Ohh, I love taking Merlin out. Absolutely love it.
My parents are smokers, as are my boyfriends parents and they get to touch Merlin. They do not smoke around him, either they wait or I leave the room etc. I realise they will still have nicotine on their hands, but as he is never really touching their hands, then I'm not too worried. Merlin gets sprayed with his aloe vera, anti itch, anti irritant spray etc, aswell. So we work like that.
I know I might get a lot of stick about this, but he's my bird and we ensure his safety as best as we can with what we have. My parents are not going to stop smoking in their own house, or going to wash their hands after each cigarette - they will be more cautious though. Merlin so far has not shown any signs of any negative affects and my parents (especially my dad!) spoil him rotten, buying in his favourite foods etc. I think there is a fine line between swaddling in cotton wool and being a cautious parent.
Also, Merlin comes to the pub with us when back in our home town. Lots of people, especially the children want to meet him. We generally have him out of his travel cage when in the pub (unless we're preoccupied, eating, playing pool etc.) and so we will let the kids 'hold' merlin on their shoulders, have a picture taken etc. (Merlin is much better behaved on shoulders than he is on fingers because of his dicky leg, more balance means less beaking and biting!)
He also has a habit of flying over to some unsuspecting punter at the bar and then wolf whistling as he lands. We have to be cautious obviously as some people may not like it, but we usually make it clear we'll be letting him out and so far noone has had an issue.
We also wouldn't do this unless the pub had 'double doors', you have to open one set, minor corridor and then the main doors to get out. Too many people coming in and out of pubs for us to keep our eyes constantly focused on Merlin and the doors, so this double door thing is great.
Merlin absolutely loves the limelight, he loves people fussing over him and he loves the landlady too. She used to have a parrot and so she isn't at all fussed with him biting if he does, shes very confident with him and he loves that. Merlin lets us know when it gets a bit too much or if too many people are flocking to meet him, we will cage him and cover him a little so people know to back off and let him rest as "he's tired and gets cranky". When everyone (and him!) have calmed down, then we'll let him come and 'play out' again.
Birds are social animals, you will get the odd bad person trying to man handle them or something which you have to be stern and tell them that it's not okay, they will get bitten etc. I get plenty more good people vs bad when Merlin is about, most are obviously interested as they don't get to see parrots often! So theyre just curious about him, does he talk? does he bite a lot? is he good company? are they hard to keep?
I usually put most people off getting parrots but I think it's important people get to see and socialise with Merlin. Quite a lot of people have a "friend who's got a big green/grey parrot" etc and when they see how we interact with Merlin, the usually clock on that their friend needs to be doing more. It's almost like a show and tell education class when we bring Merlin out. My dad always asks me if it gets annoying having to stop for every 3rd person or so, but I think it's great for everyone involved, they get educated, they all get some fun out of it - and best of all, Merlin is not fearful of new people or new situations as he's in them all the time!
So yeah, as I mentioned before I think it's a fine line between being overly cautious and being reasonable. I've had people being bitten by Merin before, but they've been warned and so they will be all "ow, that really hurt!" they generally laugh a little too because I told them so.
Nobody touches my parrot without forewarning/permission and I'm not afraid to move him away or block the person from getting near him. Fortunately, most people DO ask before trying.
Bit of a ramble, but yeah. I think people should take their parrots out if possible, I think they get so much benefit from it that it's worth all the drama that comes with it.
