disgusting

[Owlet]

[rant]


Despite better judgement I keep going back to those darn Facebook groups.

Someone posted a picture of a baby eclectus they bred and are selling... the cage was filthy.... I commented on it and now everyone is raging at me and poster is complaining "If I posted a cage I just cleaned they would still say I hadn't cleaned it in days" this was like months of filth, how do you even let a cage get this messy especially when you're BREEDING birds.

how does a rope get THAT crusty and dirty. Like I admit I don't do the best on cleaning Lincoln's cage, sometimes it'll go up to 2 or 3 weeks without being cleaned but it never gets THAT dirty. Not even CLOSE. Perches especially.

I work at a bird shop, we clean almost ALL the cages daily. Exception being our breeder birds as we don't wanna stress them out too much but they still get done twice a week. None of them EVER get as filthy as in that picture. I know I'm only seeing one corner of the cage but the rope is covered in filth and you cannot see a spot on the bottom that is not covered in poop. how do you imagine the rest of the cage looks? I pity anyone who buys from this breeder.

All I said was "hey you should clean the rope and bottom they look pretty crusty" and now everyone is mad, they deleted my post, are moping, and now there's like 10 separate posts about not being a b**** and commenting stuff and specifically referring to my comment. WTH

 

[Scott]

Ugh, that rope perch needed to be changed long ago. Lower bars and grate not well cared for either.

Sadly, standards vary wildly. I have made occasional comments on a bird-related FB page and the deluge can be massive and cruel. My FB participation with one exception is limited to closed private pages with cooperative members.

 

[Laurasea]

Owlet, for what it's worth I applaud you speaking up, and speaking the truth. None of my perches have looked like that, even after years of use, and me not wiping them down that often...
With hand feeding and babies cleaning their beaks off on it, it needs to be clean. Or there is a big risk of bacteria and yeast just growing all over that!!!!! Probably the cage is to small, with out enough perches...
Once again it takes courage to speak up, and you are brave to do so. It also works best when tact is used. On a good day, I might say. What a beautiful baby! I worry with how messy babies are, that the rope perch will be a growing ground for bacteria. Have you tried vinegar diluted in water to break down the fecal matter crusted on the cage floor? It works wonders for me.....

 

[texsize]

Based on the diameter of the bars I would agree that the cage is probably too small to boot.
Of all things that need to be kept clean, next to food/water dishes perches are of utmost importance.

 

[Laurasea]

It's easy to become blind to something you see every day. They my not know they could soak the rope perches in vinegar and water and a drop of dawn soap, rinse, then throw it in the dryer on air fluff, and have it back in the cage in an hour.
But it's definitely just a numbers game , until a baby gets a crop infection from that yuck!

 

[ChristaNL]

FB-people are scary.
I have issues with this 'everything should be smelling of roses and producing rainbows and everybody who says anything different gets attacked and banned'


You made a valid point: that is a crappy cage!


Mine are also in need of deepcleaning (the moment I can bend over long enough they will get done propperly) but anyone can put in a clean perch!

 

[Squeekmouse]

Holy crap, that was ROPE?? I thought it was a branch.... ICK!

I'm glad you spoke up also.

 

[RavensGryf]

Omg, that is bad. When I get lazy and don’t clean the birds as often as I should, I think it’s disgusting, but wow, don’t worry it never is close to that bad! You can’t even see the bars or the color of the rope there! I’ve never seen something like that. That’s like the pics you see when they raid hoarders.

I don’t like FB. I’m surprised anyone got mad at you for saying that. In my limited experience on FB groups, it’s basically a platform for people to just spew sentences out and tell it like it is without any regard to politeness. It’s not a place for people who are easily offended. I see debating and mild arguing going on all the time, and people accept it and just answer back in the same rude or very matter of fact way, without any regard to politeness. It was like culture shock when my dog’s breeder got me started in a group. I was like whoa this isn’t like the forums I’m used to!

 

[LaManuka]

I haven’t had a rope perch in many years, not since one of my guys caught a claw in one that was only relatively new. Fortunately I was home and helped unhook him, and I got rid of the perch immediately. As for cleanliness/maintenance issues ... yuck!

 

[Owlet]

Omg, that is bad. When I get lazy and don’t clean the birds as often as I should, I think it’s disgusting, but wow, don’t worry it never is close to that bad! You can’t even see the bars or the color of the rope there! I’ve never seen something like that. That’s like the pics you see when they raid hoarders.

I don’t like FB. I’m surprised anyone got mad at you for saying that. In my limited experience on FB groups, it’s basically a platform for people to just spew sentences out and tell it like it is without any regard to politeness. It’s not a place for people who are easily offended. I see debating and mild arguing going on all the time, and people accept it and just answer back in the same rude or very matter of fact way, without any regard to politeness. It was like culture shock when my dog’s breeder got me started in a group. I was like whoa this isn’t like the forums I’m used to!

Recently I saw a photoset of a puppy mill from japan where there are no rules against it. The pictures were bad, but honestly that weren't even as dirty as this cage is ><

 

[Flboy]

Very good! There is one Facebook page that is for emergency care of parrots, and someone posted that their parrot’s breath smelled like sour milk! I then replied back that there was a good chance that they had a sour crop! The moderator then criticized me for making wild guesses and putting peoples pets in danger and then she replied to the original poster, that the bird has a sour crop!

 

[mrs.pants]

god this is so gross! it took me a moment to realize that's the same rope that we have only ours like...isn't a solid pooblock! i feel bad when i dont spot-clean immediately look at this!

its terrible you can't report people for this kind of thing. when i worked at a salon this one woman (a backyard breeder) used to bring in her shih tzus matted and dirty with icky bums and uck...she came in like once a year and you could tell her dogs never got any brushing or washing it was disgusting. but we couldn't do anything cause she wasn't "hitting" the dogs they were just dirty. smdh.

 

[RavensGryf]

Recently I saw a photoset of a puppy mill from japan where there are no rules against it. The pictures were bad, but honestly that weren't even as dirty as this cage is ><

I’ve been to Japan before, and it’s actually a very clean country with more respect for pets than in many other places. But I’m sure there are mills in every corner of the world. I wish mills were stopped everywhere, but the problem is too great worldwide to totally eradicate. Even though the word is out about it, people will still keep buying from pet shops to keep mills in business. Keep the vets in business too.

god this is so gross! it took me a moment to realize that's the same rope that we have only ours like...isn't a solid pooblock! i feel bad when i dont spot-clean immediately look at this!

its terrible you can't report people for this kind of thing. when i worked at a salon this one woman (a backyard breeder) used to bring in her shih tzus matted and dirty with icky bums and uck...she came in like once a year and you could tell her dogs never got any brushing or washing it was disgusting. but we couldn't do anything cause she wasn't "hitting" the dogs they were just dirty. smdh.

I used to spot clean immediately when I had less birds. Now I’m just sick of doing it lol!

Eww, that woman’s dogs sounds like a health hazard! Especially if the salon served any food items. How the owner couldn’t see the grossness is amazing.

 

[ParrotGenie]

This is how crop and other infections happen. That upsetting to see. Agree it been way longer then they claimed for the cage to be that dirty and is undersized. That rope seen better days and needed to be cleaned, or replaced months ago.

 

[Owlet]

Digging this up because my friend just sent me some pictures from some place he visited, a garden or something, not entirely sure. He asked the owners about the care and they thought they were doing just fine....

(sorry theyre sideways)

What I've noticed:
- GREEN WATER
- Doesn't look like there's even any substrate, just tossed food, poop, and feathers.
- Seed mix that appears to be primarily (if not entirely) corn and sunflower seeds.
- Almost all male, females died? eggbinding due to poor diet? (Assumption..) I can only spot one potential female, in the 2nd cage, and shes not looking well (top right 2nd bird back, the pearled one)
- 2nd cage doesn't even have enough perch space for all the birds
- 1st cage isn't much better.
- Green water?????
- Little to no toys (1 visible in each cage)
- f***ing GREEN WATER


How can anyone think this is even moderately good? GREEN WATER

 

[bug_n_flock]

Oh my god.




I'm not even on Facebook anymore. No data for it now, and it was too much drama previously. I had never been in a parrot group, but I was in all sorts of reptile groups and there is a fair bit of overlap there. I was always disappointed and disgusted by what I saw.. In fact, this forum was and is the only exposure I have had directly to the online aviculture community. I see I am not missing anything what so ever.



It is amazing what people think is fine for birds. Amazing, but in a bad way. That is nothing new, though. When I was younger and had a tv, I would sometimes watch those animal police shows.. if it wasn't a fighting (edit)rooster(that confuses me. it is a bird forum and that is the term for an adult male bird lol) or an emu, the conditions didn't matter, the birds were *never* siezed. Even if the cops were removing 300 dogs, 600 cats, and dead animals from the property. Parrots were *never* siezed. Sigh.

 

[Amsterdam]

İ wish everybody cares about birds the same you did

 

[Owlet]

I mean, yeah I care about birds a lot. But this is just gross negligence. The problem is, they don't care AT ALL.

 

[munami]

People are awful and indignant when they're being told they're wrong. Any social media proves this twice over. Honestly, you did the right thing Owlet, they won't learn if no one tells them. It's their choice if they want to actually improve themselves though. Unfortunately, there's not much else you can do. It's terrible that the animal has to suffer because of it. I hope they learn.

 

[PiccoloSauce]

Parrots are never not messy animals, and that’s true almost no matter what!