This makes me so sad - this is ranty

[Kyoto]

So, I had someone from a city about 5 hours away message me, asking me to take their friend's conure.

I asked them what the reason for rehoming is, and this is the response I got.

"this bird is no longer tame,so will need soft words,attention and trust guess they didn't have time for him."

Why on earth do people get a bird, let it get to the point that they can't handle it because it's been so deprived of love and attention, and then try to give it away?! If they found it wasn't getting enough attention they should have re-homed it way before this!!

I'm glad that they are looking for a new home for it, but man the fact that someone will let it get to the point that the bird is so not used to people it won't even tolerate them... that just upsets me so much

Sorry for the rant. I am really sad for this little birdie. No response on it's gender, whether it's been to a vet, or anything. I wish I could take it, but I won't risk taking in a bird that I can't meet beforehand from someone I don't know.

If I didn't have Kyo's health to worry about I would take him, but I don't think it will work out.

 

[Aquila]

Just change "bird" with "kid" and people's attitude changes. If this was their child, who they deprived of love and attention, would they just give it away?

 

[JellyBean]

That is so sad... it is not like you don't know what you are letting yourself in for - 10 minutes on the web will educate you on their needs...

But, I cannot understand why you wouldn't want and try to seriously interact with your bird.. I have found it to be one of the most rewarding and delightful relationships - I don't know what I would do without my little feathery buddy!!

 

[flyingron]

We got our quaker from people who just ignored it in its cage to the point where it hardly had feathers left. She's a sweet, well-trained bird that I can't believe we didn't take off them earlier (the wife had offered it to us on a number of occasions).

 

[Aquila]

I felt this way about my GCC, she had come from a loving owner that ended up having some health problems, so he gave the bird to his cousin and the family. Luckily she was on a good diet, but they put her in a corner and she was really just an "object" to them. They didn't know what kind of bird she was, renamed her from Berry to Polly, and also wondered why she never spoke. I was told they put her cage outside sometimes because she "seemed to like it."

I had my friend drive me out 45 minutes to get her and the cage for $100, and while she wasn't perfect, she was a total sweetheart.

 

[Birdman666]

Yeah, well...

It happens quite a bit.

Try it with a large macaw that's cage bound and attention deprived sometime...

 

[Dinosrawr]

I'm always amazed as well. My rabbit is a rehome, and he's the sweetest and most gentle boy ever. And SO easy compared to the birds... and ironically it was the same issue - no love was given, he had zero time out, and the family decided to give him up. I'm just thankful people are diligent enough to realize and do find the animal a better home. It's the people who keeps them and watch them deteriorate without doing anything that sicken me.

 

[Kyoto]

Part of us wants to take him, but we are so worried that he will need so much time that our lives won't allow it. Kyo gets about 3-4 hours of attention a day, I don't think that would be enough for this little guy not to mention it would be less for the first while with quarantine...

I hope someone who loves birds will take him

 

[Mimsy01]

I can relate. I have tons of time, so that isn't an issue. But I'm absolutely paranoid of bringing some kind of disease into the house. If I had a house with property that I could set up a heated shed/garage/barn I'd feel better about it. At least quarantine would be really quarantine till we were certain the newbie was healthy.

Chantal-since we got our bunny it's opened my eyes to all the poor rabbits out there. They are given away often, and if someone asks a fee, it seems like the high end is 30 bucks. There is always a ton of em on craigslist with their cage which is always completely too small. The whole bunny industry kinda makes me sick. I think about how the vast majority of them spend their whole lives in a small cage outside. Honestly some of the meat farmers seem to give better care than the pet owners.

 

[Puck]

I think part of the problem lies in the fact that people really don't understand what kind of pet birds are. Birds should really be lumped in with animals like cats and dogs, but they are often lumped in with animals like snakes and hamsters and fish. The fact is, snakes are perfectly happy chillin' all day in their cages while hamsters can happily entertain themselves. Birds, on the other hand, are like dogs and cats--they just have too much energy and are too social to be kept in a cage all the time. No one would approve of keeping a dog crated except for twenty minutes a day. But because birds seem to "live in cages," people don't know what they are getting into. Pet stores, since many of them can't sell dogs and cats anymore, do their best to perpetuate this myth in order to keep making money. The new owners honestly don't understand the kind of pet they are getting. So I try to give people the benefit of the doubt and just educate everyone I know on what kind of pet birds really are. I have had pretty much every kind of pet, and the only one I spent more time and money on than my birds were my horses--and that's because I competed on them and had to practice! It really needs to become a wider known fact that birds are interactive pets, not "sit and watch them" pets.