Talking Birds

[EE-BO]

Well said.

At the store where I worked we had over 50 abandoned birds- most of which could not be resold since they had become rather nasty after being given up by owners who had them for years.

The death of a pet is a sad experience, but many find out the hard way that it is even worse to have a pet that is likely to outlive you- and will react very badly to changes in your routine such as moving or having children.

As fun as they are, I am reluctant to ever suggest a parrot, macaw or cockatoo to someone as a pet. Most of these birds, well cared for, will outlive their owners- and can go feral on you in an instant if you make any big changes to your life.

Many of the abandoned birds we cared for were brought to us because they "snapped" and got very mean when their owners moved, married, had kids, or even got other pets. This does not always happen, but it does happen. Sulfur-crested cockatoos seem especially prone to losing it in these circumstances (we had a bunch of them and talk about mean birds!)

Your points on illness are good too. One of my rescues was a badly abused Spectacle Amazon. She would not speak but she did whistle Beethoven's 5th pretty good (the first few measures anyway.)

She was badly undersized and undernourished. After just 5 years she had a heart attack, was under intensive care to the tune of $300 a day, and then died after a week.

That was the last bird I had. The work and expense was just too much.

As for screamers- one of our abandoned birds was an Umbrella Cockatoo (which I think have the best personalities of all in terms of friendliness) who was mute and could not make any noise. The owner wanted a talker and actually ended up giving up a really nice bird that would have made an ideal pet for someone who needed a quiet pet. Even though she had been abandoned she was very friendly and I hope she eventually found a good home.