A little bit frustrated right now..

So I put up a photo of my and scarlet on Facebook, and one of my sisters little friends commented saying "some guy came through Maccas drive through with a bird that looked just like that, he brought a strawberry thick shake and the bird drank it!"
Wow, really? Why would you give a bird a strawberry shake? Especially from McDonald's? Some people are so stupid it annoys me. I wonder how often this guy takes his eclectus for a ride to Maccas for a shake. Grr.

Unfortunately there are many idiots around, that should not have pets.
He is slowly killing his bird, probably not even realizing it. Many people think birds eat and drink exactly what us humans consume. The should make future guardians complete a "test" before being allowed to have a bird.

A bird guardian living close by, feeds her African Grey chocolate coated sunflower seeds, and eats no pellets whatsoever. The bird loves salted Pistachios as well. When warned about the dangers of chocolate and salted Pistachios a deaf ear was turned.

I knew a lady, who fed her little poodle chocolates every single day. We warned her how toxic it was for the dog to consume chocolate and could lead to the dog's death............ When the dog die, she cried, and said what she misses most about the dog was when they sat on the couch together everyday, watching TV and sharing a chocolate....... Not once did she mention how much joy and happiness the dog brought her.
Unfortunately the pets suffer, due to the guardians ignorance AND then it is to late.

I totally agree with Antoinette. I don't think some people should have pet at all. Not sure about other countries, but here in Australia, if you have done something really bad that you hurt your pet, or even kill them, you can be banned from having pet for the rest of your life. I love that law! Lol

Is that really a law in Australia? I can't believe I didn't know that is it the same in Victoria?
And yes I completely agree. Although they will never make people complete tests before becoming a pet owner. I needed a licence for my lizards and snake, and all I had to do was fill out a form, send it off, then I got the licence in the mail two weeks later. And that's the same fe other pets such as sugar gliders, which I can get with the same licence, and they all need special diets. A lot of people don't even realise their dogs need special diets too. I feed my pets the best diets possible, and it really annoys me that I'm putting in so much effort so they can be healthy, and other people are not even bothering to educate their-self, or listen, even when it means shortening the life of their pets. Weather they be cats or dogs, or birds or reptiles, people need to learn what to feed them an how to treat them.
Same thing goes for animal cruelty, I just wish I could make up my own world, and only have the good people in it, leave the rest behind forever and start a new life, with a colony of animals and animal lovers from around the world, including you lot! Haha! If only..

Well I saw it on the news, so I guess there is. and I live in Vic, Mebourne

Brodie said:

Is that really a law in Australia? I can't believe I didn't know that is it the same in Victoria?

Click to expand...

Nope it's not a law. As always the law is much more complex than that. Sentencing is not 'law' and is up to the individual judges discretion.
If you have a cruelty case bad enough, the judge may impose a ban period where you are unable to legally own a certain number of animals, a certain species or in extreme cases, any animals at all.
This will only apply to the state you are in when the sentence is made. So if you were to move state the ban would not apply.

Feeding your bird a thick shake certainly does not come under any punishable offense. Nor does most things us responsible bird owners would consider neglect or cruelty. Punishable neglect or cruelty is not something you would ever want to witness. The law certainly does not protect animals in the way it should.

Most cruelty cases have a ban of no more than a couple of years of a designated species or number of animals depending on whether the case involved suspected hoarding or outright cruelty. Lifetime bans are pretty much unheard of, except in huge cases that have caught media attention.

Most cases require gross neglect or obscene cruelty before any kind of significant penalty is applied.

Also, animal welfare laws vary from state to state. Its always a good idea to get up to date with the corresponding laws, codes and guidelines. Not everything people assume is "law" is actually law. Those that are actually laws, will have a penalty designated to them as a guideline for the judge to work from. Check out the penalties... they are very poor indeed for animal welfare offenses.

For example... in South Australia it is not illegal to shoot a galah. In QLD, it is illegal.

Then sometimes the laws are so convoluted and contain so many loop holes, they may as well not exist. In QLD it is illegal to feed live vertebrates to another animal... except where the animal would otherwise starve if it was not supplied with live food. How do you police that? You can't, so the law is ignored unless you go about flaunting the fact you feed live animals to your pet when he will in fact eat killed food. Or if you feed the neighbours cat to your scrub python....

You don't know the whole story, a it comes third-hand via Facebook, from some girl who probably does't know anything about parrots. Have you ever seen a parrot drink something? They are like the slowest and most inefficient drinkers of all animals on the planet. When she said the parrot "drank" the shake, I doubt he really got much more than a lick or two. I wouldn't worry about it. If the shake was chocolate or a avocado flavored, then it might be bad... But strawberry... A few licks from that is most certainly not going to harm the bird. Yes, it's not healthy. But then again, the shake is not healthy for a human either.

If a strawberry shake offends you, then you might be appalled by some "treats" that responsible parrots love to share with their birds! It might only be a tiny nibble, or a few bites infrequently, but people love to spoil their pets and share in the good things!

We honestly don't know if the bird gets the shake once a week, once a month or what. A small amount given infrequently may not be harmful at all, but given frequently, ya that's not such a good idea...


I prefer to keep to meat-free and 'human goody'-free diets for my birds. I know a lot of owners who feed meat to their birds, but I don't. I also don't share chocolate, candy, icecream, cheese, milk or other things of that nature... but I do provide yogurt sometimes! And yogurt can be healthy. Or, in the least, it can be a great way to mask the flavor of meds!