dogs and birds.... can it be done?!

[crumpet]

so DH in all his wisdom has decided he'd like a bird... a parrot no less!

Now we have a boxer and jack russell who are both 5.5yrs old, but both very placid animals.

Can you have a bird and dogs live happily??? together???

Bird would be allowed to roam the house occasionally, not all the time because i dont want birdie number 2's everywhere, and the dogs are generally inside when we are home...

recipe for disaster???

thinking of getting a budgie to see how we like having a bird before we buy a parrot type thing.....

edit: i wouldnt leave dogs/bird alone no matter how placid the dogs are for obvious reasons!

[Tinks]

It doesn't work in my house. My dog gets so excited and wants to play with the bird, she would never deliberately hurt the bird but I can't have them int he same room. The people we bought our bird from had a dog who didn't bat an eyelid at their birds. He even let the birds sit on him lol. It can be done, I guess it comes down to your dog's personality.

[LionsandBears]

I don't know about combining dogs and birds who weren't brought up from puppyhood. Most dogs I know see birds as prey, so I wouldn't.

One important thing to take into account before getting a parrot though, is they can have very long lifespans - a C0ckatoo can live 40-60 years. Being able to care for a bird for that long, including food, vet care, environment enrichment is a big commitment. I'd be doing a lot of research into bird care before buying one.

[Astrolady]

Our old ****atiel was tame and we had an inside dog. When we wanted to take the bird out of the cage we'd put the dog outside for a while. Our current ****atiel is not tame and lives in his cage inside. We also now have a different dog as well, who we got after our new ****atiel and only twice has she ever tried to jump up at the cage.

So yes they can live in harmony, but my suggestion would be putting the dog outside for the times you want the bird out of it's cage.

[crumpet]

thanks everyone!

we wont be going a parrot for our first bird, need a bit of bird keeping experience/confidence before we get that excited!

Astrolady- we have found a cokatiel we are going to look at, hes 7 months old but not hand reared, the owners had bought him with the intention of it but got ill and cant keep him, he is apparently fine when you walk up to the cage but definitely not handle worth yet, have you had to train one before? is it a long process?

we are more than happy to put the effort into training him so thats not an issue, just curious....

we are going to see him tonight and then make a decision. he comes with his cage and accessories so hopefully it wont be to traumatising for him if we end up welcoming him into our family

oh and dogs will definitely be out when he is out of his cage

[HotI]

We had 2 labradors and chooks that have lived amicably sharing the same backyard, but from what i've heard that s pretty rare.

[Rivlas]

Our JR did not like our bird. We had to give it away as the dog would try and get to it all the time or else stand under the cage and bark. I think the reason is that JR's are hunting dogs.