File :-(, x, )
Bird advice? Anonymous
ADVICE PLZ.

I am a ronery college student and I want some company. I was thinking of getting a small bird (cats and dogs aren't allowed here, and I don't like rodents) but I don't know what kind of bird would be best for me, what with me having no experience with birds. Halp!

(Picture related, because if I'd lived in Ancient Rome I would totally have kept a sparrow as a pet.) :]
>> Anonymous
canaries are cute and small
>> Anonymous
lul
>> Anonymous
>>149059
Thank you~
>> Anonymous
Get a small parot. They = cute, but kinda noisy.
>> Anonymous
Cockatoo
>> Anonymous
Budgie/parakeet plz...
Or you could invest in a fish like the rest of us normal college students and get some bettas or something.
>> Anonymous
Uhhhh check out lifespan. Lots of birds live for decades, which is not ideal for a first time pet. If you're already in college, don't get a parrot cause it might outlive you.

Zebra finches are nice but there's a lot of conflicting info about their lifespan and I'm not sure what to believe.
>> Anonymous
Just remember that a bird is just as much a pet as a cat or a dog. You have to look after them and provide them with stimulus and a tolerable environment. Clean air, no drafts, daily change of drinking water, lettuce, carrot, etc.

Also, don't get just one. They need company, and another bird will provide a good portion of what they require (especially if they end up a couple; not all do). A drawback may be that having two birds, they generally die one at a time. So to avoid having the remaining bird get all lonely and emo about it, one gets them a companion again and so the cycle goes on.

Related to the company and stimulus thing is that birds are flying things. They'll really want to use their wings. You can't keep them in a cage all, or even most of, the time; if you can't let them out of their cage into a room that's been made bird-safe every day for a few hours at a time, reconsider the bird thing.

These things apply for budgies. I don't really know about other birds, but parrot-family birds are generally quite similar about this stuff. (Well some larger parrots can get neurotic in a too lively environment. Budgies really love that though, the bigger the flock...)

That said, I don't see how a pet bird would fit in a dorm situation. Like at all.
>> Anonymous
penguin
>> Anonymous
>>149174

this is true.

what a lot of people seem to sadly do, is get a cage like 4x the size of the bird so it can barely move.. if I was to get a canary, I'd buy it a parrot-size cage so it can fly around a good amount.

canaries are kind of particular about temperature (just not too hot or cold, but then same goes for most animals) - but other than that they're pretty easy to look after and soooo cute, and they make cute and non-annoying noises.

get a bird book about what bird you decide you want either way, and make sure you read it a few times before you go ahead and get said bird/cage/etc.
>> Anonymous
Yeah. The tiny cages you see in pet stores are for _moving_ the bird from one place to another. Like to a vet, or to your parents' house for looking after (and the proper cage is moved separately), or something.

And then they're only small because a larger cage would be troublesome to get into the back seat of a car through the door without stressing the bird(s) too much. (Also because people tend to mount larger cages on walls, since budgies at least like their regular spots to be at least as high as the tallest person's face. Thus making the proper cage troublesome to move in the first place.)
>> Anonymous
>>149209
Plus if it dies suddenly you'll know there's a methane leak and you can clear out in time!
>> Anonymous
OP here!

Ah. :O Thanks for the heads-up, guys! I know a bird will last longer than a hamster or something, and I'm fine with that.

If I were to get a canary (or two), it'd have ... two rooms of about 20 square metres (yeah, I'm a Eurofag :\) plus a corridor to fly through. It's not really a dorm I live in, it's more like an apartment I share with another girl who'd love to share a pet with me. :) Is that enough? Also, what does bird-proof mean exactly? :|

Anyway, I'll look into it some more and read some ornithologic literature. If I do decide to get a bird I'll post pictures. :]
>> Anonymous
>>149238
Bird-proofing means making the room safe for a bird. Starting from the fundamentals, i.e. all windows and other holes where the bird could get outside must be closed and be kept closed until the bird is back in the cage and the cage has been closed, poisonous and/or spiny plants are removed (because birds chew, and some are clumsy around dangerous things) and tight spots where a silly bird could wedge himself are closed or made not tight. There's other stuff too, like putting a newspaper on top of any open trashcans (some birds can die of heart attack due to fright if they fall into a plastic trash bag), closing the toilet seat and making sure fishtanks cannot be flown into (flying birds drown) and so forth. I think I saw a set of instructions how to do this on the net once.

In general it's best to let the bird get to know its surroundings first. Starting with the cage -- i.e. no flying around in the first week or two, just to be sure that they'll find their way back somewhere that they feel safe.

People need to be bird-proofed as well, i.e. knowing to check whenever they open or close a door so they don't crush a bird with it, checking chairs before sitting on them and so on. Make sure your roommate knows how to act around birds, and is aware of the status of the cage's doors when e.g. opening the front door or boiling water for pasta or opening a window.

As for reading up, pay attention to the general anatomy of passerine birds (if you aren't reading up on the specific kind of bird already). Particularly when (and that's not an if, sadly) you really must handle a bird regardless of how it feels about it, you should understand how birds' breathing works and know the correct way to handle a bird so they don't go utterly apeshit with panic.
>> Anonymous
sparrowes are no pets. They should live in the wild, adorable as they are.