Andrew’s preschool class has a bird for a class pet, and each weekend “Mike the Bird” goes home with a family so that he will not be alone in the classroom. At the beginning of the year we signed up for the weekend that we wanted to take the bird home with us. Well, of course I got to the list late, and the only “weekend” that was left was for the two-week Christmas break. No one signed up for that one, of course. So it was left for us. Yep, the family of eleven with two dogs gets the bird for two weeks instead of two days. Of course! Why not?!
During the two weeks Mike was the perfect guest. He stayed in his cage like a good little birdie should. It wasn’t hard to take care of Mike. Andrew helped to feed him, clean his cage, and put his cover over the cage at night. We have never had a bird, so all of this was new to us.
What I realized was that birds aren’t all that much fun to have as pets. You can’t really pet them, or cuddle them. What do they do but sit all day in their cage? I actually found myself feeling a bit sorry for Mike, day after day just standing there on that stick. What kind of life is that for a bird? Shouldn’t he be out flying somewhere? What crazy person in history decided to catch a bird and stick it in a cage? Who was the first guy to do that? Am I the only one who thinks this is unfair? I guess the same could be said for fish in a fish tank? But at least they get to swim around. They still DO what they are supposed to DO. But birds can’t fly in their cages, and by definition isn’t that what birds are supposed to DO? Birds fly. Fish swim. I think it’s an injustice to keep birds in cages. But I don’t know, maybe that’s just me.
we kept a friends birds last summer, they were fun to watch but i realized they would not be fun as a family pet
we used to have two but then we started feeling the same way about them so we gave them to my dad who then let them go out his front door! i’m glad Mike had such a great time for two weeks at your house! i know he had a great time because i know there was a lot of goings on at your house!!
Birds make great pets! My son has a green cheeked conure. He has the sweetest personality, does acrobatics in his cage (which is a large cage), talks, lets you cuddle with him (his favorite is to go under the hood of a sweatshirt to take a nap) and is a great, low maintanace pet! I think th problem w/ this bird is it is being shuffled from house to house, doesn’t have consistancy and isn’t handled very often and seems to have very little entertainment in that small cage!
I feel the same way. Always have. Birds do not belong in cages.
This post reminded me though of the experiences we’ve had with animals coming home from school. When my oldest was in preschool, he was the first to bring home the class hamster that year. The one they’d had the previous year died. THIS hamster was not friendly. It bit the blood out of his finger! We weren’t really that upset about it but that was the last time they sent the hamster home.
Then when he was in third grade he brought home two dwarf hamsters over Thanksgiving. They were so tiny that they somehow figured out a way to get out of their cage! We never did find one of them and the other one would have been gone had I not woke up in the middle of the night to find it running around on the table outside the cage. Sending a note to school with the one remaining hamster was all kinds of embarrassing! But the teacher saw the humor in it and kept the cage down in a big tub after that!
We’ve had various parakeets for 25 years now. Love the joyful “noise”, dislike their mess.
We’ve had some that a a joy to have out of the cage and some not so much. A few “bite” no matter how often you work with them and spend lots of time in their cage. 
Our current two Handsome and Elizabeth are biters and spend most of their time in the cage. But they like the cage better than being out. So we’re all happy. Not to mention we have dogs and a cat that would love to “play” with them.
We had a white face cockatiel, Polly (very original, huh) that we loved terribly. She spent nearly all of her time out of her cage playing with us all day. I let her wing feathers grow out and she got very good at flying–too good, I might say. One day she flew out the door when my son came inside and we couldn’t catch her. Our family was devastated. I spent days outside whistling for her but I’m afraid that the January Missouri weather was too much. She either froze to death or migrated. I prefer to think she migrated. I keep an eye out for lost birds now and sometimes still whistle for Polly (even though we’ve moved). You know, just in case. Sigh. I still miss that bird!!
I know that birds are meant to fly, but if we ever have another one that we keep out of it’s cage we will be sure to keep their wings clipped!!
My Mom had a parakeet and “Charlie Bird” was let out of the cage all the time. He flew from room to room (loved looking into mirrors), but mostly liked to sit on my mom’s shoulder as she taught him to speak multiple phrases.
He is featured in “Pets” from “Maybe It’s Just Me!”
Loved that stupid bird.
Cranky Old Man
See, now THAT is how a pet bird should be treated, if you are going to have a pet bird