ASK SALLY ANYTHING

[sally]

Did Big Sal sneak off to Zanzibar to party with Mo...........without us?! Or, maybe she's busy trolling the bird owners' forum?

I can't troll that place, those people will fuck me up. This is an example of how extreme they are. If I dared to tell them I fed Peanut Goldfish they would tear me apart.

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Re: My first bird!

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Some of the replies on here really make me angry. I recommend not taking advice from this generation of people.

''not a week goes by without a bird flying into my window'' I have 4 double full size glass sliding doors, and it never happens - do you know why? Ever thought of putting an antibird sticker on the window?

First, a bird has wings, that means it is meant to fly, just like you have legs to walk. If you want to go cutting the feathers - GET A RODENT OR A PLASTIC TOY. I wish someone would put you in a wheelchair before you go and advise that course of actions on other creatures you think 'you own'. A bird unable to fly to its full ability will instead put stress on its heart, lungs and muscles. This is perceived as an injury to the bird - injuries cause depression. It will be unbalanced, miscalculate the distance it can cope with and injure itself. This practice is roundly attacked by vetinary surgeons. But as long as you get your $10 worth out of your little slave! A bird who lives its whole life in cruelty is still a good deal for people like that. The other reader's cockatoo flew out and never came back? I am not surprised! I have lovebirds I let out in the garden - they are back in the evening because their home is a place they love not hate, because freedom is not something they get once in their lives.

''He previously had another budgie friend but that bird passed away. 12"x18"x18" cage with plastic perches. ''

Of course it did. No-one cares, because they don't want to see that they caused its death.

Plastic is not a material suitable for a bird. Plastic perches and small (my definition being any size cage, not sure what yours is), ornate pretty cages exist for two things - the selfish egotistical owner and the man making all the money selling them.

GUARANTEE - this bird will be maimed within 5 years if it has survived: it will no longer be able to use its wings and will fall to the floor. Do you know why so many of these people know about 'heavy lead poisoning' - it is because they have bought the cheapest smallest cages they possibly could, people that probably have huge houses but cannot spare a few extra metres for a bird. A bird does not want to touch metal bars of the cage - it probably tastes of metal and the birds bones are so delicate it avoids touch instinctively- it does this only because it has to - ie it cannot fly from one perch to another - ie the cage is TOO SMALL. But don't blame yourself, find an excuse not to get a bigger cage. You will feel better.

How much mental effort did you go through to think a cage is interesting for a bird that is used to 1000kms of open space with trees, changeable weather and contact with its own species?

And you all pretend to 'love' your birds ' not willing to 'do that' to them, how totally deluded you are! You only care about yourselves. MILLIONS of birds are dying every year from owners that lie non-stop that they 'love' their birds and have NO EMPATHY whatsoever. Of course a bird is going to go into a mirror or a window it did not know was there - so do people!!!! Do you actually think? You have to actually take the time to close the curtains, until it is familiar with the windows. Taking a bird around on the finger and introducing it to each object?? How many new birds are that tame?? A bird is a cautious creature unless it is mislead or panicked. Open the cage door and let it come out step by step, fully in control of what it wants to do. A bird will always fly to the highest perch - put a perch high up and the bird will be able to plan its route calmly without some idiot trying to catch it and panic it all the time. A bird with a long tail likes to fly distance - it wants easy places to land: if there is a lack of them, it will fly back to its departure perch. They know what they are doing, people trying to make out that a bird is not capable of flying are simpletons. It is you that don't know how to look after a bird.

The previous owners got this bird because it was a cheap toy, if they had any thought for its wellbeing they would have googled what it should eat at least. I dispair at the people on this forum advising vegetables for a budgie as a main food...are you insane? Do you think wild budgies are in Australia right now digging up carrots? Vegetable matter should be given sparingly - any more and the birds chemical balance will be destroyed, the bird will get diarrhea and lose weight. They come from a dry climate - they are seed eaters - look at their beak. A budgie mix with millet sprays, carrot leaves, alfalfa, sprouted mustard seed, the odd corn on the cob, cuttlefish and a mineral block, good garden soil and grit, this type of thing is their natural diet. Willow, fruit tree, oak branches and strong rope to sit on. Some sort of swing that is large enough not to be simply a decoration for the owner. A shallow bath..really all these things are so obvious to a child..

And, another thing, people HATE hearing, a budgie is dying of depression waiting all day staring through its bars, waiting for you to come back and scare it to pieces. When it calls, it is hoping there is someone of its own species out there. It knows the mirror is a mirror, but it is all it has got: proof, mirrors are ignored in avairies where there are other budgies. ONCE THERE IS ENOUGH SPACE, you should get it a companion that it can actually interact with. Use the cage you have with a pole lodged in the branches of a tree for sitting the bird out in the shade of the garden when the weather is good. Choose a 2m square area in a corner of your accomodation, use the money for a cage and buy strips of wood and mesh, and make (or buy) aviary panels for an indoor aviary that goes up to the ceiling. This is still a compromise. The budgies still need to be let out most days to fly. I did this when I was a student - a whole 2 hours work- and I was a lot poorer than the terrible examples of bird owners here.
If you cannot afford the money or the space, do the bird a favour and give it to someone who can give it a decent life.