Terrible advice! So mad!

https://www.thesprucepets.com/why-birds-best-choice-for-family-390246

READ IT ALL..and then note the contradictions and misleading information...Intermixed with fact (which makes it 200% worse!)
WHO wrote this, and how can we correct it? This is a major website...
I am totally emailing to complain. This is almost as irresponsible as saying, "newborns thrive on Mountain Dew and neglect!"

Just terrible

I ran into this similar situation last night. Someone on Facebook got in on weekends Ekkie and was told to give him pellets and canary seed for his diet. Myself in a number of other people tried really hard to convince them that this was a terrible day. What made it worse is this new owner, who clearly didn’t know what he was doing, was in no way receptive to the correct advice. I felt so sorry for his little girl...

Bad advise being compounded by unreceptive owners is just the worst

I’m sending the following. And no I’m not bothering to stay calm.


Excuse me, but I just read the article linked here, and I wanted to talk to you about it.


Your intro states birds are less work than dogs and cats. I have had dogs and cats all my life, birds are MUCH MORE WORK!

Your article claims Birds are low maintenance. Are you serious? Has the author ever even MET A BIRD? Birds require much MORE attention than a dog or cat or they can literally pluck themselves bald, scream non stop, become vicious biters, and even start CHEWING HOLES IN THEIR OWN FLESH! Not to mention most dogs and cats won’t chew on your house, poop on your walls, or cover their entire living space in their food. No one who has ever cleaned a bird cage has ever been silly enough to call it “convenient” so clearly the author has never performed the task.

And while yes, birds are social, your section on the topic suggest taking them to grocery stores which is a HEALTH CODE VIOLATION!

Anyone who thinks birds are inexpensive to feed isn’t feeding their birds properly. This allegation is beyond inaccurate. Unbelievable.

And finally, I cannot begin to demonstrate my full on rage at your idiotic claim that birds thrive in small spaces!! We RESCUE BIRDS from people who think that!!! Birds have WINGS! Then are made to FLY!! When someone asks me “how big of a cage do I need” the response is “as big as you can afford.” I tell people the SMALLEST possible cage is one where the bird can fly around (not just across). A suitable bird cage is usually LARGER than a crate for a large dog.

Look, I get it, someone was assigned to write a puff piece. But instead of doing any ACTUAL RESEARCH they just threw something together. It happens. The problem is that people will read this nonsense and take it seriously. Birds will suffer as a result. Please remove this atrocity from the internet where the naive have access to it.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Silversage: you nailed it!


(I was a lot less restrained about it so I will not post the email I send them. Lets just say it would probably get me banned here.)

Thank you for bringing this to fore and for replies. I'm flagging this for Mod attention.

So far I've only read the title and I'm already cringing. I love Lincoln and I love birds but they are probably the WORST pets... they're everything the common person doesn't want. Messy, loud, time consuming.

It is Unbelievable that they said birds thrive in small places, Unbelievable. They make it sound you stuff in a small place leave for work, through some food at them change the water and if it's convenient for you you can spend some time with them....the horror truely is people do this, and people are reading that advice. Then they get rid if screaming biting birds, but often the feather pickers are locked away in a room never to be seen because they are ashamed to re-home them or are unable to. Abd Vet visits are way more expensive than dogs and cats. I have my butds out if the cage for 8 or more hours a day and I feel like my home is too small for them, and in truth it is as they would fly and explore miles and miles, daily. I wish I could reach into all those homes with the hidden pluckers, and neglected parrits and bring them home. Thank you all for standing up for Parrots. I shudder at all the parakeets stuffed into tiny tiny cages.....

Just awful... low maintainence?! Birds are THE highest maintenance pet out there. Hours of one-on-one time and training, messy, loud, demanding, and expensive. They thrive in small spaces?? They are like toddlers, except they can fly!

Also, chickadees as pets?! What???

The Spruce is part of Dotdash which is a company that makes millions per year. The Spruce has editors that write a bunch of crap about everything from food to pets to home and gardening.

I've looked up recipes online before and they always have some garbage recipe that pops up, you can just tell it doesn't sound good. Causing someone to make a horrible turkey pot pie is one thing, but to give ill informed advice on pets is really sinking low.

And did anyone click through to the article about 5 birds that make great pets? COCKATOOS ARE NUMBER 3. No offense, ‘too owners, but I think we’ll all agree that for most people, they’re horrible pets. Ughhhhh.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I am so glad I am not the only one infuriated by this. I emailed them as well. I hope you guys continue to speak up because the more complaints they have, the more likely they will be to remove this VERY irresponsible and easily searchable article!!!
THANK YOU!

I sent my email, detailing what is wrong with the article, and the reality of this leading to cruelty of parrots, and how they could do better. BTW is the ekkie rumba model available on Amazon

A macaw in a small space in an apartment?
If that’s not a recipe for disaster I don’t know what is.

Noticed the author's name was a clickable link... first two lines on her profile...

- Freelance writer on birds for eight years

- Worked professionally with birds as a veterinary technician, pet store manager, and pet counselor

Click to expand...

yikesyikesyikes

Owlet said:

Noticed the author's name was a clickable link... first two lines on her profile...

- Freelance writer on birds for eight years

- Worked professionally with birds as a veterinary technician, pet store manager, and pet counselor

Click to expand...

yikesyikesyikes

Click to expand...

Somebody obviously lied on her resume!

ChristaNL said:

Owlet said:

Noticed the author's name was a clickable link... first two lines on her profile...

- Freelance writer on birds for eight years

- Worked professionally with birds as a veterinary technician, pet store manager, and pet counselor

Click to expand...

yikesyikesyikes

Click to expand...

Somebody obviously lied on her resume!

Click to expand...

Agreed and the shortcomings are plain for all to see!! Low maintenance my arpse! (Did I just get myself banned?!)

I’m extremely horrified at this article....”Birds thrive in small spaces” NO. Just a big fat NO. This article is so so misleading and wrong, it makes my blood boil. Someone whose not familiar with birds may read it and may be tempted to buy one and the outcome would be so much worse. People keep getting birds thinking that they’re fun and games but there are SO many other factors involved. And when people can’t handle their birds because they didn’t prepare for one in the first places, the poor birdies end up in shelters or even worse, dead, when precautions aren’t taken for their safety (re: teflon).

I hope there is a way to take this article down because it should never have existed in the first place.

"Low maintenance" and Lincoln isn't even that destructive!! This is a day's worth of mess... not even. More like a few hours.

Also within a few hours I think birds poop at least 20 million times. Thats what it seems like anyway.