Before you take your bird outside......

Portland OR

Description

The weather is improving and triggers the desire to take our birds outside without adequate thought to the consequences. Nothing wrong with taking your bird outside if restrained, but it's far too easy to forget the promise implied when you brought your bird home: "I will love and keep you safe from harm as long as you live with me". After time, we forget our beloved pets are not totally domesticated. The possibility that your bird will fly away from you, never to be seen again, is very, very real, even if you disregard that reality. If you have a medium or large bird, bred in captivity, it has been taken from the nest at 3 weeks so it will bond to humans, and has no parental training about how to avoid danger, how to find food, or even how to fly downward. Instinct will take your bird up and into the trees or so far away it might never be found alive, and likely not returned if it is because the assumption is that someone took the bird outside knowing it could fly away, so doesn't deserve to get it back. There is only 20% chance an escaped bird will be found alive. Remind yourself of that fact before you walk out the door with your bird - who trusts you to love and keep it safe.