are caused by humans unmitigated arrogance in thinking they 'know better'.

[marie83]

In my personal experience and opinion, most problems with birds are caused by humans unmitigated arrogance in thinking they 'know better'.

Same with other animal owners I find, I would say dog owners are worst in particular but that might be because I've had more dealings with those than other pet owners.

[Pajarita]

The difference between dogs and birds is that caring for dogs is super easy if you want to do it right. You can get perfectly good food in a pet store, vets know A LOT about them, they show the same symptoms and behaviors we do, they adapt to us/our homes/our schedules on their own, and the greatest majority of owners is aware of what is good for them and what is not plus laws are becoming better and better all the time (puppy mills laws, chaining and living outdoor laws, city leash laws, etc) - none of these things are true with birds so they are much more vulnerable to ignorance, neglect and abuse than dogs are.

[marie83]

I dont know what dogfood your petstore sells but its really hard to find decent stuff here and we are one of countries with better standards of animal care. I dont see how that is relevant anyway since we were talking about ignorance and a know it all attitude.

[Pajarita]

I think the relevance comes from the fact that it's easier to 'know' a dog (30,000 years of domestication plus the similarities between the two mammal and hierarchical society species) than to 'know' a bird, and that it's hard to remain ignorant about dog care with all the literature and common knowledge there is about dogs needs.

And, yes, we certainly do have excellent dog food here easily available in petstores, Blue Buffalo, Acana, Wellness and Orijen come to mind... don't you have these in the UK?

[marie83]

I think the relevance comes from the fact that it's easier to 'know' a dog (30,000 years of domestication plus the similarities between the two mammal and hierarchical society species) than to 'know' a bird, and that it's hard to remain ignorant about dog care with all the literature and common knowledge there is about dogs needs.

And, yes, we certainly do have excellent dog food here easily available in petstores, Blue Buffalo, Acana, Wellness and Orijen come to mind... don't you have these in the UK?

No never heard of any of those, most of the ones here are mainly filler ingredients. Really hard to find good quality brands but even those aren't great hence why there's a bigger movement towards BARF diets.
The way I see it a Know it all attitude is a know it all attitude, even more so when there is more info on dogs and people are still insanely ignorant.

[Pajarita]

I don't know how close you are from this petstore but they have Acana and Orijen here and there is one called Applaws that doesn't look bad at all : http://www.pet-supermarket.co.uk/Catego ... d=2&Page=2

[marie83]

That's interesting, they are certainly not stocked in the many pet shops we have in the immediate area, nor was it a brand I came across whilst researching various dog foods for my course. I'll definitely take a look at those though when I have a bit more time as I do want a dog again in the future (now if I could lol)

[Pajarita]

If you do get a dog and decide to feed him/her dry food (kibble), please add warm water to it. Most people feed it dry but dogs are carnivores and flesh is 75 to 80% water so, when they eat a dry food, they need to consume more water which could create all kinds of problems. I am convinced that the reason why my dogs all live to be real old is the fact that I always feed them a good quality dry food mixed with warm water and supplemented with either a good quality canned food or actual meat. We (humans, dogs, parrots, etc) all are what we eat (but I eat crap all the time -LOL).