Aussie Ben
New member
So you think your house is ‘Bird Safe’? Think again….
So this morning I had one of the most frightening, adrenalin pumping, outright scary moments that I have ever experienced.
I have had Buddy my tiel for 7 years, 6 of which she has been fully flighted. I had ‘bird proofed’ my house (at least I thought I did) to the point where I was comfortable with her flying in any room. Sharps were out of reach, toxic chemicals were placed away in cupboards and breakable items removed from shelves etc. I have never had a problem with here getting into trouble with flying all these years until today…
So let me just explain the layout of our kitchen. Firstly, we have a fairly open living area where kitchen, lounge and games are all one big area. Both my birds live in this area and do their flying in it. We have inbuilt wooden cupboards that extend from the floor to about a foot short of the roof. The have spaces left where the oven, microwave and fridge all slide in and sit flush with the front of the cupboard. A few years ago when I first got Eddie (my Ekkie) he flew over the top of this cupboard and fell down a ventilation gap behind the oven. He fell about 2-3 feet and landed on the top of where the oven was. Luckily this gap didn’t extend all the way to the floor, so I was able to jump up on the bench and reach down to him. So this was one gap and danger that I had been made aware of. HOWEVER I never realised there was another gap on the other side of the kitchen where the fridge was. This gap is not very wide and is hard to see, so I never noticed it. It extends all the way down to the fridge and then there is a gap behind the fridge, so effectively you have a small gap that extends all the way to the floor.
So this is what happened. I was giving Buddy her morning exercise by encouraging her to do laps of the room like usual. She did 2 laps, came back to me, did another 2 laps came back to me. Then she got real excited and did a really fast lap and got a bit spooked and came off her usual flight path and flew over and landed on the cupboard top. There is a rim around the top so you can’t see. Me thinking there was no gap there, I just hopped up on a chair to go and pick her up – no worries right? But when I look over the top of the cupboard WHERE IS MY BIRD! I look over and there is a long skinny gap that I assume she must have fallen down. The cupboard is too deep to lean over and see down, so now I am starting to panic. I ask my sister to stay near the cupboard while I went to the shed to get the ladder so I could get high enough to see over. We could hear Buddy chirping for help. I bring the ladder in and set it up, climb up (btw I am moving so fast at this point I doubt you would have been able to see me) I lean over expecting the layout of this cabinet to be the same as the gap behind the oven, and I would just be able to reach down and pick her up. BUT to my horror I see that this gap falls all the way down behind the fridge to the floor. OMG OMG, there is my little Buddy wedged in a 3-4 inch wide gap behind the fridge that extends all the way from roof to floor. And of course behind the fridge is a very warm place so I am worried not only for her being stuck, but I also know I have limited time to get her out before she over heats or hurts herself. My only option is to pull the fully loaded fridge out from the wall. So in my rush to pull the fridge out I manage to tilt the whole thing forward to the point where it hits the cupboard that sits over top. NOW I can’t put the fridge back down as I fear I will crush her if she has moved underneath. The fridge is very heavy and I can’t get a good grip on it so I swing the door open so I can use it for leverage. So I continued to use all my might to pull this fridge out, trying not to crush my baby. Quite a few bottles and containers are falling out while I am doing this, It is hot behind the fridge so I had no time to empty everything out, I just had to pull as hard as I could, they only thing I cared about was getting her out of there. FINALLY the fridge came clear of the cupboard and Buddy flew out at lighting speed and came and landed on me. I gave her the biggest and longest cuddle ever, I was shaking so much I couldn’t stand up. You really don’t realise how much you love something until it is put at risk.
The point of telling you all this, is that you just never know what dangers lurk in your house. It was my own stupidity and ignorance that nearly ended my birds life today, she could have overheated, broken bones from her fall or been crushed to death when I was pulling out the fridge. SO PLEASE PLEASE check your house again to make sure it is safe, and then when you are 100% sure CHECK AGAIN! I don’t care if you have had flighted birds for 50 minutes or 50 years, anything can happen. I had Buddy flighted for 6 years and never had a problem until now, you just never know.
I think Buddy is okay, she was a little frazzled, but she ate her breakfast (Which of course after this morning was all her favourite foods) and is now chirping away. My biggest concern is the dust she may have inhaled as it is very dusty behind the fridge. I will be keeping a close eye.
I am currently making a grate that goes over the top of this gap so this never happens again.
So this morning I had one of the most frightening, adrenalin pumping, outright scary moments that I have ever experienced.
I have had Buddy my tiel for 7 years, 6 of which she has been fully flighted. I had ‘bird proofed’ my house (at least I thought I did) to the point where I was comfortable with her flying in any room. Sharps were out of reach, toxic chemicals were placed away in cupboards and breakable items removed from shelves etc. I have never had a problem with here getting into trouble with flying all these years until today…
So let me just explain the layout of our kitchen. Firstly, we have a fairly open living area where kitchen, lounge and games are all one big area. Both my birds live in this area and do their flying in it. We have inbuilt wooden cupboards that extend from the floor to about a foot short of the roof. The have spaces left where the oven, microwave and fridge all slide in and sit flush with the front of the cupboard. A few years ago when I first got Eddie (my Ekkie) he flew over the top of this cupboard and fell down a ventilation gap behind the oven. He fell about 2-3 feet and landed on the top of where the oven was. Luckily this gap didn’t extend all the way to the floor, so I was able to jump up on the bench and reach down to him. So this was one gap and danger that I had been made aware of. HOWEVER I never realised there was another gap on the other side of the kitchen where the fridge was. This gap is not very wide and is hard to see, so I never noticed it. It extends all the way down to the fridge and then there is a gap behind the fridge, so effectively you have a small gap that extends all the way to the floor.
So this is what happened. I was giving Buddy her morning exercise by encouraging her to do laps of the room like usual. She did 2 laps, came back to me, did another 2 laps came back to me. Then she got real excited and did a really fast lap and got a bit spooked and came off her usual flight path and flew over and landed on the cupboard top. There is a rim around the top so you can’t see. Me thinking there was no gap there, I just hopped up on a chair to go and pick her up – no worries right? But when I look over the top of the cupboard WHERE IS MY BIRD! I look over and there is a long skinny gap that I assume she must have fallen down. The cupboard is too deep to lean over and see down, so now I am starting to panic. I ask my sister to stay near the cupboard while I went to the shed to get the ladder so I could get high enough to see over. We could hear Buddy chirping for help. I bring the ladder in and set it up, climb up (btw I am moving so fast at this point I doubt you would have been able to see me) I lean over expecting the layout of this cabinet to be the same as the gap behind the oven, and I would just be able to reach down and pick her up. BUT to my horror I see that this gap falls all the way down behind the fridge to the floor. OMG OMG, there is my little Buddy wedged in a 3-4 inch wide gap behind the fridge that extends all the way from roof to floor. And of course behind the fridge is a very warm place so I am worried not only for her being stuck, but I also know I have limited time to get her out before she over heats or hurts herself. My only option is to pull the fully loaded fridge out from the wall. So in my rush to pull the fridge out I manage to tilt the whole thing forward to the point where it hits the cupboard that sits over top. NOW I can’t put the fridge back down as I fear I will crush her if she has moved underneath. The fridge is very heavy and I can’t get a good grip on it so I swing the door open so I can use it for leverage. So I continued to use all my might to pull this fridge out, trying not to crush my baby. Quite a few bottles and containers are falling out while I am doing this, It is hot behind the fridge so I had no time to empty everything out, I just had to pull as hard as I could, they only thing I cared about was getting her out of there. FINALLY the fridge came clear of the cupboard and Buddy flew out at lighting speed and came and landed on me. I gave her the biggest and longest cuddle ever, I was shaking so much I couldn’t stand up. You really don’t realise how much you love something until it is put at risk.
The point of telling you all this, is that you just never know what dangers lurk in your house. It was my own stupidity and ignorance that nearly ended my birds life today, she could have overheated, broken bones from her fall or been crushed to death when I was pulling out the fridge. SO PLEASE PLEASE check your house again to make sure it is safe, and then when you are 100% sure CHECK AGAIN! I don’t care if you have had flighted birds for 50 minutes or 50 years, anything can happen. I had Buddy flighted for 6 years and never had a problem until now, you just never know.
I think Buddy is okay, she was a little frazzled, but she ate her breakfast (Which of course after this morning was all her favourite foods) and is now chirping away. My biggest concern is the dust she may have inhaled as it is very dusty behind the fridge. I will be keeping a close eye.
I am currently making a grate that goes over the top of this gap so this never happens again.
Last edited:
