Sheesh!

[DallyTsuka]

going into rant mode here...

so, my husband and i are major animal lovers. we love all animals. we have a little zoo ourselves and people tend to look at us like we are crazy. we have 12 pets. we have 2 chinchillas, 4 cats, 4 birds, and 1 hedgehog. they are divided between us for care. they are what we enjoy. instead of video games and partying and going to the mall and shopping like most people of our age group are into, we have our pets instead.

awhile back, at work, one of the managers kept asking us every chance she got if we would take in her cockatiels. every time, we told her no because we dont have time, money, nor space for anymore pets.

and now today, a co-worker came up to me and asked: "do you still have a lot of pets?"

i replied: "yes."

she continued: "oh, so are you looking into getting more?"

"no, we dont have time, money, or space for anymore pets."

and the conversation died off right then and there.


like sheesh, just because we are animal lovers and have a lot of pets, it does not mean we will take in every single animal thrown at us... driving me nuts! if one more person asks us to take in something, i think i might cry. do people not understand the time and care that goes into having pets? do we just seem like a dump-off for unwanted animals? i wish i could take them all. but you can't possibly save them all. we are just two people and though our animals are our life, we strive to give them the best home we possibly can, but there's a limit to how much of that care we can give.


does anyone else know how this feels? :/ does this happen to every animal lover too?

 

[Luke252]

I know what it feels like to take care of a couple of animals myself. Three Cockatoos are quite a handful, require a lot of attention and money. However I ve never experienced people asking me to take on more. I work at a pet store looking after 500+ individual birds, but of course, money isn't too much of an issue, and we get a lot of help. But I can understand what its like to have people just thinking they can dump animals on you, every year, we take in hundreds of re homes, its so sad, but just so rewarding seeing them go home to a new loving family.

 

[BillsBirds]

No, people do not understand what it takes to properly care for pets! Having been in Animal Welfare & Rescue, I have very, very often been asked to take pets from people. They know I've always had lots of animals, particularly birds, and assume that I'm the guy to help them out and take in their "misjudgments", "mistakes", "annoyances", etc. You see where I'm going with this. There have even been animals just left on my doorstep &/or patio. Suppose I was away, and wasn't coming home for days! They don't care. It's just that they don't want these animals any more, and we seem to be animal lovers, so, their thinking is that we'll care for them. It lets them out of the responsibility and guilt. I know exactly what you mean and how you feel.

 

[DallyTsuka]

each year we end up with wild visitors too. 2 years ago we had a common grackle left at our doorstep. took him in, raised him, released him. and that same year got a call for 6 baby starlings. and this year, a call for 2 orphaned week old kittens and a whole nest of starlings again. took the starlings to a rehab center and offered advice on the kittens. it's just heartbreaking because i hate having to turn them away, but we aren't a rescue or rehab, just a couple of animal lovers. but we work as well and we have our own commitment to the family we have here as it is. so we live by the phrase that we cant save them all. a few of our pets are special needs as well, we have to focus on them first. we got a blind hedgehog, a cancer-surviving cat, a cat with FLUTD, and a chinchilla with genetic eye irritations that need monitoring frequently and prescription eye drops. just makes me shake my head at people. so many people are surprised that we have our birds in big cages. they consider our female lovebird's cage big, and it's just the minimum standard for a lovebird. it makes me quite flustered that people are that ignorant.

 

[MarciaLove]

ok first off i bet that hedgehog is adorable i wish i could have one but my chinchillas are the only small mammals im allowed And YES!!! so many people dont know what its like to have even one pet the time, money, and hard work it takes you have to be dedicated and many people arent I am always taking in unwanted pets of all kinds i get in birds, lizards, raccoons, rats, rabbits, cats/kittens, and more I dont mind taking them in though I like seeing them and finding good homes for them sometimes they stay with me though

 

[DallyTsuka]

the attachment is our elderly hedgie she's not the prettiest out there, but she is cute and adorable in her own ornery way lol

 

[MarciaLove]

oh my gosh so cute!!! How is it having one? are they like chinchillas minus the jumping?

 

[Betrisher]

Yep. I get it too. And I usually say 'yes' because 'no' is just too hard. Oh well.

 

[DallyTsuka]

oh my gosh so cute!!! How is it having one? are they like chinchillas minus the jumping?

a LOT different from the chins. they dont jump, and if they fall even a few short inches it can really injure them. ours was a rehome from a friend of ours, already middle-aged and she was never a fan of being handled or pet or really anything. she doesnt like much. she doesnt like being held, she doesnt like people around. she's a cranky little girl. which is fine, we spoil her anyways and just let her enjoy what she wants. she does really like eating mealworms from our hands though. messiest pet i've ever owned, when it comes to bathroom habits. they are not easily litter-trained, and poke a roo is not one of them lol they tend to poop as they run, so their wheels get ucky fast and need to be cleaned so often. and then it gets on their feet, so they need regular baths. lol ours doesnt run on a wheel anymore, not since she has gone blind. she stopped using it months ago.

nail clipping is a whole other world there. at least for us. she curls up into a ball and there's no getting those adorable little feet out lol those quills are so very sharp. but, give her a bath and she uncurls and you can trim her nails that way. she doesn't mind baths, but she doesnt like handling too much. but she does love her back brushed with a toothbrush lol it gets her quills clean.

they need certain temperature regulations (between 72-80) but in our home we cant go over 75 because of the chinchilla's regulations so our home is consistantly between 72-75 all year round.

i find that the chinchillas are more interactive than poke a roo, but thats just because our individual is a cranky old bugger. she's not a hands on pet, but many hedgies are. just depends on their socialization and personality.

they do some pretty strange things, like spit their food up on themselves if they really like something (poke a roo does it with dried liver cat treats lol) or if they're really comfortable they will lay flat on their bellies with their legs all sprawled out. they are pretty cute and i love the way their noses are always twitching.


our hedgie lives in the bottom compartment of our tiels' stacker cage. a funny story, dally is ALWAYS obsessed with trying to see what lives under her cage. so she always peeks under every chance she gets.

the first time she actually saw poke a roo, she just fluffed herself up, spread her wings, held herself low and started rocking slowly back and forth on my hand lol she was trying to act tough. it was the only time she had ever done it. needless to say, i dont think dally was expecting such a creature to live under her lol




destiny was the last pet we took in, she is the cat who had cancer. she is my husband's cat, since he always wanted one who chose him, since 2 of our cats are strictly bonded to me, and one will go to both of us. she was the last one, and will be the last one for awhile. as much as i want to help all these other animals, there just isnt anything i can do to help them, because i would not be able to help them at all.


what kills me, is the manager asking us to take her cockatiels. i told her i could look for a home for them for her and let her know if anyone was interested. and she said oh no it's okay, i was just wondering if you wanted them.


like... seriously? so what reason do you have them then??


or whats worse, the questions i get from some people.... one asked if we put our birds in those round hanging cages. and are surprised when we tell them that we can pet them and we let them out of their cages and give them veggies and pellets (they dont know what pellets are, so i have to explain to them, which then gets me going into a long rant on how birds should be cared for...) and then of course, they want to see photo proof. and they are so surprised that they dont fly away from me. they were so amused over photos of the tiels on the harness, they'd never heard of such a thing.


one of them told me they wanted a macaw. once i explained to them the costs alone, they quickly changed their mind once they knew how much it cost to care for one properly.


some people shock me. my area seems to be a very sorry area for pet care, especially for birds.

i seen an ad recently on kijiji, for a cage that was 14" DEEP 21" tall and 28" long. they were claiming it was good for 10 small birds or even a large parrot D: i wanted to call and scream at them for being so stupid.... but it's a losing battle and a waste of energy on deaf ears here.


wayyyy back when i was looking for a new cage for my tiels, a cage suitable for two tiels, someone contacted me about a cage 20"x20"x24" and said it was suitable for two... no thats minimum for one. what killed me, it was the same person i got my male tiel from, the same dang cage she housed THREE in that caused my male tiel to be plucked from his parents.... :headwall:


ignorance astounds me

 

[SoCalWendy]

Well you could look at it as a compliment. I just unloaded my daughters neglected fish to a friend of hers that was looking into getting a fish. It was a win/win situation. And now I don't have to worry about the poor thing anymore.

 

[DallyTsuka]

i get that people see that i love animals, but we just cant do it all D: trust me, at this point, if we had said yes to every animal, we'd have 3 more cats, a gerbil, a hamster, a few rats, a few geckoes, a snake, another lovebird, a few more cockatiels, a dog, and who knows what this co-worker was going to ask us to take (she never got the chance to even tell me what it was lol)


we love animals, but we would not be helping any of them by taking them in, because they would not get the care they deserve, and neither would the ones we already have commitments to.

 

[kq_fan]

I wish I knew how that felt! My dad wont let me get anymore pets but we will just see about that! :sly: I LOVE ALL ANIMALS!!!! My dogs get massaged every day! Cats get groomed every day, bunny gets cuddles, and bird is SPOILED rotten! :54:

 

[MonicaMc]

20 x 20 cage for three cockatiels?????? Wow... they had it made!!!


Someone dropped off *FOUR* cockatiels at my doorstep.... cage was 18 x 18... (granted, it was like 46" tall... but you know how birds can be... they use the top half of the cage and not the bottom half!)


I rehomed two of the tiels from those four, lost one due to health complications, still have the male.... That would be Pistachio. He was the father of the two rehomed, and his mate that had died.

Faye? She was "payment" for house sitting... but really, they didn't want her anymore and were going to give her to me sooner but chose not to.



Out of all of my birds, only one is not a rehome/second hand+ bird. Both my conures I chose to take them. Both came from members of other forums. They were in foster homes with great parronts, so it's not like they came from a bad place, they've just had a previous owner before me. (not that I know how the owners cared for them, but the foster parronts cared for them well!)

 

[DallyTsuka]

yeah, some pets do come from good homes, and those ones make me happy. you can tell when someone really loves a pet, and it hurts when they have to give them up. but its good of you to take in so many that need a second chance

 

[MikeyTN]

I get more calls of people wanting me to take in their conures....I told them no right away as I'm not a conure fan, sorry....Plus I'm full....But I know I'll get suckered in if someone brings me one that desperately needed my help, I'm a sucker for that....I've declined on anymore cats or dogs when people ask me about those too....With all the annual vet bills, meds, flea treatment, food, etc. It's VERY expensive....Hence I'm always working to pay for them....lol

 

[DallyTsuka]

yeah, that's about it for us as well, it's expensive and our budget supports the fids we have now, but won't support more.

 

[MsPony]

Oh yea. Try livin on acreage, in college I lived on a dairy goat ranch, you would wake up and go "oh good morning pony/goat/cow/dog/cat"... That's how I got my cats, they were amazing, one persons trash is another's treasure! We had space, but it's more mouths to feed. When customers complain about $50 for dog food every 2/3 months, I let them know for ONE horse I pay $25/bale (~100#), and he eats 2 a week. I'm in Southern California, we don't have grass here.

Now I say no. I'm topped out with 3 dogs, 9 chickens, 3 turtles/pond, 1 conure and rabbits. That we breed. So it goes from 5-15 at any time, but I like them, so I do always take rabbits in.

 

[Boysmom]

I also have the same problem, why do so many people get pets then think it is OK to pawn them off when the " new " wears off. People should really educate themselves as to the time and care required BEFORE they get the pet !!!!! My house seems to be where all unwanted pets are dropped off. As I have raised 4 sons' my yard is evident that kids live here: balls, play sets, dirt bikes, BBall goal etc, plus they are always out in the yard playing something. We came home one day and found a cage of 2 sugar gliders on our front porch without even as much as a note ! Of course we kept them and my 11 year old adores them, but they do require cage cleaning daily and fresh foods and supplements. Plus I have had to punish my son for staying up all hours of the night playing with them, as they stay in his bedroom. Luckily he is homeschooled so it doesn't cause him to sleep in school and me get calls from the teachers complaining. Just yesterday I had a lady call me trying to get me to take in a conure and a Zon, I had to decline as I recently got Kylie and she needs bonding time. The lady got mad and said how can you not have room, just stick them in a bedroom. UGH, she didn't understand that my pets that I chose to have are my first priority and their happiness and care come first !

Currently we have 1 dog ( lab/ border collie mix that was given to us by a friend as it was the last of the litter )

1 cat ( rescued as it was abandoned by its mother in one of our hay bales and we bottle fed it )

2 sugar gliders ( story above )

1 red eared slider turtle ( my son's 4th birthday gift from me )

2 birds ( Ruby & Kylie )

12 Koi fish

Plus cows in our pasture

Nonetheless to say, I feel I am at capacity for a while !

 

[DallyTsuka]

you got cows?! that must be something lol i love cows!



and boysmom, you said it EXACTLY how i feel about it, how can you get a pet without doing the research, it's like its a new toy they soon grow bored of, and the animal gets treated like an object. i wish so much i had to room and resources to take them in, but 12 is our personal limit. with our erratic work schedule with my shifts all over the place, and my husband working steady midnights, it's hectic enough. but my heart breaks each time i have to say no. because the worst part is knowing that the animal is going to be the one who suffers

 

[MikeyTN]

Sometimes I wanna tell the owner more then what I actually say to them....but I try to be nice about it cause I'm not really evil like that....for example I took in Jorge and Camilla over a year ago, they were skin and bones. I knew right away they weren't getting fed like they should be. I was shocked when I held them in my hands as they were both eager to come to see me when they don't even know me. When I held them I found out why right away when they weighed nothing. They were begging to be fed, that's why they were eager to come out. If I hadn't drove 2 hrs to go pick them up they would be dead in a day or two. They ate none stop once I brought them home. So now they're more sassy then they were which that makes more sense to me. There's so much more I can go on with all my babies...I usually make the previous owner aware of what they've done but I tell them nicely but I get to the point and they catch my drift....