I thought my dog had eaten one of my new birds

[lene1949]

I bought my 2 new conures on Thursday... Friday I had off, and today I went to work for 12 hours...

Before I left for work I settled all the animals in the loungeroom... Ben, Great Dane, on his $2000 leather couch, Max, Alexandrine, at the window, and the two conures near the book shelf.

When I came home only one of the conures were in the cage! Looking up, I found the female on top.. She had gotten out sometime during the day! This could have been a disaster...

I have not yet handled the conures, and trying to get the female to step up didn't work, so I had to grab her to get her back into the cage... She screamed her little head off and bit me (I didn't expect anything less).. After she was back in the cage, she bent her head for a scratch.

I'm pretty sure she got out in the same place the rat, who killed Shrek, got in... I have now modified the cage with cable ties, tying the grate up close.

 

[Remy]

Scary! I'm glad she's okay. Definitely make that space smaller...

 

[roxynoodle]

I'm glad everything is ok!

 

[BillsBirds]

Our birds definetly are escape artists! If there's a way, they'll find it. Glad everything is okay.

 

[Mamanda]

That's really frightening! So glad no one was injured.

 

[Kiwidget]

How scary, I'm glad your bird is okay! My husband and I have started recording our living room whenever we aren't around, to see who the potential bird offenders are in our house. We have two cats and two dogs, so if any of them are messing with the birds we will know who it is.

 

[lene1949]

Leaving for work this morning for another 12 hour shift, I noticed the male on the grate, trying to find a way out...

Maybe he got out, enticed the female out.. Maybe he could find his way back inside, and she couldn't??? Cheeky things...

I had a rat like that once... I had 3 males in a cage, and sometimes at night, when I had to go to the toilet, I saw the smallest one on top of the cage... I reckon he had months of free range time at night, until I caught him... and in the morning he would innocently sit in his cage, waiting for brekky... lol

 

[roxynoodle]

When I was a kid I had a hamster that did that. He was leaving his cage, wandering around and then would be back in the cage by morning. I only figured it out because things from my bedroom kept turning up in his cage, lol!

I hope you can keep your escape artists in and safe.

 

[lene1949]

They were both in the cage, when I got home last night... Thank goodness for cable ties... lol

 

[roxynoodle]

That's good to hear

 

[pagie]

Hey I'm a bit late on this post but just have to say I put jimmy in his cage one day outside, in well fenced courtyard, cage doors all locked etc, came home 2 hours later to find him sitting on the fence on the street side, squawking up a racket. I almost died at the time and then relived it over and over for next month or so. He had worked out how to undo the d clip I had on his cage door. He had already escaped his cage numerous times but i thought i had foiled his attempts . He is now fully locked in his cage when we are not around. Am hyperventilating now just reliving it.... I can laugh though now, thank goodness we live in an isolated dead end quiet street, lots of cats though gulp.

 

[roxynoodle]

Hey I'm a bit late on this post but just have to say I put jimmy in his cage one day outside, in well fenced courtyard, cage doors all locked etc, came home 2 hours later to find him sitting on the fence on the street side, squawking up a racket. I almost died at the time and then relived it over and over for next month or so. He had worked out how to undo the d clip I had on his cage door. He had already escaped his cage numerous times but i thought i had foiled his attempts . He is now fully locked in his cage when we are not around. Am hyperventilating now just reliving it.... I can laugh though now, thank goodness we live in an isolated dead end quiet street, lots of cats though gulp.

I'm glad it all turned out ok!

 

[lene1949]

Hey I'm a bit late on this post but just have to say I put jimmy in his cage one day outside, in well fenced courtyard, cage doors all locked etc, came home 2 hours later to find him sitting on the fence on the street side, squawking up a racket. I almost died at the time and then relived it over and over for next month or so. He had worked out how to undo the d clip I had on his cage door. He had already escaped his cage numerous times but i thought i had foiled his attempts . He is now fully locked in his cage when we are not around. Am hyperventilating now just reliving it.... I can laugh though now, thank goodness we live in an isolated dead end quiet street, lots of cats though gulp.

OMG... that must have been awfully scary... Glad it all turned out OK...

 

[KIWI264]

Wait, did you say your rat killed your bird?? should I not have my rats in the same room as my birds

 

[pagie]

Was scary but makes you realize that when bird on a mission they will succeed unless you have thought of all possible things to stop them, a lot of determination in small feathery bundles

 

[lene1949]

Wait, did you say your rat killed your bird?? should I not have my rats in the same room as my birds

No, I did have rats many years ago, but this one was a wild rat, who somehow got inside... Of course if Shrek, wasn't used to rats, he probably wouldn't even have gone down to challenge it.

I always had my rats and birds in the same room, but they were never out together...

We had a huge flood last year, and the rats ran for higher ground....

I just can't think of any other reason, why Shrek was so injured.. It must have been a rat!

 

[roxynoodle]

I used to have a pet rat and a budgie and they liked each other.

If I were to guess, that wild rat survived this flood, got to a safe place and was starving. It found food in the bird's cage, and wanted it very badly. And the bird defended it's cage. Quakers, and conures, too, can be very territorial about their cages. And as Lene speculates, her bird would not have been afraid of a rat. Shrek probably thought he could run that rat off pretty easily, but the rat said heck no, dude, I'm getting this food or else. It's probably not a situation you would get with a tame pet rat. Still, you always have to be careful letting animals of any kind interact with each other.