By Samantha Khela
Despite popular belief that birds are “starter pets” and are easy to handle, the reality is that birds are almost as much work as having a dog or cat, if not more! However, if you are able to consider these 7 things before getting a pet bird, you’re in for a long-term commitment with a beautiful, social creature. With parrots, not many have the temperament or patience to handle them. If you are seriously considering a bird to join your family, this article was made for you!
These are the 7 things you should consider before getting a pet bird:
1. Commitment
Many of the exotic birds including conures, cockatiels, etc can have life expectancies of 30-50 years if they are properly cared for. In fact, the most common pet bird (budgies) can live up to 8 years in captivity alone! You need to be prepared to care for your bird for its entire life. Just like dogs and cats, passing birds from home to home is not a good idea for the bird’s wellbeing.
With commitment in mind, consider what your work schedule is like. Most birds should not be left alone for more than 4-5 hours. Whether it is with a human or bird, your pet bird will need to have companionship in order to have a healthy life. You need to consider the behaviour and personality of your bird and be committed to working through any of the issues they may have.
2. Cost
Getting the bird itself may sometimes be cost effective (depending on the type of parrot you decide to get), everything associated with it can be costly. For example, the bird’s cage, its accessories along with vet costs. When adopting/purchasing a bird, the cage is one of the most important factors of its quality of life. A cage must be an adequate size in order to sustain the bird, even if it’s a small species. As a general rule, the larger the bird cage is, the better choice it is. It will give your pet plenty of room to stretch and move around.For some specifies of birds, such as finches, a smaller cage could be adequate. However, medium/larger birds will need a medium/large cage, and sometimes a flight cage if possible.
3. Time
This was mentioned briefly in the Commitment section, but you need to be able to dedicate time to your bird. Be prepared to interact with your parrot on a regular basis. At a minimum, you should be able to spend 3-4 hours with your parrot. On another note, birds are quite messy and as such, will require your time to clean up after them. They toss their food on the floor, shed feathers, spill their water and most commonly, poop all over the place. To maintain the health of your parrot, regular cleaning of the cage and its food/water bowls are necessary. You need to clean all the perches, change the newspaper and do a regular once-a-month deep clean to disinfect the cage.
4. Health Concerns
Birds can have various health issues, and can also give you some health concerns to think about. For example, most birds shed feather dust or dander, which can irritate people with asthma or respiratory disorders. As a solution, you could have an air purifier in your home to mitigate this. This will help keep the air fresh and dust-free. You can also minimize the effect of feather dust by encouraging bathing. But once again, you need to be positive that you can commit to making these changes in your lifestyle. All this will take time and money.
Some species of parrot don’t have feather down, so perhaps doing some research will help decide what parrot is right for you.
5. Noise
If you enjoy several hours of quiet, a bird may not be the best pet for you. For the most part, all parrots are quite vocal and can be chatty during the daytime. Parrot love to shriek, scream, whistle, talk and mimic others. The noise could potentially irritate your neighbours (if you’re in a condo or apartment) and could cause issues with your landlord or condo management.
Birds especially enjoy talking in the morning and afternoons, and even in the evenings sometimes. A quick solution would be to cage them and cover the cage with a cover or blanket, but then your bird would have long periods in the dark trapped in their cage and you don’t want that for your bird all the time! Schedule outside cage time and midday sleeps in the cage so that your bird will have a good balance.
Before investing in a bird, be sure you are willing to handle the noise.
6. Other Pets & Children
Generally, having birds and other pets cohabitate is not the best idea. So you will need to be willing to keep your bird away from other household animals. Cats and dogs can harm or kill your bird, even in play. In addition a cat’s claws and mouth contains a bacteria called Pasteurella, which can cause infection or death in a bird. Other pets such as ferrets, snakes and other exotic pets carry similar bacteria that can threaten your bird’s health. Pet mice or rats are known disease carriers and must be kept away from your bird.
Birds are also not good with young children. Birds tend to be startled by the loud noise and could potentially get crushed in a child’s hands. This can cause them to become aggressive or defensive.
7. Your Patience Level
Unlike cats and dogs, they are not genetically programmed to bond with humans, so creating a bond with them will take time and patience. As a general rule, if you take good care of your bird and treat it with love and respect, the bird will return these feelings. However, this is not guaranteed and you must be prepared to accept a socially distant bird. Every parrot has a unique personality and it’s ultimately up to them to decide who they like (and they can be picky!) They may act hostile towards a person simply because they don’t like the way they sound. You may spend a lot of time with them, but they may decide to really lavish and bond with someone who doesn’t spend any time with them, and that’s “just because”. In this case, the rejection may be emotionally triggering for you. So long as you give love and respect to your bird no matter what, they may turn around!
Related Article: Selecting the right bird species for your lifestyle
