What's a mistake you made when you were an amateur bird owner?

[snowflake311]

It was not my first bird Kiwi was my first parrot she was a senegal. It is more a regret than mistake. I just had a baby. Kiwi was not getting much attention. I did not trust kiwi with my baby.I also had 3 dogs one elderly that was in diapers too. I found my bird a new home she was 15 years old . I had her since a baby. The guy I gave her to gave her back to me with in a month. I took her back happily and said I would never rehome a pet again. That was the first and last time I would do that. About a few month after I got kiwi back she got ill. She died and it was weird that she died not too long after being brought back. We also moved in to a new home after she came back. I wish I had sent her body off to know what caused the death. she was a 15 almost 16 year old senegal that had moved around a few times. She drove cross country with me.

I know you did not want any bad stuff or death. What I learned is no matter how hard it gets if you love your bird it is better to work with it. My husband also talked me into finding a new home for kiwi. Don't listen to your husband listen to your heart. Another lesson learned.

To new mom's that might have birds.your baby will grow up fast so don't do anything you will regret.

 

[psychocircus91]

Free flying our Goffin, without any real training. Luckily nothing bad ever came of it.

 

[SirEdwin89]

I'm still definitely a rookie so that means All my mistakes fall in that category still!

One I learned one of the biggest lessons from happened relatively recently actually. It was the 3rd or 4th day Ely was with us, and he got out of his cage. At this point, he still hated me. he would hiss and smack the cage if I got close, etc.

Anyway, there Ely is sitting on the top of his cage giving me the devil stare just daring me to put my hand in reach, and there I am standing just outside of his reach trying to figure out how I was going to get him back in without losing a finger (we were late to an appointment already) Well, I figured since Ely can't fly at all, and he couldn't reach me with his beak it wasn't like he could step on to me, that I was perfectly safe. Because in my mind birds either walked, or flew. I turned around to grab something off the bed, and Ely decided to teach my ignorance a lesson. As soon as my back was to him, he *jumped* on to my shoulder, and CHOMP right on the ear.

Moral of the story? It's easier to bite someone in the ear when their back is turned. Oh, and some birds jump.

 

[BillieD]

My new bird mistake was bathing. The 4th day I Put a T stand in my shower, and proceeded to think that my U2 was going to stand on it and take a shower with me. A very big mistake and did I learned fast. After being bitten and scratched while I was naked, she then flew and attached herself to my shower curtain rod. It took me 3.5 hours to get her to step up from the rod....whew. Two important lessons learned from this. The importance of bonding and trusting first before any shower attempt. Also to make sure your bird likes baths or showers or even water before such an attempt.

 

[chris-md]

Uh boy, I might as well be a convicted felon here. Where do I start? Way early on, 20 years ago, treating parakeets and later a conure as if they were finches and not giving them the proper attention. Improper diet. You get the gist.

Parker is definitely my redemption story

 

[Storiesoffrankie]

Run to my GCC whenever she would call out to me from her cage (separation anxiety)
It got to the point where she wouldn't shut up all because I gave her that attention and accidentally taught her that if she made that noise, I would come running. Took me a very long time to undo this, and am probably almost deaf because of it. . . not to mention the roomates opinion on my little "quiet apartment parrot" LOL !

 

[LeaKP]

So many to choose from! Humorous first: standing underneath my grey cleaning his perch when he was upset...boy did I get it!

Second not so humorous: took my bird outside while clipped. Not for a long time, just to mailbox, but shouldn't have done that.

 

[CDavis]

I'm gonna jinx myself really bad here but I haven't really made any mistakes yet with my own fids but my Amazon is coming home tomorrow so I'm sure I will be posting here quite a lot in the very near future. The worst thing I have done is trying to get a dyh off of my arm when he was over excited and getting the crap bitten out of my finger.

 

[CDavis]

I'm gonna jinx myself really bad here but I haven't really made any mistakes yet with my own fids but my Amazon is coming home tomorrow so I'm sure I will be posting here quite a lot in the very near future. The worst thing I have done is trying to get a dyh off of my arm when he was over excited and getting the crap bitten out of my finger.

Literally less than 12 hours later I have made a mistake I walked out of the room to use the bathroom while bonkers was out on his playtop and when I came back he had destroyed my 250 dollar gaming headset. I guess they were taking attention away from him.

 

[Mookie]

Less than 24 hours into owning my TAG, my wife shut the door on her cage and it pinched her foot.

Mookie was fine, she ended up with a little cut on her foot but nothing major.

I think my wife felt bad for about a week. Poor bird gets to this new home and the owners are already abusing her.

Lesson, we now make sure our girl is NOWHERE near that from door when we close it.

 

[jiannotto9492]

So this isn't my mistake but my girlfriend doesn't handle or IRN all that much and just last night she got a little too close for comfort and Curry bit her mouth.

 

[GaleriaGila]

Gawwwwwwwwwwwwwwd... I just remembered another horrible mistake.

I like to claim that most of my mistakes back in the 80s (not counting big hair) were due to poor information, no support, or lack of good bird-supply merchants. But here's one that was just totally due to not paying attention.

I think the Rbird was about 7-8; we were still in New Mexico; it was Fall. During that time of the year, it can reach a windless high of 90+ and change to gusting winds and frost overnight. That's the desert for ya. As always, he had his own room. One morning I opened his windows and then went about my day. This was one of many sad years when he didn't get nearly as much attention as he needed. I didn't get home until after dark, when the Rbird was asleep. I was so tired I didn't bother to check on him. Long story short - my ol' man (at the time) neglected to close the windows before feeding him and turning off his television and closing the door to his room. You guessed it: when I went to him the next morning, he was shaking like a leaf, leaning against the side bars; his feet (usually pink) were gray. He didn't even try to vocalize. Needless to say, I scooped him up and held him to me and raced into the bathroom, turned on the heater, and knelt near it , stroking him until he came back to life. Amazingly, he was fine (and hungry and mad) in ten minutes. I never ever EVER failed to check and double check and check again when it came to his safety.

 

[jiannotto9492]

A mistake I make over and over again. Dicing hot peppers to feed and not washing my handles when finished.

 

[goalerjones]

Cage size too small

Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

 

[texsize]

It's taken me a while to think of something I don't mind posting.
Bingo my YNA got a hold of a ball point pen once. We thought he looked cute playing with it, so we let him have it.
The next time we looked (and it was only 5 or 10 minutes) He had removed the end cap but even worse....
He removed the "ball" at the working end and got blue ink all over his beak.
Lucky he did not poison himself.
I am very carful with writing interments ever since.
texsize

 

[Timmah]

My mistake is pre-bird ownership I bought Good Parrot online, paid for overnight postage (not here a week later) and realised I could have bought it as a ??!&$@?&&?!!!! Ebook for cheaper

 

[MySweetJess]

Not introducing pellets, like Harrison's right away and making cookies out of them in case he wouldn't eat them. No cleaning the WHOLE cage often. I just concentrated on poop areas. I put the smaller cage he originally had in the shower and cleaned with Dawn. I couldn't do that with the big cage, although I could have rolled it onto the deck more often to scrub it down. I didn't know about adding small amounts of apple cider vinegar to baby food or his water to reduce risk of candida. Mainly the seed diet thing, I wrongly assumed if reputable pet sites sold it, it was safe and enough. Re-buying a full spectrum light after the first one's bulb exploded as soon as I put it in the socket (oh yeh that happened) for winter time. During warm months I put him on the deck for at least an hour. Other than that, just being a happy Mom with her sweet babe, sharing my supper, enjoying him, but not taking the maintenance things more seriously. I lost my CAG a few days ago, going through a very painful guilt/remorse/grief stage and this will not go away anytime soon.

 

[wrench13]

OK I will add one that happened with our Beebee parrot Max ( RIP ). His original cage was one of the cheaper ones with a plastic bottom, thinner cage bars and more to the point those slide up doors for the food and water bowls. Max quickly found out how the doors worked and would open the door, lifting it up, only to let it go and have the door close before he could make good his escape. When he would do this, we all howled, because he would do it faster and faster ( Max's specialty was doing any repetitive motion faster and faster) but he just couldn't get it timed right. Until one day when dinner was being prepared, which was the signal for Max to start doing this. But all of a sudden the sound of the door slamming up and down stopped, uncharacteristically. I rushed over to the cage and found his head sticking thru the door with the sliding door on his neck. Amazingly he was unhurt by this. After showering him with apologies and treats, we made sure the doors were secured well after opening them to put food or water in. Lesson learned: All doors, food entries or other openings to your parrots cage should be able to be be 100% secured. If the parrot can get out, it will !

PS, that didn't stop Max from rattling the door incessantly, hoping to shake loose what ever we had used to thwart his escape door. He definitely had more single minded determination the Salty does. Salty's maybe a 4 or 5 on the stubborn scale, Max was a 10 sometimes.

 

[SailBoat]

At one point in my life, long, long ago. I was young and dumb as a rock! I made every mistake listed as 'Never Do This,' and far more. With great luck, my first Parrot (and first Teacher) was a LCA who had been Wild Caught as a Young Adult Amazon and she clearly let me know what wasn't working, what was just plan dumb, how to identify stupid, and on those rarer occasions, what was right and good.

She taught me that it is never the Fault of the Amazon! Its always the Fault of the Human. That life is much better and far less painful if: Only Good Things Happen When I am Around Her! And to Never, Ever give-up on an Amazon (any Parrot).

Great knowledge comes from a Great Teacher, who is Without Mercy in applying Clear Instructions as to What is Wrong. And, who had the Depth of Love and Without Concern of Showing It when Good was done!

Mistakes are allowed, but only if you learn from them! Humans are stupid! Every Amazon that has Blessed Our Home have clearly taught that point; over and over again!

At my advanced age and all that I have learned, I continue to find how little I know! With the Grace of God, I still have Amazon's who are willing too teach me!

 

[Mariar]

Tons of mistakes..especially before the internet. I either had to take the bus or ride my bike to the library back in the day.And then good luck. With sissy..even though i still make small mistakes..my cutest one is ..watch what you say to your bird! Sissy likes to scream to get her way..always when im talking on the phone or to company. So ..even though i know i shouldnt...i scream ..SHUT( pause) UP. So now when we are in public and sissy doesnt want to be bothered...she yells shut..up.
Careful what you say..our feathered friends are smarter than we think..lol