How not to become a bird-dumping-ground

ChristaNL

Banned
Banned
May 23, 2018
3,559
157
NL= the Netherlands, Europe
Parrots
Sunny a female B&G macaw;
Japie (m) & Appie (f), both are congo african grey;
All are rescues- had to leave their previous homes for 'reasons', are still in contact with them :)
Getting a parrot for free sounds great (especially if you are looking for your first/second bird).
Of course there is no such thing as a free lunch!
("Free parrot" always comes with costs for the vet - usually a lot because, well -most people- do not give away a bird if nothing is wrong with it).

I love animals, and talk about animals a lot (grinnn, I bet you have already noticed that ;) ) so if it comes to "hmmm I want/need to get rid of my pet" sometimes mine is the first name that pops up in peoples minds.
So yea... I've been given a few budgies (a complete psycho included), a group of geriatric aviary birds, a CAG, a macaw, plenty of tropical fish, spiders, hamsters, stick-insects, beetles etc.etc. over the years.

I love(d) them all (well almost, I had one hamster that drove me up the walls), but.... enough is enough!
My house is full!

And it is hard - sometimes you can see it coming a mile away: someone you know is "getting a bird" without realizing what they are getting themselves into and not doing their homework. So I talk them through it as far as they are willing to listen
( NO DONT DO IT usually does not get heard)-
and after a year or so - after they have unintentionally and wellmeaning trained their bird to scream non-stop or bite (or both) I get the:
"well this is not working out for us, we are getting rid of it, can we give it to you / do you want another bird?"

... and I found myself saying "no" to a lovely young galah (Eolophus roseicapillus ) a couple of years ago just because -well- this house is already filled with animals.
And the ridiculous thing is- I *still* worry about that cutie! :(
I've been part of the story of that birds life (unfortunately not a succes story) and now ... I can only hope he is going to be okay (he was offloaded to the first person who "wanted a bird" so I have no great hopes there).

Partly because of that one I made some room for Sunny.
(maybe not the best idea ever ... but still: you don't pick your parrots - sometimes they find you. One moment I had a general conversation about plucking, the next was asked to come pick up their parrot :eek: )


Usually I just bombard people with adresses of rehoming-groups, but I find sometimes people are so fed up they no longer want to bother giving their bird a good chance at a new home or are incapable of delivering their bird there.
( LOL if I had a car I would be parrot-taxi-ing a lot! )
so ... on MP ( like craighslist) etc. they go ...

Anyway- I cannot be the only one this has happened/ is happening to-
so, my question:


:confused: How do you handle these kind of situations?


.
 
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Owlet

Well-known member
Oct 27, 2016
2,750
1,886
Colorado
Parrots
Lincoln (Eclectus), Apollo (Cockatiel), Aster (GCC)
my trick to not taking any animal that's offered to me is; it is not having a social circle so the occasion doesn't even happen to begin with xD

honestly I don't know what I would do if someone came to me wanting to get rid of their bird. I am hardwired to help and I love animals so much. Would love to see what other say but in the end it's probably best to say no, hold your ground, and talk to them about other options (rescues and sites made for selling birds / animals. Advise against Craigslist though because Craigslist is horrible) and teach them about what to look for when interviewing someone who is interested in their bird to make sure they avoid bad homes and go somewhere good.
 

lplummer52

Member
Apr 19, 2016
386
13
Indialantic, FL
Parrots
"Birdie". Sun Conure
Know when to say NO! It's hard to learn, but the older you get, the easier it is. "I'm too old to take on another dog, cat, bird." Or, like you said, "my house is full!"
 
OP
C

ChristaNL

Banned
Banned
May 23, 2018
3,559
157
NL= the Netherlands, Europe
Parrots
Sunny a female B&G macaw;
Japie (m) & Appie (f), both are congo african grey;
All are rescues- had to leave their previous homes for 'reasons', are still in contact with them :)
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  • Thread starter
  • #4
LOL, actually Owlet, that might be the safest way: just don't talk to people anymore.

I always end up "in damned if you do- damned if you dont" situations.

(Right now someone who I am coaching with her first tropical fishtank is mad at me because her adult son broke the light-fixture and it is all my fault because I did not magically fix it by email ... and now she wants me to find her another tank because the links I send her -places where she could replace it- are not good enough.)

so... I really could use your input/ ideas/ suggestions :D

(any parrotloving multimillionaires here I can send/redirect the birds to? ;) )


-

lplummer: great point, the magic word (NO) should work.
Sometimes I just am not thinking that fast/clear ( I always feel sorry for the bird and want to help).
.
 
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MonicaMc

Well-known member
Sep 12, 2012
7,960
Media
2
43
Parrots
Mitred Conure - Charlie 1994;
Cockatiel - Casey 2001;
Wild Caught ARN - Sylphie 2013
Sounds like my life... but I've kept to the smaller birds, my largest being a mitred conure.

I stopped buying birds in 2004 since people kept giving me their birds. The only birds I've ever bought? Budgies. I've had/have a lovebird, a turquoisine, bourkes, cockatiels, various species of conures and an african ringneck.

Oh... and I've also had a dog given to me... unfortunately, the family screwed him up which resulted in him having to be put down. I didn't know enough back then to truly help him the way that I knew he needed.

I've turned down 3 cockatoos as well. They were offered to me for free, but knowing my situation, even with an entire setup, I still could not afford them. I also don't have the space for a cockatoo cage. The first was an umbrella at a rescue and you could basically say he was the *perfect* cockatoo that everyone dreams of having! Except for his looks! Second cockatoo (citron) was at the same rescue and I was not allowed to interact with him! He ended up being moved to another rescue out of state and that rescue was having a difficult time placing him! (first rescue didn't want to give him up, second couldn't place him) When we met again at the second rescue, the rescue asked me to take him! I was the first person that could interact with him without issues and I wish I could have! He did, thankfully, end up finding a home, but it just took a while longer! A third 'too, also citron, was in my bird club as a foster. He was an alright bird as well, but I said no.


Also said no to a parrotlet, but not due to space or anything like that! Local breeder bred her, sold(?) her to another person (both in bird club) and the new owner could never really interact with her. I remember something startled her and she took off flying! Landed on the ground, ran over to a purse with a coat over it, and hid underneath the coat. I gently picked her up, cuddled her in my hands and gave her scritches. She was *SO* content! The owner was shocked to see how well she was doing with me! (and my S.O.) She asked us to take her because she couldn't interact with the p-let in the same way. If I wasn't afraid that I might accidentally kill her because she's so small, I might have said yes.


My current foster? Had him for 2 weeks now and given to me because someone else said that I should take him. His owner and the other person have never met before and I had never met the owner!


Most of the birds I've taken in have been locally... someone local finds out I have birds and gives me more birds. Or maybe it's friends of the family and they have relatives that have birds but no longer want them due to a change in lifestyle. One family actually out-right bought a handraised cockatiel for me! (still have her 17-sh years later!) I've adopted two birds through bird forums as well, one bird just a state away and another several states away.


With as many birds as I've taken in, for free, I have a hard time seeing myself spending money to buy one from a breeder, which I do want to do, someday!


And of course, just because they are free doesn't mean they are cheap! I don't keep track of how much I spend on my birds (or pets in general), but I do remember spending around $600 on a sick budgie and probably more than that on a bourke parakeet. She even got laser surgery! (that alone was $400... plus two biopsies which I think run around $60 each?) And now I'm spending hundreds of dollars on two fosters because I don't feel like anyone else would. (vet care) One for sure should be getting a new home but the other is still kind of up in the air.



I'll admit, it would be extremely difficult to say no to a galah!!!!
 

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