I had to get this off my chest!

[HannahandSunny]

This goes for all animals sadly. People getting hamsters, guinea pigs as they’ll be ‘easier, cheaper and require smaller space and attention’. This makes me SO angry, People just don’t realise that ALL animals have a soul and they’re own special requirements, lots of space, time and money!! Just because they’re small doesn’t mean they should be stuck in a tiny wire cage all their life!!

 

[18WheelsOfSteel]

I don't have any real problem with the general idea of someone making money as a breeder, after all how else are they supposed to maintain the business, feed their families, get their children into extracurricular activities, like sports and music, retire, or buy Christmas gifts. This is not to say at all that I condone the I'll treatment of birds, any birds which are kept as pets, but if it weren't for stores like Petco/PetSmart and other big box stores I would not be able to responsibly keep my budgies, because getting them toys, food and treats could not be guaranteed. I agree that they could do a deal more in preparing people for pet ownership, but at the end of the day people must be responsible for their own behavior and actions, you can put any adoption requirements you want in place and someone somewhere will convince themselves to jump through those hoops and still lose interest/mistreat a bird down the line. Bad treatment of birds is a shameful thing, but it is the fault of the irresponsible people who do it, not the breeders fault unless they had some reason or way of knowing it would be like that.

 

[GaleriaGila]

The Rickeybird says you are OKAY in his book, Mr. OfOrLikeALizard!

 

[Aspie_Aviphile]

90% of the time when you listen to the rest of what the speaker or writer has to say, it becomes apparent that they are using "beginner bird" as shorthand for "bird suitable for beginners", I.e. "bird at least risk from and to people who have never lived with a bird". Not "bird whose only value as a pet is to prepare you for desired future birds". But as it seems many enthusiasts and advocates interpret it the latter way, I agree it's a term that should be avoided to ensure that no curious novices also think they're being told those species are poor pet material and encouraged to obtain them purely as training material.

The real intention when you read on is the opposite, to advise novices that the "beginner birds" are the most likely to be good pet material for them and other birds are actually poor pet quality to all but a few people because if you make common rookie mistakes with budgies etc at least you won't lose your hearing, your relationship with neighbours, your tenancy, your children's fingers, or part of your face; and at least they are less likely to spend the rest of their lives either plucking or biting or untamable than if you got the same things wrong with a less sensitive, less jealous or more genetically domesticated species.

 

[Ezekiell]

I agree that educating potential new ‘novice’ bird owners is important for the welfare of the potential new flock member. But I wouldn’t want anyone to encourage me to get a budgie or a cockatiel simply because they are a more forgiving species for a novice owner purely because the characteristics of these birds may not actually fit my lifestyle, needs or preferences.

I had aviary birds when very young and helped care for a schools budgie for a year when a late teenager, but my family never allowed me to keep parrots as they hold the belief parrots are the rats of the sky (whole other issue there). Since moving out into my own home with my partner, I did my research into a suitable companion. In so doing my research ‘suitable beginner’ birds such as budgies and cockatiels I dismissed very quickly due to their sounds driving me bananas and my asthma being sensitive to powder down/dust. I was actually looking at Ekkie’s, sun conures, and caiques because of their sounds and my need to breathe properly, plus these species were far more attractive to me for other reasons of my lifestyle.
This was despite heaps of well meaning bird enthusiasts all but jumping down my throat telling me to get a ‘more suitable novice’ bird because ekkies are high maintenance, suns are too loud, and caiques aren’t forgiving of mistakes (to name some reasons. The pressure to just get a budgie or a cockatiel because I’d never formally owned parrots before was immense, frustrating, and quite aggravating to me. In comparison, those few borders who simply encouraged me to do more species research and offered up their own experiences with my preferred species and bird care in general I found far more helpful and I was far more appreciative of their comments.
The end result is we got Māui; a hyperactive, cheeky, friendly soul who after 2 days being home has already ‘punished’ me by refusing to let me scritch his neck, yelled at me, and given my fingers (and ear) numerous warning chomps for ***king up (***k ups include him getting spooked by new environment and being taken to the CAV and having a microchip jabbed into him lol). Nevertheless, he’s been asking for training and wanting to engage in the typical stubborn caique way and is absolutely perfect for our home due to being relatively quiet and powder down free.

The point I’m trying to make is that telling propestive new owner to seriously consider and get a suitable bird for them is great, but you also have to consider that a suitable bird might actually be something other than the forgiving budgie/cockatiel. Hence it’s very important (and more pleasant for the prospective owner) to really encourage the person to research their preferred species to determine for themselves if that species would be a good companion.

 

[18WheelsOfSteel]

See, and I consider caiques far more obnoxious on the noise front than budgies who I have learned to find a soothing and happy noise, guess we are all different, good thing too, wouldn't be much to talk about otherwise.