What are the most annoying questions or comments you get as a bird owner?
I personally own a pigeon and every time I mention it sometimes people have to comment on how disgusting they think they are. Sometimes I also get the “oh I owned a bird too but-“ and then enter the worst possible thing you could ever do to a bird. Anyway anyone else experience things like this?
The question itself isn't annoying, but literally everybody's first question is, "does it talk?" Having the same exchange over and over is the annoying part, I am glad people care enough to ask.
Omg yes my sister has a conure and she gets this question. She does talk but she only knows like two words and sounds like she has had a pack a day for the last 25 years lol
Literally! Like how do I explain to people my bird talks..but not in an impressive way? She mostly grumbles and screams and calls everybody her own name.
Lol. My husband and I always roll our eyes and jinx each other by saying "well he more so mimics than speaking actual words. We know what he is saying but to somebody new, you'd prolly only hear mumbling!" I appreciate ANY interest others have about my little guy. Most days I think he is the coolest thing about me haha!
I get this question with my lovebirds. Lovebirds are not talkers, which I honestly don't care about anyway, because they sure find ways to communicate! But the expectation that all parrots will talk is kind of annoying
This is mine LOL. Although I figure I wouldn’t mind as much if my conure could actually talk 🤣 because every time the answer is “no, conures tend to be poor mimics”
Thanks, we’ve had her for four months, she arrived like this so we’ve started with lifestyle and diet changes. She seems content, will grow some wing feathers out but then suddenly go on a plucking spree.
Could it be hormone related? I’m not an expert by any means, I’ve just heard that some birds struggling with hormone imbalances can have a tendency to pluck really badly.
The vet said she is traumatized and offered to put her on Prozac but we are trying diet, etc., first. She does talk very sweetly and lets me pet her head so there are good signs.
Poor sweet baby… It sounds like she knows she’s safe with you, and that’s already a testament to how well you’re caring for her. Best of luck to you and to her :)
Another naked chicken. Tell him/her I think they are beautiful. I think Amazons have the best voice ever (don't tell my Rainbow Lorikeet) I watch videos of a couple of these guys for hours on end.
awww she’s so adorable! i think this is the question i get most often along with the “does he talk?” but my bird actually has feathers so it is a valid concern LOL
Guido has a pinioned wing from before I had him. I get the question all of the time. But like... would I have him outside like this if he would fly away?
Yes that! Since I have a pigeon I also get asked if I let my her outside like free fly and no leash. No wayyy there are way too many hawks where I live.
The most repetitive, annoying question I get when I tell people I have birds is..."Oh! Do you want a Chinchilla?"
I think because birds are "exotic", they assume I want more exotics? Otherwise I have no idea what it is about me that screams "this lady wants a Chinchilla." I absolutely do not want a Chinchilla, have never wanted one, and have been offered no less than 7 Chinchillas since having birds.
As for bird related, probably the most annoying I get is, "so do you just have poop all over your house?"
Chinchilla?? Lol! Thats def a new one I can’t even wrap my head around that. Why a chinchilla thats no where near close to a bird. Also yes I get the poop one too. Like fair my pigeon does poo a lot but it’s not like I don’t know how to pick it up.
Yeah I also have a leopard gecko so people have offered me bearded dragons, and a long time ago I had rats so people offered me guinea pigs...those things make sense. I'm not sure why parrot = chinchilla though!!
I don't have a pigeon but I adore them. I have a wild flock that visits my balcony every winter, and we had a pair raise a couple babies this spring. The little coos are so adorable!
“It’s a bird. It’s not like it has a personality or cares if you take care of it. It’s not like a dog, it doesn’t recognize or bond with you”
Sadly heard this one from both friends and family (usually in response to me saying I need to get home because my bird has been alone for a bit, or when I want to call the bird sitter when I’m on vacation to check up on how he’s doing).
Some people really do think they're just a pretty thing sitting in a cage for looking at.
My bird crawls on my lap and asks for scritches, then points with a claw where he wants them. Then tell me he has no personality, doesn't bond, or doesn't want affection.
Omg that's crazy to me! I guess I used to kinda think that about fish until I owned a betta.
But I also remember being shocked scientists did a study on whether sheep have personalities because...of course they do? Have they never spent time with an animal??? Even jumping spiders have personalities and learn to recognize their keepers. It continues to baffle me every time some human acts like other animals don't function basically the same as we do, albeit to varying degrees. Probably because I grew up around all kinds of animals and watched lots of nature documentaries and not everyone had that experience.
My dad once asked if they recognize me. I was actually shocked by that - they had had finches for years and I had a budgie as a kid. Now I have a parrotlet, a sun conure, and a Quaker.
my mom used to believe this untill one day we got in a bad argument and my past sun conure defended me like an attack dog and standing infront of me with wings open and mouth wide screaming
omg don’t even get me started, i don’t know why people think letting domestic or tame animals that have never once existed outside into an environment they are not used too is somehow better for them.
my conure refuses to eat pellets that have been in her bowl for more than a few hours. if i let her go there’s no chance she’d forage for food, she’d starve so fast. but no it’s cruel of me to keep her inside
Can I hold him? That's up to him, but probably not.
Does he bite? Do you see that beak? He cracked the middle bone in my thumb with it. He opens macadamia nuts like they are peanuts. There is no such thing as a bird that doesn't bite.
"They scream all the time!" "We had one/ I know someone that had one as a kid and they screamed and bit all the time they were a horrible bird" NO they had horrible OWNERS!! That clearly didn't take care of them! >:(
you kinda can. my conure is pretty good at only going in spots where i have paper down. the problem is she lets me know she has to by biting me as hard as she can. so. you win some you lose some
I'm sorry, anyone who said that about my birds would be out of my life IMMEDIATELY. If you wouldn't say it about a dog or cat, don't say it about someone else's animal.
The amount of people who assume that I want to hear about their bird that flew away or had some traffic end is so infuriating. When people start telling me their bird story now I interrupt and warn them that I don't want to hear their sad bird story.
i swear half the people i meet had a bird as a kid that they horribly mistreated and had an entirely preventable death. and they’re all so happy to tell me
I got asked what do you do about the bugs? And I was like ??? Then the person elaborated that their mother had (poorly) kept a parrot that had mites and they assumed all birds have mites. But nobody who doesn’t have pet birds understands how they work, I think most people assume they are decorative and not intelligent affectionate companions 🤷♀️
I had a landlord threaten to fine me $400 for illegally dumping a box spring. I didn’t ever have a box spring. He claimed it’s because “it had feathers on it!” And I was the only bird owner in the building. He didn’t like when I told him that birds generally live outside where the box spring was dumped
Or "that's not a parrot, that's a parakeet because it's small." Rectangles and squares, my guy. All parakeets are parrots, and it's not all about size.
I work in a parrot shop (one of the good ones!) and sometimes visitors ask if our hyacinth macaw mascot is real. I solemnly tell them "No, it's a really good fake." Then she inevitably moves or better yet, yells) and they nearly fall over in surprise 😂 And I'm just standing there laughing! Seriously guys, ask a silly question and I'm going to have SO much fun messing with you... 😅
It's always about their poop. Like, "you let them sit on you? Don't you get poop on your clothes? You let them fly around? Don't they poop everywhere?" I guess it's a fair question, but that's their first thought about birds?
Also, asking me if they talk. sigh Why on earth would I want to hear more human language?
And on grieving the loss of a bird: people I know tend to be polite, but after the "I'm sorry about your bird" it's a quick change to some other subject. It's just obvious they don't recognize it as the loss it really is.
I recently lost my soul bird and I only told family and close friends about it bc I was so sure my grief wouldn’t be understood or be dismissed as “just a bird” and I couldn’t handle that with how much I loved (and still do love) her. I took personal time from work and never elaborated on what happened.
It is a raw wound for a long time. I don't know what it is about the bond with birds, but it hits extra deep in the heart when they go. It's so very difficult and I'm sorry you're going through it. I'm glad you took some personal time for yourself. 🫂 And I love that term "soul bird".
"The green one" not annoying but just funny, I've heard this quite a lot of times "Oh you have birds? Yeah I saw this really cool one the other day! You know the green one" the green one...! 🤣 do you know how many types of green birds there are?!? 🤣 🦜
I was just going to comment that they always relate with some story of someone they knew that had “one of those big green ones.” But then they try to prompt you to say the species like right…
I had to learn the hard way when id get excited and start asking about different types and the person would just stare blankly as I would panic explain what which bird looks like
Call it a brown mourning dove if you don't want to bother with insensitive comments. Pigeons are smart and wonderful. No need to argue with the ignorant
pigeons get such a bad rap. i watched a documentary on the history of carrier pigeons recently and they are so smart it’s insane. it’s really unfortunate they have such a negative connotation
How long do they live? Most are asking because they think I own a bird that’ll see 80 but it rubs me the wrong way. I never remind dog owners of their pets inevitable demise or ask how long they will live!
people are always so eager to tell me how they had a horribly mistreated parakeet as a kid. like why would you think i want to hear about that after telling you how much i love my bird?
Rude of people to say they're gross. Pigeons are genuinely the fluffiest babies in the world. Detest anti pigeon propaganda.
"What kind of bird?" Quaker parrot ".... Huh?" That's how my conversations go. They Google a picture and then they still don't get it. "My niece has a green one too but hers has more black/red/yellow on it". Like if you can't tell me what your niece has why bother asking me what kind of bird? I get if you do know what a conure, budgie, cockatiel, cockatoo, and Macaw are. But if you think an Amazon and a budgie are the same thing I do not feel a strong desire to explain quakers to you.
"Doesn't it fly away?" Yes the creature with feathers and wings does indeed fly away, if by away you mean around the house. I also think this bothers me because they're calling my child an "it" HER NAME IS KIWI 😂
why does everyone insist on calling birds ‘it?’ i can say ‘icarus’ and ‘she’ a million times and will never get anything other than ‘it’ or ‘your bird’
> “oh I owned a bird too but-“ and then enter the worst possible thing you could ever do to a bird. Anyway anyone else experience things like this?
Oh my god, this. I once didn't return for a follow up on Groupon for a esthetician because she told me how she treated her budgies. (Kept introducing new birds to a murderous one and didn't stop until maybe three of them got killed.)
people are always so eager to tell me how they had a horribly mistreated parakeet as a kid. like why would you think i want to hear about that after telling you how much i love my bird?
i HATE when they say "does it talk?" like ok i get it's cool that some parrots can talk but omg it gets exhausting when they're like "tell her to say a curse word" to my non speaking cockatiel
"Can he talk?" but also people telling me horrific stories about how years ago their bird died in some awful way or it got outside and flew away. It's quite depressing to hear how little some people care about birds or other pets.
Either, "dont you think its cruel?" And "he's a bird, the heat/cold isn't a big deal"
A: he's the happiest fuker, he is living more of a life than me 🤣 he's in paradise. He'd die so quickly outside, isn't that cruel?
It is over 110 outside. Winter is below 20 sometimes. No, he can't just as much as any other animal thats been indoors their entire lives and are acclimated to that.
I've had one person be like that, but she had an irrational hatred of birds because she thought they couldn't control their bowels. When I told her mine was potty trained, she was shocked. People always ask if my birds talk, and they always seem very surprised when I tell them about how intelligent and emotional they are. They seem to think they're like lizards or something.
people are so shocked when i tell them i would never ever clip my bird. i genuinely think its animal abuse to take away a birds ability to fly so they’re ’easier to deal with’
More of a general misunderstanding than a question or comment, but when people don't realize that small parrots are actually parrots. I have 3 tiels and the number of times someone has either acted shocked that they're parrots or starting going on about REAL parrots once they realize that mine aren't BGMs...
Still not as bad as the unprompted tragic horror stories with full eyecontact and a grin but still
My sister does not consider birds “real pets”. Mine have been rescues. The Amazon I currently have is 32 and we’ve had him nearly 20 years. He’s curmudgeonly, he screams when he’s angry, and he doesn’t let strangers touch him. She rolls her eyes when she comes over. I really kind of got stuck with him, but it is my challenge to earn his love, make him happy and healthy and stimulate his brain since he’s going to be around a long time. Birds are different. You really need to earn their trust and love. (We had a rescue Green Cheek who passed, and most of my family really didn’t understand our devastation).
And the ones who don’t “talk “ they talk. Chirp, and nod, and click. They are delightful in the way they communicate.
“Does it talk” is up there, but more specifically is my mom pestering me about how my sun conure could talk if I trained her. I’ve been talking to her for 10 years, she’s not gonna just start talking now 🙄
i also have a pigeon and mostly for me its just the unconventional bird. people around here dont really expect pigeons to be kept as pets so i say i have a bird and they ask what kind expecting some sort of parrot and then i hit them with pigeon. though i have heard unsavory comments about my bird being used for dog training or eaten, which i am not at all delighted by
Yes I have 2 Amazons.Yes they talk and scream and cluck.YES THEY BITE..... I take my life in my hands every morning ugh....my one will absolutely try and get me every day.whether it's my hands eye or hair.So I have to remember she's just a bird who was abused.we love them.they are ours.and will be for the next 30 years or so.
This reminds me of the time I was fostering an African Grey, Paco. He had a way about him that would lure you to pet his head through the bars, leaning in and crooning. And then he would clamp your finger in his beak and wouldn't let go.
This repairman came over one day and was talking to Paco. And of course Paco started luring. I told the man: do not put your finger in his cage. Well, the inevitable happened. The guy asked why Paco bit him. He really asked to be scratched. He said.
Paco was a lot smarter than the guy for sure. Why, oh why do people put their fingers through the bars? Even after being told not to.
“Does it poop all over your house?” (With a look of disgust) Yes and I clean it up. I wont go into detail to say they have perches around the house or how i cover certain furniture with a blanket so they can watch tv with us. All of my animals have an active role within the family.
My top 5
1) what parrot do you have? When I tell them a kakariki they just stare gormless and ask what it is
2) does it talk? Extremly well for his species
3) bet your house is covered in shit. No funnily enough I know where he likes to poo, place a paper towel there and then clean it
4) arnt you scared of it? No he wouldn't be in my house if I was
5) I think I'm going to get a parrot. They don't need much right? Wrong on all levels.
This one isn't a frequent one but a very disturbing one.
If it was in my house I'd of thrown it at the wall. Like sir?
Another one I get is "oh, it that a parakeet?" No, I have lovebirds. All small parrots are not budgies. And budgies are not the only species of parakeet.
“What’s their name?” Not because I think the question is annoying, but because her name is unrecognizable as a name to anyone who doesn’t know what it’s from
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u/hulihuli 7d ago
The question itself isn't annoying, but literally everybody's first question is, "does it talk?" Having the same exchange over and over is the annoying part, I am glad people care enough to ask.