Well, I have few experiences :
My grandma always asks me why my budgies have a cage or tells me if she were a bird she would die of sadness living in a cage. Sometimes she watches my youngest parrot (Perlita) and tells me to give her guavas, like a wild parrot would eat. In Mexico, Amazona albifrons parrots like Perlita are known as "guava-eaters" (cotorros guayaberos). But Perlita dislikes guavas! As a joke I tell my grandma "well... you've just known a guava-eater-parrot which hates eating guavas".
During a night watch, one of my colleagues was talking about her dog; after some time she asked if I had any pets, so I told her I have 2 parrots and 2 budgies. She seemed genuinely surprised and told me parrots were very smart and she would love to have a conversation with a talking-bird.
On the other hand, I heard my sister's fiancé asked my sister, while visiting my husband and I's home, why would someone would like birds as pets because "birds are dumb and boring like chickens".
When I was a child, my first parrot died. My dad helped me to bury him in the backyard. Some days later, a boy who used to ask for work (paint, sweep the street, take out garbage, buy groceries, etc.) to earn some money noticed the empty cage. He asked what had happened to the parrot and my mom said the parrot died. The boy asked where the parrot was and my mom answered it was buried. The boy said "oh, too bad... if I had come earlier my mom could have cooked it".
((((" and thankfully I don't have my comments available to anyone who isn't friends on TT so I don't have to lose more braincells over their stupidity. my grandparents thankfully love seeing him fly around when they visit and they don't criticize me for my choice. and they enjoy the occasional video from my mom haha
