Having a bird & living with flatmates/roommates

[padawan]

Hi guys!

Just seeking a little bit of advice on perhaps having a parrot while living with flatmates. Do any of you do this and have you set down any ground rules, for example, please don't feed my bird random things, don't tease her, don't take her out of her cage, and so on... I am looking into getting an Alexandrine parrot and was wondering if there were other people who had parrots, but were still flatting/living with roommates. How do you manage it?

We actually have a budgie right now, but there has been a bit of disagreement over him (my other flatmates insist he is 'our' budgie but they have not changed his newspaper in 3 weeks and I'm secretly feeding him as they don't bother to...) but that's a story for another time

Looking forward to all your input!

 

[Featheredsamurai]

I live at home still, but do have rules. My nieces aren't allowed in my room when I'm not home, my door must remained closed, Rosie cannot be taken out of my room by the people she likes and much more. Rosie is also fully flighted so I want to always supervise her when she is out.

When you say the newspaper hasn't been changed in 3 weeks do you mean no one has done it at all? And why do you need to secretly feed the budgie? Just feed him!
I will only move out with people I have a lot of trust in. I won't allow any harm to come to Rosie or Kinji because of someone who doesn't have the same respect that I do.

Do you trust your flat mates with a potential alexandrine?

 

[padawan]

Thanks for your quick reply! Those are good ground rules.

It's a ridiculously complicated situation, but I have actually asked these particular flatmates to leave (for reasons related to the budgie amongst other things), and was hoping to get the Alexandrine after they left. Basically the budgie was adopted from a friend to be our flat budgie - he was given to all of us. I like to do my research on animals so I looked up heaps of things like how frequently to change food/water/newspaper etc (I think this is a common sense thing to do with any animal). For a while I was the only one feeding him, changing his water, and changing his newspaper. After noticing that it was only me doing this, and that they were smoking around him, AND that they got makeup on him, I had a talk to them about whether we should actually have him if they were going to treat him like this.
It came down to that they thought it was ridiculous that I was telling them that I felt they were being neglectful and that "It's OUR bird! He is just fine!" So I have decided to see how well they will take care of him without me doing it. I'm secretly feeding him/changing his water because they do not bother to do so and I frankly don't want our budgie to die because of their neglectfulness. We ran out of food 2 weeks ago, and no one has done anything about it, except for me. It's a really complicated and frankly ridiculous situation.

 

[Featheredsamurai]

That sucks I hope they leave then, they don't care about your bird and only think of him as intertainment. He is your bird, because you're the only one who thinks of him as a companion. They are absolutley neglectful, and smoking! How terrible! I'm so happy you are an animal lover who researches.

 

[padawan]

Thanks for your kind words! Yeah, it was obvious to me really early on that he was only liked for the novelty/cute factor. It's only common sense to do research, in my opinion. If someone can't be bothered, they probably don't deserve one. Your galah is gorgeous by the way!

 

[Featheredsamurai]

I hope you get to have a alexandrine at some point. A lot of people have them on the forum and absolutely love them. Thankyou! Rosie is a fantastic galah, I could never imagine one better

 

[NiR]

I have 2 roommates. I have a budgie and also just got a Senegal parrot. We are all respectful of each ores stuff. My birds are in my room and no one goes in my room. When I am home my roommates can handle them if they want. We have enough respect for each other that I trust them with my bird. 1 roommate doesn't like birds so he just stays away. The other plays with him if I am also there but usually just doesn't do anything. So just keep your bird in your room . Also if you paid for the birds then it's yours. It would be pretty retarded to split th price of the birds and share them. So make sure the owner of the bird is solely you.

 

[MonicaMc]

If I was in your situation, I would rethink having a bird inside the house if they are smoking inside the home. I would also consider rehoming the budgie, but that's just me.


I kind of live in two homes at the moment. I have my house that I'm buying (or I'm supposed to be... can't get a loan yet to actually put it in my name, but I've been paying the mortgage) where my mother and my sisters family live. It's also where my pets (birds, cat and a dog) are. No cats or dogs are allowed in the bird room, I don't like strangers in the bird room, and my nephew (2 years old) can't be in there alone. After watching him with the cats, I do not trust him to interact with the birds. He's also decided that bird cages are FUN!!!!!! Something that I doubt the birds would find amusing... he's taken to climbing beneath the cages, which can rattle the cage and upset the birds. Hardly anyone in my family is actually interested in handling the birds, or if they are, it's for an extremely short period of time and in very rare circumstances.

Then there is my other "home" where my SO lives, and his roommates. It's a small place and has a "No Pets" policy. I have spoken with the owner of the home, and she has "okayed" caged animals and *maybe* cats. Dogs are definitely a big no-no however. Considering the place, and how I'm sure my mother would not want to separate the cats (my cat and her cat are brother and sister), I didn't think I could move the furred critters. As far as the birds go, well 3 of the roommates and my SO are fine with it, but another one is iffy about it - and so am I. Apparently the one who's iffy about it may be allergic to birds (which could be an issue for my cockatiels), and one of my birds is pretty loud. My birds typically go to sleep with the sun and wake with the sun, but everyone at this other house are often awake until midnight or after, sometimes two of them don't even go to sleep at night. I worry that this inconsistency with being asleep or awake would cause everyone (humans and birds) more stress than not... so I haven't moved them. Well, I haven't moved myself, since most of my stuff is still at my house, but I've been spending more time at my SO's home. If my SO's place was larger, I would definitely move out of my place!

 

[padawan]

If I was in your situation, I would rethink having a bird inside the house if they are smoking inside the home. I would also consider rehoming the budgie, but that's just me.

I'm rehoming my flatmates instead

 

[MonicaMc]

That works, too! LOL

I can't move my birds as I have found that some of the cooking appliances do have Dupont's Teflon coating (not just PTFE, but Teflon specifically) on them, and until those pans are replaced, I wont bring my birds over. (except for one, none of the people at this house smoke or drink, and the one who does can't due to a lack of funds, so other than the pans, it's pretty "bird friendly" as far as places go)



Anyway, I hope none of your flatmates try taking the budgie, so you can keep him and get an alex, too!!!!